Extraterrestrial Hwy and Area 51

Many people think the Extraterrestrial Hwy, or ET Hwy for short, is located just outside of Las Vegas. It isn’t. ET Hwy is located 110 miles north of Vegas and starts from the small hamlet of Warm Springs. It ends at another small hamlet called Warm Springs located about 50 miles east of Tonopah.

The one word that best describes the ET Hwy is – remote. You can easily stop along the ET Hwy, in the middle of the day, and not see another car for 5-15 minutes. And at night, it might be an hour or two.

But according to legend, nighttime is when the “interesting” phenomenon occur. Looking up at the sky, people say they see strange lights, glows, shapes, hear noises, etc. Since one of the most notorious top-secret testing areas is close by, these interesting things probably come from one place – Area 51.

For many people, it’s fun to conjure up stories and theories as to what is really going on out at Area 51. To clarify some of that mystery, here’s a brief description of the history of Area 51 and how it has been used for the past several decades.

Nevada Test Sites

In the large swath of Nevada desert between Las Vegas and the ET Hwy sits the Nellis Air Force Range. This area is actually a combination of facilities used by different branches of our military. Part of the Nellis Range was used for nuclear weapons testing. You may have heard of places like Mercury, Nevada or Frenchman Flat. All of these places, where testing occurred, have area numbers – Area 15, Area 32, etc.

When the CIA needed a remote place with a long runway to test a top-secret airplane, they were given a big dry lake, called Groom Lake.  It had an area designation of 51. So, that’s why you hear the names Area 51 and the Groom Lake Facility used interchangeably when people talk about that area.

The facility came into being in 1955, when testing began on the Lockheed U-2, a high-flying spy plane. Since then, Area 51 has been used to test and develop several other top-secret and high-tech aircraft, such as the beloved SR-71 Blackbird. Once these planes were developed and repeatedly tested at Area 51, they were then mass produced near Los Angeles, and then they were operated at another top-secret facility. That facility is the second secret place that the ET Hwy passes by, the Tonopah Test Range.

The Tonopah Test Range, or TTR for short, which is also referred to as Area 10, is about 30 miles southeast of its namesake, the historic mining town of Tonopah. Some conspiracy theorists and even a Bugs Bunny cartoon refer to the TTR as Area 52. This was probably their way to associate it with area 51, but that isn’t the correct designation. There is no secret place named Area 52.