Visiting Area 51

[music playing] GLEN CAMPBELL: This is as close as we can legally get to Area 51.

MATT WEBER: I'm pretty nervous right now.

Because I know there's guys up there, and I know they've got guns.

And I know that, like, they don't want us here.

It's kind of exciting.

Yeah, It's exciting.

And there's nothing to worry about, as long as you know where the border is and you don't cross it.

Yeah.

If you cross that border, they have the right to shoot you.

Yeah.

They haven't shot anybody, but it doesn't mean they can't make an exception for you.

This might be the first.

It might be the first time.

CRAIG BENZINE: So here we are the middle of the desert, in a small town called Rachel, Nevada.

Why are we here, Matt?

MATT WEBER: Because we're going to go to one of the most well known to top secret military facilities in the world.

Which is?

Area 51.

I was kind of hoping you'd be wearing a black suit.

Uh, yeah, I was going to ask you about that.

You're doing the "Men in Black" thing?

Yeah, it fits the theme, you know, aliens.

Yeah, but, I mean, we're going to be just going to the place, we don't work for it.

You know what, you go to Area 51, I'm just going to go to this bar, because that looks good.

There's a bar?

CRAIG BENZINE: Yeah.

OK, well, I'm going to go to Area 51.

[music playing] MATT WEBER: For those who don't know, Area 51 is a top-secret military base in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Over the years, people have claimed that the government has been using this remote location to test recovered UFO technology, dissect alien bodies, and develop exotic energy weapons.

[screaming] Despite the secrecy surrounding the location, area 51 has been featured prominently in pop culture, showing up in movies, TV, and video games.

While the government has declassified some of the projects it has worked on there, much of Area 51 remains shrouded in secrecy.

CRAIG BENZINE: Mike Rugnetta, I can't believe I just ran into you in this bar.

We just both happened to be at the A'Le'Inn.

CRAIG BENZINE: Yeah, that's right.

MIKE RUGNETTA: Yeah.

CRAIG BENZINE: What's your impression of Area 51 since you've been here?

MIKE RUGNETTA: It's, I mean, one of the things that's, I think, the most interesting about it is that there's not a lot around.

Right?

I mean, you sort of understand it as this middle of nowhere secret place.

But it also has this massive cultural presence.

You know, like, most people know what Area 51 is.

But you come here, and it's like, it really is-- it's far off the beaten path.

There's not a lot of things that sort of announce its presence.

GLEN CAMPBELL: Well, the whole idea of Area 51 is it's a place where the government can test things without anyone looking in.

MATT WEBER: This is Glen Campbell, and he wrote the book on Area 51.

Literally, he wrote the "Area 51 Viewer's Guide," a comprehensive manual of all things Area 51 related.

GLEN CAMPBELL: So you have a lot of land between the base and public land.

So you could cross the border here, you can walk across the border here, but you would still have to hike 15 miles just to get to the perimeter of the base.

How do you know all about this?

I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Ha, yeah?

No, I think you-- I was, back in the 1990s, I was the Area 51 publicist.

I took it upon myself to tell the world, hey, there's a secret base out here.

How you, doing, sir?

Montel Williams.

Montel, good day sir.

And I was wildly successful.

At the beginning of the 1990s, virtually no one had heard of Area 51, and by 1994, it was a public phenomenon.

MATT WEBER: Area 51 first came to the attention of the public when a man named Bob Lazar came forward, and claimed to be a former employee at the facility.

Throughout the '80s, Lazar appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on TV, claiming he worked in reverse engineering alien spacecraft at Area 51.

But Area 51 didn't really come to the attention of the wider public until five unnamed contractors, and the widows of contractors, filed suit against the US Air Force and the EPA.

They claim they were exposed to toxic materials at Area 51.

But the case was rejected due to lack of evidence, since all the information about the base was classified.

After all, in order to prove that you were exposed to toxic chemicals at your place of employment, you first have to prove that your place of employment exists.

This secrecy, along with Bob Lazar's bazaar accounts, fueled Area 51's image as a hot spot for classified UFO activity.

GLEN CAMPBELL: So I first came here because this is a place where you could see UFOs on a scheduled basis.

You just come here on a Wednesday, the story goes, and you could see UFOs.

So I came on a Wednesday, and I looked up in the sky in the general direction of Area 51, and I saw some fantastic lights in the sky.

So this was what the UFO literature told me I should see, and I actually saw them.

And if I had gone home after that one experience, I would've thought I saw a UFO.

The trouble is, I came back the next night.

Thursday night.

Thursday night, when we're not supposed to see them.

And I saw these bright lights again.

And at that point, I could see something I hadn't seen the first night, which was a stream of smoke coming off of each of these plasma balls.

And I'm thinking to myself, these are supposed to be UFOs, with anti gravity technology, burning element 115, why do they have smoke coming off the top of them?

And I thought, well, are they diesel powered?

Is it a diesel engine?

And at that point, I put the two things together.

Well, these are probably flares of burning magnesium.

And they're probably on little parachutes, or balloons, or something, where the hot exhaust can keep them buoyed up.

And right then I realized, OK, that's what I'm seeing.

I'm seeing bombing activity.

I'm seeing military activity in some bombing range far beyond Area 51.

People didn't understand that this was also an active war games area.

So you had battles going on here, on a nightly basis.

And a lot of those battles involved some bright lights in the sky, that could be interpreted UFOs.

At that point, I had explained the UFO stories, but I still saw that there was this secret base out there.

There was this real base that the government didn't talk about.

And that alone became fascinating to me.

That cried out for attention.

I mean, I thought, why doesn't the world know about it?

And should the world know about it?

So I turned from a UFO watcher into a government secrecy activist.

Well, do you want to go check it out?

Or do you want to get as close as we can?

Sure, we can do that.

All right.

We can go to some signs and see where they're telling you not to go.

MATT WEBER: All right, yeah, let's go to where we can't go.

[laughter] GLEN CAMPBELL: So it's 13 miles to the border, and then we'll encounter some keep out signs.

We're going to keep out.

That's as close as we can get?

GLEN CAMPBELL: That's as close as we can legally get.

MATT WEBER: OK. All right, where are we, Glen?

GLEN CAMPBELL: We're on Groom Lake Road.

This is one of the main roads into the base.

Many Area 51 workers will take this road.

There's also a bus that brings Area 51 workers in on this road.

MATT WEBER: We've got a car coming.

I it some employees?

GLEN CAMPBELL: It's probably someone coming out of the base, yes.

And, had you always been fascinated by UFOs before hand?

I was fascinated by UFOs as a kid.

That's mainly because I wanted them to come and take me away.

MATT WEBER: What didn't you like about where or when you were?

Well, I wasn't very happy as a child.

I wanted to escape.

And back in those days, you did a lot of reading.

And I read some UFO books, and I found them very, very interesting and tantalizing.

As I grew up, and as I became more confident, in my teen years, I didn't need the aliens to rescue me, anymore.

[music playing] As we're approaching the border, we're going to see these two guys in a SUV up on the top of the hill.

They're always there looking down on the border.

They're on their side of the border.

They're always there looking down on who's ever approaching the border.

They're not going to do anything unless we cross the border.

Now, at one point, I mean, wasn't the use of deadly force authorized?

Yes, there are still signs out here that say, use of deadly force authorized.

So, technically, they can kill you if you cross that line.

As far as I know, no one's been killed.

I'm not going to test it, myself.

MATT WEBER: He, he, yeah, let's not test it.

GLEN CAMPBELL: I'm going to come around the corner, and we'll see the signs.

And we'll drive right up to them, and I'll stop.

MATT WEBER: Oh, wow, right here.

GLEN CAMPBELL: Yes.

This is really unusual.

There are two cars on the hill, instead of just one.

Maybe they've called out reinforcements just for us.

MATT WEBER: This is really exciting and a little terrifying.

Should I be scared?

Yes, you should be scared.

OK. GLEN CAMPBELL: If you cross the border, you should be scared, because it's going to ruin your day.

MATT WEBER: So, who are these guys here, that are watching us?

OK, so these are hired contractors.

They don't work for the government directly, they work for a private company, which provides security out here.

We call these guys the camo dudes.

MATT WEBER: OK.

It's kind of unusual to see two vehicles there, but there's always a vehicle parked there when you come down.

MATT WEBER: Can we get out here?

Yeah, we get out.

This is as close as we can legally get to Area 51.

This is actually the Nellis Range.

So we would have to cross another 10 miles of desert before we even get the border of Area 51, itself.

How many times have you been here?

Oh, hundreds of times, probably.

Hundreds of times to this border, itself.

Most of this border is marked only by these orange posts every few hundred yards.

So if you were walking out here in the wilderness, it would be very easy to stumble across this border.

Let's go look at the razor wire.

I want to touch the razor wire.

Is that safe?

It is actually kind of sharp.

But as I say, it's only for show, because you could just walk around the razor wire.

It's just kind of a visual symbol to tell you this is where the border is.

Touching the razor wire.

GLEN CAMPBELL: I could jump right over this if I wanted to.

Yeah, it seems like it.

Those guys on the hill, they're on their side of the line.

So they have every right to be there, and we have every right to not be there.

But we can still wave, and see if they'll wave back.

MATT WEBER: It's hard to tell.

GLEN CAMPBELL: We could walk right up there in the hills, and we'd see that the border is right there, so it's safe to walk up into those hills.

When I was a younger man, I've walked up, I went up to the base of those rocks, snuck up to the base of the rocks, and then poked my head up.

[laughter] And see if I could get a shot of them.

What did they do?

GLEN CAMPBELL: They just moved their truck back real fast.

MATT WEBER: OK. GLEN CAMPBELL: But I knew where the border was, and it goes up to the top of those rocks.

So I knew I could walk up to the top of the rocks and shoot right across at them.

I actually have no problems with secrecy, with the government having a facility like this.

I understand that national defense involves keeping secrets.

It involves developing weapons that no one else knows about.

I just think there needs to be limits to the secrecy.

I think 10 years from now, we will know what was going on at Area 51 today.

And that's how things work.

After 10 years, or 20 years, things are declassified, and we'll know.

It was some sort of conventional equipment, some sort of drone, some sort of thing that we're using now in Afghanistan, was probably tested out there at Area 51.

MATT WEBER: So in the rest of this playlist, we're going to go out and look for some secrets.

Secret places, secret art, and secrets of the universe.

And I've got some questions for you to answer in the comments.

What is it about secrets that's so fascinating?

Why do we keep secrets?

Also, about Area 51, would it be more interesting if we knew what was going in there?

Yeah, what do you think's going on there?

Why are we so obsessed about Area 51?

What's going on in there?

Do you know what's going on in there?

No.

Tell us in the comments.

Lots of questions for you to answer.

Don't keep them a secret.

Nope.

Thanks for watching, and thanks to Glen Campbell for showing us around Area 51.

If you want to learn more about him, and Area 51, and all the other things he does, there's a link in the description.

And also, thanks to Mike Rugnetta, he's got a channel.

Yeah, he does, PBS Idea Channel.

It's really good, check it out.

And if you liked this video, consider clicking like and subscribing.

And you could also check out our Patreon page if you'd like to support us.

Last video, we went and saw some Earthships, and this is what you had to say about them.

A lot of people were concerned about the internet connection at the Earthships.

Don't worry, they had Wi-Fi.

The electrical system in an Earthship can handle all modern conveniences, like refrigerators, TVs, and Wi-Fi.

CRAIG BENZINE: Do they have a ping-pong table?

They didn't, well, not in the one we were in, but I-- CRAIG BENZINE: I'm not going.

I'm not going.

I think you can bring one.

Of many of you were concerned that you can't build an Earthship everywhere, such as densely populated cities.

Obviously, you can't build an Earthship skyscraper, but you can build them in a lot of places, like rural areas, or the suburbs.

And a lot of elements that go into an Earthship could be applied to other buildings, to make them more sustainable and efficient.

Like having more solar panels in user, or using greywater to flush toilets.

Earthships are not going to be the one perfect solution to solving our climate crisis or housing issues.

There is actually no one perfect solution, but I think we can learn a lot from Earthships, and it's a step in the right direction.

Many of you were also concerned about the cost of building an Earthship, and it really varies.

They have a ton of different designs to suit a ton of different needs, and they're generally cheaper to build than a traditional home, mostly due to the type of materials they used to build them.

They sell the information online.

If you want to know how to build one, the link is in the description.

One new model they're working on, they're going to bring to the people of Nepal who were affected by the earthquake.

This model is easy and cheap enough to build that they can teach the locals over a couple days how to construct one, using the materials readily available to them.

Thanks for all your great comments.

Next week we're going to be talking about Henry Darger.

He's an artist who has this giant body of work, including a 15,000 page novel, none of which was known until after he died.

Yeah.

It was a secret.

Yeah, check it out.

[music playing]