RACHEL, Nevada (Reuter) -- Out in the desert wastelands, a small group of people believe they are close to a secret so devastating that it would, if revealed, mean the end of government and the collapse of religions around the globe.
Until a few years ago, Rachel was just a small, windblown community of people living in trailers and shacks close to a top-secret U.S. Air Force base in the mountains of central Nevada. Now it is the self-proclaimed UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) capital of the world and draws hundreds of visitors from many countries every year, hoping to glimpse strange lights and objects in the night sky.
Claims that the nearby U.S. base, known as Area 51, houses alien spacecraft recovered by the military have struck a chord with people who believe we are not alone in the universe and that there is a murky government conspiracy to hide the truth.
As the millennium approaches, popular television series such as "The X-Files" and films like this year's blockbuster "Independence Day" about an alien invasion reflect growing interest in the theme. For Rachel, with a population of just 100 people, it means business is booming -- just as it has done for years in the gambling mecca of Las Vegas more than 100 miles to the south.
Outside "The Little A-le-Inn," Rachel's only motel on its single street, signs welcome UFOs and their crews. Inside, the menu offers "Alienburgers" and the walls are covered with photos from around the world of supposed spacecraft sightings.
A group of men sit at the bar drinking beer, earnestly discussing evil alien plans to deprive our planet of its atmosphere.
Chuck Clark, an astronomer who has written a guide to the area, unfolds a map of the secret Air Force base, which is also known as "Dreamland" and tells tales of aircraft moving at impossible speeds between the mountains at each end of the valley. "If the authorities were completely open about it, the government would fall, the economy would collapse, religions would go crazy," he said. "Think about the implications."
The stories started in earnest in 1989, when a former U.S. government physicist said he had been researching the properties of an alien spaceship at the base. Some believe it was a craft that was said to have crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
The Pentagon refuses all comment on the remote, closely guarded facility. Military specialists say it has been used to test new and secret aircraft such as the Stealth bomber and that these account for most or all supposed UFO sightings.
This does nothing to shake the faith of the believers, who spend their time comparing notes on the Internet and say the U.S. military has simply learned to incorporate captured alien technology into its most advanced planes.
Pat Travis, 53, runs "The Little A-le-Inn" with her husband and says the motel's seven rooms are full for most of the year. They also do well from selling T-shirts, baseball caps, coffee mugs and other tourist paraphernalia.
"We get people from all over but it's not just business. There are strange things going on round here and some baffling questions," she said. "The government started off lying about it and now they have to keep on lying."
UFO sightings have been reported at a local ranch up the road towards the base. A man from California, who says he is an alien ambassador in human form, visits Rachel several times a year. Others come with claims of alien abduction.
There are grainy photographs several years old of the hangars and buildings that make up Area 51, but guards now prevent tourists from making their way along rough tracks to the mountain ridge from where the base can be observed.
Harold Singer, 34, helps run the Area 51 research center in Rachel -- a trailer filled with maps, satellite photographs and information. "It's growing more popular because of the end of the millennium," he said. "Every thousand years or so people say the world is going to end, they look for answers elsewhere."
His friend Marcus Pizzuti is an earnest artist who makes model aliens for the tourists. Dressed in army fatigues and wearing a pistol, Pizzuti lives in a tiny shack with his collection of pet desert lizards, boxes of the cigars he loves to smoke and a picture of his mother on a shelf.
Asked to explain why his model aliens resemble humans, even though they have larger, bald heads, he has a ready answer. "I think that we humans were made in their image, that they made us," he said. "These beings travel through the cosmos, creating new races."
So far, the only craft to have landed in Rachel is an F-16 fighter that crashed near a trailer during NATO wargames a few years ago. The only hint of danger comes from cattle that occasionally wander onto the road, into the path of cars.
The people here have yet to find that elusive visitor from another planet, but at least now they can make a living.
The state government of Nevada wants to cash in on the UFO tourist boom as well; it has designated the road that runs past Rachel as "The Extra-Terrestrial Highway" and put up signs showing flying saucers.
Experts on UFOs meet here for regular conferences and the stars of "Independence Day" visited this year as part of the huge publicity drive for the film, leaving a commemorative plaque behind.
"Man, you should have seen this place before the UFO thing," Singer said. "There wasn't nothing here. Nothing at all."
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