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The Groom Lake airfield (Area 51) seen from the air, Nevada
The Groom Lake airfield (Area 51) seen from the air, Nevada. Photo: Ken Lund · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Secrets & power · Groom Lake, Nevada · 1955 – today

Area 51: The Secret Base in the Desert

Established1955 CE – 2024 CEGroom Lake, Nevada, USA

A real, once-unacknowledged test site where spy planes flew higher than anyone thought possible, and where a generation of UFO stories began.

In 1955 the CIA chose a dry lakebed called Groom Lake in the Nevada desert as a secret place to test the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Declassified CIA histories, released in full in 2013, confirm the site and its purpose; it went on to host the A-12 OXCART, stealth programs and tests of captured Soviet aircraft. For decades the U.S. government did not officially acknowledge the base existed.

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Connected dossiers

Roswell: The Crash of 1947Same open question · Both anchor the American alien-crash legend.Underground Bunkers and Secret BasesComparable case · Secret government facilities.

See Area 51 in the discovery universe →

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How to read the labels

EstablishedSupported by strong, converging evidence.
ContestedEvidence exists but qualified scholars disagree.
UnresolvedThe question is open; evidence does not settle it.
LegendComes from myth, literature or tradition, not physical evidence.
SpeculativeA hypothesis with little direct evidence so far.

Hero image: The Groom Lake airfield (Area 51) seen from the air, Nevada. Photo: Ken Lund · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons. Evidence labels describe the written claims, not the image. Version 1 · updated 2026-10-22.