Area 51 began in 1955 when the CIA needed a remote location to test the U-2 spy plane. Groom Lake, a dry lakebed in the Nevada desert already within a nuclear testing range, offered perfect conditions: flat for runway, remote for secrecy, and within restricted airspace. The U-2 flew higher than any aircraft before it, and its testing had to be hidden from Soviet observation.

The base has served the same function ever since - testing aircraft so advanced that their existence is classified. The A-12 OXCART (predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird), the F-117 Nighthawk, the B-2 Spirit, and likely other aircraft never publicly disclosed have all flown from Groom Lake. The secrecy is operational security; the mythology is an unintended side effect.

When you test aircraft that don't officially exist, witnesses who see them report seeing unidentified flying objects - which they are, technically. Reports of strange lights and silent craft near Groom Lake accumulated from the 1950s onward. The government couldn't explain what witnesses had seen without revealing classified programs.

The connection to alien spacecraft came later, notably in 1989 when Bob Lazar claimed to have worked at a facility near Groom Lake reverse-engineering alien technology. His claims were not verified, his credentials were disputed, but his story became foundational UFO lore. Area 51 became synonymous with alien cover-ups, though no credible evidence of extraterrestrial materials has ever emerged.

Area 51's mythology grew through television, film, and the internet into something larger than any secret base could contain. The facility allegedly holds alien spacecraft from Roswell and elsewhere. Alien bodies are supposedly studied there. Reverse-engineered technology explains American technological advances. A shadow government controls information.

In 2019, a Facebook event titled 'Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us' went viral, attracting millions of RSVPs to 'raid' the facility. The actual turnout was modest - a few hundred curious visitors, no storming, no arrests - but the event demonstrated how deeply Area 51 had embedded itself in cultural imagination.

In 2013, the CIA officially acknowledged Area 51's existence in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, confirming what everyone already knew: that a classified facility existed at Groom Lake and had been used to test the U-2 and other aircraft. The acknowledgment made no mention of aliens.

The release included maps and documents that had been secret for decades, confirming the base's role in Cold War aviation development. But the acknowledgment changed nothing in the mythology. Believers argued that classified programs within classified programs still hid extraterrestrial technology. Secrecy had created something that disclosure couldn't undo.

The base remains operational, its perimeter patrolled by armed guards in white trucks, its boundaries marked by signs warning of photography prohibition and use of deadly force. Aircraft are still tested there - likely including drones, stealth technologies, and platforms the public won't learn about for years or decades.

The surrounding area has embraced the mythology. The town of Rachel hosts the Little A'Le'Inn. The 'Extraterrestrial Highway' (State Route 375) runs nearby. Tourists stop at the back gate to take photos with warning signs. Area 51 has become a brand, a pilgrimage destination, and a reminder that secrecy, once established, takes on a life of its own.