Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin, the lake is 25 mi (40 km) south of Rachel, Nevada. The lake at 4,409 ft (1,344 m) elevation is approximately 3 + 3⁄ 4 mi (6 km) from north to south and 3 mi (5 km) from east to west at its widest point. Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (XTA/KXTA) on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is southwest of Groom Lake.
Īrea 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flat region of the Nevada Test Site, the location of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests conducted by the United States Department of Energy at NTS. After leaving the restricted area, Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches, before converging with State Route 375, the "Extraterrestrial Highway", south of Rachel. Its winding course runs past a security checkpoint, but the restricted area around the base extends farther east. The road formerly led to mines in the Groom basin but has been improved since their closure. Leading northeast from the lake, the wide and well-maintained Groom Lake Road runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. The area is connected to the internal Nevada Test Site (NTS) road network, with paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to Yucca Flat. The original rectangular base of 6 by 10 miles (10 by 16 km) is now part of the so-called "Groom box", a rectangular area, measuring 23 by 25 miles (37 by 40 km), of restricted airspace. The surrounding area is a popular tourist destination, including the small town of Rachel on the " Extraterrestrial Highway". Īrea 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. The CIA publicly acknowledged the base's existence on June 25, 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005, and declassified documents detailing its history and purpose. It has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).
The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. The USAF and CIA acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. Details of its operations are not made public, but the USAF says that it is an open training range, and it is commonly thought to support the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport ( ICAO: KXTA, FAA LID: XTA) or Groom Lake (after the salt flat next to its airfield).
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