IllustrationPhoto: a desert highway in the American Southwest, used here as an illustration. It isn't Area 51, which is closed to the public. Photo by Tom Fournier on Pexels.
What's documented: How the CIA picked the site in April 1955, why it's called Area 51, the U-2 and A-12 test flights, a 1955 crash that killed 14 people, and the CIA's own finding that its spy planes caused many 1950s and 1960s UFO reports.
What's claimed: That the base holds crashed alien craft or works on reverse-engineering them. Those claims come from individuals, and none is backed by a released document.
Status: Active and classified. The Air Force calls it a training range and doesn't discuss what's tested there now.
Last checked: October 29, 2026, against the CIA history, the CIA's 2015 article, the Federal Register and the court record linked below.
What is at Area 51?
An airfield on the edge of a dry lakebed called Groom Lake. The CIA's 2015 article on the base shows its early flight line and trailer housing. That much is on the record. The rest of the answer depends on the decade you ask about.
From 1955 to the late 1960s, the CIA's own history describes it as the test base for two spy planes: the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. What it's used for today is classified. In 2019 an Air Force spokeswoman described it only as "an open training range for the U.S. Air Force," the BBC reported.
The CIA's 2015 article on the base says the "commonly preferred official name for the facility today is the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake." It sits roughly 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, according to the BBC.
So the honest short version: a real, working military site whose current programs aren't public. Nothing in the released records points to anything beyond that.
What do the CIA documents confirm?
The main source is a 1992 internal CIA history, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974, by Gregory Pedlow and Donald Welzenbach. It was written as a classified study. A heavily redacted version of the U-2 part came out in 1998.
The National Security Archive asked for those redactions to be reviewed in 2005. The CIA approved a less-redacted release on June 25, 2013, and the archive posted it on August 15, 2013, including the pages on Groom Lake. News outlets reported it as the government's first acknowledgment of Area 51 by name.
The same history now sits in the Pentagon's UAP files, too. It was posted on war.gov on June 12, 2026, as file CIA-UAP-003 in the third PURSUE release.
Here's what the history and the CIA's 2015 article confirm, in their own words where it matters:
| Year | What the record says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April 1955 | CIA project chief Richard Bissell, Kelly Johnson of Lockheed and two others fly over Nevada and spot an old airstrip by "a salt flat known as Groom Lake" | CIA history, p. 56 |
| 1955 | The Atomic Energy Commission adds the area to its Nevada holdings and Eisenhower approves. The strip was "known by its map designation as Area 51" | CIA history, p. 56 |
| July 1955 | "By July 1955 the base was ready," and CIA, Air Force and Lockheed staff move in | CIA history, p. 57 |
| Aug. 1, 1955 | Test pilot Tony LeVier lifts off by accident during a taxi test of the first U-2 | CIA article, 2015 |
| Nov. 17, 1955 | A transport plane bound for Area 51 crashes, "killing all 14 persons aboard" | CIA history, p. 72 |
| 1950s-60s | U-2 and later OXCART flights "accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports" | CIA history, pp. 72-73 |
| Feb. 1962 | The first A-12 OXCART arrives at Area 51 by truck from Burbank, Calif. | CIA history, p. 288 |
| April 1962 | The A-12 flies at Groom Lake: an unofficial hop April 25, a 40-minute flight April 26 and the official first flight April 30 | CIA history, pp. 288-289 |
The 2015 CIA article adds the nicknames. Johnson called it "Paradise Ranch" to make it sound appealing to workers. "Watertown" came from the lakebed flooding after rain. "Dreamland," a radio call sign, came later, in the late 1960s, according to the head of a group of former base workers, whom the CIA quotes.
Why was Area 51 built at Groom Lake?
Secrecy and safety. The CIA needed somewhere to test a plane built to fly far higher than other aircraft of its day, away from anyone watching.
The history says Bissell's group "flew to California and Nevada to search for a site where the aircraft could be tested safely and secretly." On April 12, 1955, they spotted the strip at Groom Lake, near the northeast corner of the AEC's Nevada Proving Ground. It had been an aerial gunnery range in World War II.
The first visit could have ended the program. The old airstrip turned out to be "ankle-deep dust." The authors write that if LeVier had tried to land on it, the plane "would probably have nosed over," likely killing or injuring "all of the key figures in the U-2 project." He set down on the lakebed instead.
Why is Area 51 linked to UFOs?
Partly because of the planes the CIA tested there. This is the part of the story the CIA itself documented.
In the mid-1950s, most airliners flew between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. The U-2 flew above 60,000 feet. At dusk, an airliner below could already be in darkness while a U-2 still caught the sun. Its silver wings, the history says, would "appear to the airliner pilot, 40,000 feet below, to be fiery objects."
Pilots reported what they saw. Some reports went to the Air Force's Project Blue Book, whose investigators checked them against CIA flight logs. They couldn't tell the public the real cause. The history concludes that U-2 and OXCART flights "accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s."
A 1997 CIA article by agency historian Gerald Haines went further. It said the secrecy "led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public" about some sightings. Haines wrote that "this deception added fuel to the later conspiracy theories."
The other reason is people. In 1989, Bob Lazar said on Las Vegas TV that he'd worked on flying saucers at a site called S-4, south of Groom Lake. No document has backed that up. Our Bob Lazar case file goes through what was checked.
Is there anything alien at Area 51?
No released record says so. Here's how the main claims line up against the record.
| Claim | Who makes it | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Crashed alien craft are stored there | Various authors and online communities | No released document supports it |
| Engineers reverse-engineer alien technology nearby | Bob Lazar, from 1989; later interviewees | AARO found "no empirical evidence" for reverse-engineering claims (2024) |
| The base is a secret aircraft test site | CIA history and CIA article | Confirmed for the U-2 (1955) and A-12 (1962) |
| Many 1950s-60s UFO reports were spy planes | CIA history; Haines, 1997 | The CIA's own estimate: more than half |
| Workers were exposed to burned hazardous waste | Former workers and a widow, in 1990s federal suits | Never tested in court; the Air Force won after the evidence was ruled a state secret |
The Pentagon's UAP office, AARO, reviewed decades of these claims in its 2024 historical report. It said it "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology."
AARO also said several interviewees had named real classified programs but "mistakenly associated these authentic USG programs with alien and extraterrestrial activity." That echoes what the CIA history describes at Groom Lake 70 years earlier.
What would change this? A released record, a physical sample with a chain of custody, or sworn testimony backed by documents. We couldn't find any of those in the public record. For how the claims spread, see what actually happened at Roswell.
Why is Area 51 still so secret?
Because the government says what's done there now is classified, and the courts have backed that up.
Starting in 1995, presidents signed determinations, renewed year after year, exempting the "Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada" from hazardous-waste rules that "would require the disclosure of classified information." The Air Force published notices of them in the Federal Register.
The first one came while a lawsuit was underway. Former workers and the widow of one had sued, saying hazardous waste was burned at the site, and asked a court to stop it. In 1998 the Ninth Circuit upheld the Air Force's use of the state-secrets privilege in Kasza v. Browner. The court said the evidence couldn't be presented without risking national security, so the workers' claims were never tested.
The secrecy covers current programs. It doesn't, by itself, say anything about aliens. The documented history shows a pattern: a real program is kept quiet, the public sees something odd in the sky, and the gap fills with stories.
Can you visit Area 51?
No. The base and its airspace are restricted, and the boundary is guarded. In July 2019, when more than a million people signed up for a "Storm Area 51" Facebook event, an Air Force spokeswoman said it "would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces."
The nearby towns lean into the legend. The highway through the area is signed as the Extraterrestrial Highway, and the BBC described alien-themed shops and a motel along it. You can drive it, but you won't get near the base.
If you see something you can't explain in the sky, there or anywhere else, here's how to report a UAP sighting.
What's still unknown?
- What's tested at Groom Lake today. It's classified, and the Groom Lake exemption is written to keep it that way.
- What the redacted parts of the CIA history still hide. Some names are still blacked out in the 2013 release.
- The final word on the remaining claims. AARO said in 2024 that it would address more of them in a Volume II. As of October 29, 2026, that volume hasn't been published.
If something new comes out, it's likely to show up in a Pentagon release first. We track those in our PURSUE release log. For more on what the government has spent on UAP work, see how much the U.S. spends on UFOs.
Sources
- CIA History Staff: Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, "The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974" (1992; National Archives copy)
- National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 434: Jeffrey T. Richelson, ed., "The Secret History of the U-2 and Area 51," Aug. 15, 2013
- CIA: "Area 51 and the Accidental Test Flight," Aug. 6, 2015
- CIA Studies in Intelligence: Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90" (1997)
- Department of War: PURSUE Release 03, file CIA-UAP-003, "The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974" (posted June 12, 2026)
- AARO: Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I (2024; GovInfo copy)
- Federal Register: "Presidential Determination on Classified Information Concerning the Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada," Oct. 26, 1999
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Kasza v. Browner, 133 F.3d 1159 (1998)
- BBC Newsbeat: "Storm Area 51: US Air Force warns over Facebook event," July 16, 2019
Questions people ask
What is inside Area 51?
An airfield, hangars and support buildings next to Groom Lake, a dry lakebed in southern Nevada. The CIA's declassified history confirms it was the test base for the U-2 spy plane from 1955 and the A-12 OXCART from 1962. What's there and being tested today is classified. No released record shows alien craft or bodies at the site.
Why is Area 51 restricted?
Because the government says the work done there is classified. Starting in 1995, presidents signed determinations exempting the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake from hazardous-waste rules that would require disclosing classified information. In 1998 a federal appeals court upheld the Air Force's use of the state-secrets privilege in a workers' lawsuit about the site.
What is the history of Area 51?
In April 1955, CIA project chief Richard Bissell and Lockheed's Kelly Johnson picked Groom Lake as a secret place to test the U-2. The Atomic Energy Commission added the land, known on maps as Area 51, to its Nevada holdings, and President Eisenhower approved. The base was ready by July 1955. The A-12 OXCART began flying there in April 1962.
Is Area 51 an Air Force base?
It's an Air Force-operated site, though it began as a CIA project. The CIA's 2015 article on the base says the commonly preferred official name today is the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake. In 2019 an Air Force spokeswoman called it an open training range for the U.S. Air Force.
Why is Area 51 associated with aliens?
Partly because of what the CIA tested there. Its own history says U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s, and the cause couldn't be made public. In 1989 Bob Lazar also claimed he'd worked on flying saucers at a nearby site called S-4. No document has backed that claim.
Is Area 51 real?
Yes. The CIA acknowledged it by name in a less-redacted history released to the National Security Archive in August 2013, and the agency published its own article about the base in 2015. What isn't confirmed is any of the alien claims attached to it.
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