In 1986 a gentleman named Bob Lazer went to the press. He claimed that he was a former government physicist and had been assigned to work in a secret underground base, designated "S4", that was about 15 miles south of Groom Lake at a place called Papoose Lake. (This is just north of Yucca and Frenchman Lakes where above and below ground nuclear testing took place since the 1940s). According to Lazer the base consisted of a series of hangers containing nine alien flying saucers that the government was trying to understand and reproduce.

Quite a few UFOs have been reported being seen near Area 51. Though many locals suspect the sightings are the result of seeing disc shaped conventional aircraft, a cottage industry has grown up outside the boundaries based on the mystique of UFO's and aliens. You can get a burger at the "Little A'Le'Inn" (pronounced "Little Alien"), a cafe located in the town of Rachel. Even the legislature of Nevada, in a fit of whimsy, has gotten into the act, renaming route 375, which runs along the eastern edge of the Nellis Complex, "The Extra-terrestrial Highway."

There is a famous "black mail box" on the road. It looks like any ordinary mailbox. It marks the crossroads that lead to a large secret military complex. People come from all over to watch peculiar lights streaking across the skies like nothing they have ever seen before. Some report craft flying at approximately 10,000 miles per hour, that suddenly stop dead.