Not too long ago, I was reading the Atlas Obscura website (a great source for stories about weird places) and stumbled onto a feature about traveling on Nevada State Route 375, the Extraterrestrial or ET Highway.
The piece provided background on how that 98-mile stretch of road gained its name and other attractions in the area (to read it go to: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nevada-extraterrestrial-highway-geology-science-archaeology).
It also made me think about how the route and the adjacent Area 51 have continued to capture our collective interest. You could almost say that one would have to have been kidnapped by aliens to not know about all the hype that has surrounded that part of Nevada over the past few decades.
That stretch of highway, between Warm Springs and Alamo, and including the hamlet of Rachel, gained its moniker in 1995, when state officials officially designated it as the Extraterrestrial Highway in order to capitalize on the public fascination with Area 51, a top-secret military installation.
For years, some have believed that the U.S. government has conducted mysterious research at Area 51, including, allegedly, some involving recovered aliens and/or alien aircraft. This notion has been reinforced in pop culture via television shows like “The X-Files” and film such as “Independence Day.”
Part of what keeps Area 51 so fascinating is the fact that the U.S. government insisted for many years that it didn’t exist. Because nature abhors a vacuum—and people love mysteries—stories about what actually goes on there have proliferated over the decades.
It was all this speculation about the base, said, in some accounts, to be where the U.S. government hides captured flying saucers—as well as stories of alien encounters near Rachel that spurred creation of the tongue-in-cheek ET Highway by the Nevada Department of Transportation.
Additionally, for many years state tourism officials encouraged travelers—earthly and otherwise—to head out on Route 375 in search of a close encounter of their own.
I’ve been out to Rachel a couple of times and must admit that other than a couple of old Chevy trucks, a few dinged-up trailers, a noteworthy roadside diner and miles of sagebrush there’s not much to see over the 98 miles.
Highlight of most visits is a trip to “Little A’Le’Inn” in Rachel, a local diner that serves such concoctions as an Alien Burger with secretions (cheese on your burger). The place also has a gift shop well stocked with alien-related merchandise such as key chains, coffee mugs and t-shirts.
Most folks in Rachel take all the fuss with a wink and a half-smile. The “Little A ‘Le’Inn,” which appeared in a 2011 Simon Pegg comedy about an alien, called “Paul,” maintains a small library of UFO-related books as well as a virtual gallery of grainy black-and-white photographs allegedly depicting alien spacecraft.
Perhaps because of its sparse population and remoteness—the town has fewer than 100 residents—it is easier to believe there might be something out there in those vast night skies.
Are those the blinking lights of a passing airplane or something more? Is that a shiny weather balloon or, perhaps, the glint of metal from a UFO?
Who knows?
For more information about the ET Highway, go to: https://travelnevada.com/road-trips/extraterrestrial-highway/.
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