From: | JeffM@sanctum.com (Jeff Miller) |
Title: | SAUCERS IN THEIR EYES |
Source: | Newsweek |
Date: | April 22, 1996 |
Newsweek, April 22, 1996
by Rick Marin and T. Trent Gegax
Nevada State Route 375 stretches from a shuttered roadhouse just off
U. S. 93 up to where it meets U. S. 6 at a town called Warm Springs
(population: 0). A couple of hours north of Las Vegas, these desolate
98 miles of blacktop average 53 cars a day and so many UFO sightings
that in February Nevada's Department of Transportation renamed 375
the Extraterrestrial Highway. This week Gov. Bob Miller makes it
official, with a dedication ceremony unveiling eight-foot-wide,
alien-friendly road signs. "We're making sure we have a few of the
signs laying down," says Miller, "in case we have visitors landing
from above."
He's kidding, of course, and he may be laughing all the way to
Caesars Palace. The Nevada tourism people hope this down-sized corner
of the state can cash in on the current mania for UFOs and all things
paranormal. They've already got Twentieth Century Fox picking up most
of the tab. In exchange, Fox is using the event to promote its big
summer action movie, "Independence Day," in which hostile aliens do
the galaxy a favor by blowing up New York City. Some of the movie
takes place around the E. T. Highway. It also makes reference to Area
51, part of Nellis Air Force Base, where the stealth bomber and
Aurora spy plane were developed. But UFOlogists say that's just the
cover story: the government is actually housing an alien craft and
crew here.
Back on planet Earth, half a dozen civilians who worked at Area 51
have sued the Defense Department, claiming hazardous waste on the
site exposed them to harmful chemicals. One case was dismissed:
another is pending. The official military line is that current
activities in Area 51 are classified and cannot be discussed. Hmmm.
Ground zero for astral travelers is the dusty hamlet of Rachel. To
hard-core "believers," as the folks with saucers in their eyes call
themselves, this is their Graceland and their Lourdes: holy ground
with trinkets for sale. At Rachel's Little A'Le'Inn (get it?), owner
Pat Travis enthuses about the mystery guests who frequent her
intergalactic way station. "I do believe the beings are here for
good, not for bad," says the portly, beaming proprietress, who claims
to have channeled alien beings. "The more people who come here, the
better it'll be for our community--and theirs." Watch for the
character inspired by Travis on Fox's cult-TV series, "The X-Files."
Marcus Pizzuti, a commercial artist who recently moved to Bachel from
California, subscribes to the theory that Area 51 contains spacecraft
with "antimatter annihilation reactors" powered by alien substances
that are "way off the periodic table." Some might say the same about
Pizzuti.
The prospect of gawking sightseers descending on Bachel and its
environs makes Glen Campbell--the local curmudgeon, not the singer--
"rippin' mad." A conspiracy theorist who also goes by the name
Psychospy, Campbell sent the governor a 25-page letter of protest
against turning the area into a tourist trap. "It invites a lot of
people here to a very intensely guarded installation," Campbell
complains, referring to the Nellis base. He worries that interlopers
will run afoul of the "cammo dudes" (camouflaged security guards) who
guard Area 51. Signs posted on the base's perimeter read: USE OF
DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED. Let's hope E. T. can read. Nevada tourism
director Tom Tait isn't concerned. He giddily foresees "casinos or
resorts with moonscape golf courses." Let's also hope E. T. plays
blackjack.