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Aliens in America - Area 51

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The most time-honored techno-myth in human existence endures on a lonely stretch of highway in central Nevada. It seems an unlikely place for it to happen, this land of tumbleweeds, bullet-ridden road signs, and cattle that roam freely from asphalt to grassland and back again.

But it is here, insiders say, where the amazing truth behind mankind\'s decades-long involvement with aliens from outer space, will finally be revealed. This is the town of Rachel, population 100, a one-horse establishment that can hardly be described as a ghost town because there was never really anyone there in the first place.

In Rachel, however, there is more than meets the eye. This ramshackle collection of trailer parks and feed stands is groundzero for two highly-important and fundamentally-opposed movements: it is the site of Nellis Air Force Base, the top-secret training facility where the nation\'s (and the world\'s) frightening and sophisticated weapons of warfare and space travel are developed; and it is the home of Area 51, the even-more top-secret establishment where the preserved remains of two space aliens and their aircraft are stored in a mysterious bunker called Hangar 18.

At least, that\'s the rumor going around. And the people of Rachel have done nothing to challenge those lurid tales. The remote possibility that there are aliens and alien spacecraft in Area 51 have drawn literally thousands of visitors to this desert town that shouldn\'t exist at all, and kept its pulse alive as surely as many believe the government has kept alive the beating hearts of the aliens in the clandestine hangar.

"Everyone in this town has a story," says Brian Paschal, a self-described alien afficionado who has made repeated visits to Rachel. "And they\'re all very suspicious - it\'s like the moment you step into town, everyone knows about it. You walk into a restaurant, and everyone stops what they\'re doing and turns around to check you out. It\'s not hard to feel like an outsider."

"I think there are people and machines from other planets over there," says Pat Travis, co-owner of the Little A\'Le\'Inn. "And I think our government is working in conjunction with them."

Pat Travis and her husband Joe took over what was then the Rachel Bar and Grill, in 1989. Seizing upon the notoriety of what was hidden on the other side of the forbidding brown mountains, the Travises renamed the establishment the Little A\'Le\'Inn, transforming the tiny restaurant into a sort of museum and gathering place for the alien movement.

The cramped, kitschy Inn is literally jam-packed with alien memorabilia - stickers, hats, t-shirts, posters, stuffed animals... even replicas of the infamous government warning signs which line the perimeter of Nellis Air Force Base ("No Trespassing - Violators Will Be Shot on Site"). The walls are decorated with framed photos of UFO sightings from all over the world. The piece de resistance of this makeshift museum is a panoramic print of the Air Force Base - including what theorists believe to be the hangar containing the alien ruins - snapped from atop Tikaboo Peak, one of the highest non-government owned mountaintops in central Nevada.

A tiny closet in the corner of the Inn contains possibly the most staggering collection of alien- and conspiracy-related videos on earth (or elsewhere). Everything from the abduction-heavy motion picture Fire In The Sky to alien-related television specials are available, providing ample fuel for the uneasiness of the Inn\'s guests.

And if that atmosphere is not enough, the whispering wind whipping through the desert at midnight, and the unearthly sirens and wails which occasionally float over the mountains, combine to create a disturbing extraterrestrial scene.

"We tried to create a certain type of atmosphere and experience for our guests," says Joe Travis. "The reality is, Rachel can be a really creepy place - you come here, and no matter what you thought before, you start to believe..."

Clever entrepreneurial ideas aside, the reasons behind the Travises\' move to Rachel are almost as mysterious as the town itself.

"We just came along and fell in love with the place," Joe Travis says. "The peace and quiet, the wide open terrain, the mountains... obviously it\'s not for everybody, but it felt right for us. And it really has nothing to do with aliens... although of course the aliens help business, too."

One can only wonder what living in seclusion and dealing with the Area 51 phenomenon and aliens for a living, can do to a person. The Travises seem to draw pleasure from the guests they\'ve received at the Inn, the travelers who stopped in hoping for a piece of the legend and magic of Area 51.

"The people who visit are great," says Pat Travis. "They\'re always eager to hear stories, and some of them even have stories of their own. Some of them claim to be abducted, or claim to work for the government. But mostly our visitors are normal, curious people."

Some of the visitors, however, are in these parts in a more official capacity. Military personnel are known to stop into the Inn from time to time, enjoying breakfast before returning to base or heading south toward Las Vegas. Occasionally the Travises will engage these personnel in conversation, hoping for a nugget of secret information.

"I have never had anybody who works at Area 51 tell us anything," says Joe with resignation. "We\'ve had some of them get pretty drunk, and they still don\'t tell anything."

It\'s not hard to understand where that pall of suspicion and distrust which hangs over Rachel\'s shanties like a cloud, comes from. Despite the Travises\' civic enthusiasm, Rachel could make a serious bid at being the strangest town in America.

From any point within the "city limits," the entire town is visible. Save for a few outlying ranches and cabins, it consists of nothing more than trailers and shoddily-built frame structures lining Highway 375. At the southern edge of town, completely opposite the Little A\'Le\'Inn, is the Area 51 Research Center. Despite what the owners and \'experts\' there may tell you, this is nothing more than a tourist trap, a vending outpost that just happens to dispense \'confidential\' military and extraterrestrial knowledge in generous (and expensive) doses. There\'s something less charming, and more serious (perhaps delusional) about the Research Center, and it starts with the junked pile of scrap metal and derelict aircraft parts scattered beside the Center\'s front door. It carries over into the research trailer, as the denizens dispense "watch the skies" hoopla with a stiff upper lip that

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