SAUCERS IN THEIR EYES
April 22, 1996 / posted May 1, 1996
Source: Newsweek
It's Official: This Nevada Road Is E. T.'s Runway
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.
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