On a Dark, Desert Highway: Lost Miners, Black Aircraft . . . and the Road to Groom Lake

As I write this on the third Thursday in August, fighter planes boom past over my building—an annual ritual that tells me (in no uncertain terms) that it’s time for the Chicago Air and Water Show. The sound is deafening, and I smile. Because it’s wildly appropriate background noise for my blogging today—about the place where some of the most advanced military aircraft were born . . . and the place that inspired a popular early fragrance that we resurrected today after a brief absence: GROOM LAKE.

A MYSTICAL REGION

Groom Lake is a legendary place indeed, but it's also real place.  An ancient "dry lake" in the Mojave desert of the American West, the site has become famous as the home of Area 51—one of the most top secret military installations and weapons development complexes on Earth. Also referred to as the Ranch, the Box and Dreamland, the site was chosen for its "special purposes" because dry lakes are ideal places for testing and racing motorcycles and cars--and for use as runways.  Long devoid of water, the lake beds are blown over and polished over millennia by the desert winds, creating extremely smooth, hard surfaces free of any kind of rubble, cragginess or debris. 

Groom Lake is far from the only esoteric thing in this part of the Mojave desert. In fact, it’s part of the so-called Silver Trails, a rather mystical region of Nevada that includes numerous ghost towns—with a lot of hauntings surrounding them—as well as other bizarre locations with fabled tales.

Like the ghost towns, many of the local legends have their roots in the area’s mining history and the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th Century. For example, it wasn’t unusual for prospectors and miners to return from this remote area with reports of an underground city populated by an ancient race of humans, a story that had been told by the Paiute Indians in their own tale of Shin-au-av, a desert kingdom below the Earth.

The region is also home to the mysterious Racetrack Playa, another massive dry lake that is home to the  “sailing stones” – huge rocks that mysteriously slide across the desert floor on their own.

The Racetrack Playa is located in Death Valley, which gets its name from the death of one of the “Lost Forty-Niners” who became stranded in the desert during the California Gold Rush and died in this desolate, arid place, of which more later.

In fact, this whole area is filled with strange and wondrous places and things to see, but if you visit you have to be very prepared and very careful, as it's also one of the least traveled, least populated, hottest, driest places in the Americas.

A GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

I first heard about Area 51 from my brother, who went on to work for the government, but before that he took the long drive out into the desert in search of the legendary complex at Groom Lake. This was awhile before the site became so popular, and there wasn't at the time a lot of information about what the trip there entailed, so he soon found himself alone and traveling through one of the most remote deserts on the continent . . . and it was 115 degrees.  Luckily, he was an Eagle Scout and had thought to prepare; before leaving Vegas, he'd crammed the trunk of the car with about twenty gallons of water and filled the gas tank as well as a couple of extra fuel containers.

My brother made it to Groom Lake--well, as close as anyone can get, that is. And the story he told about that epic journey . . . well, I couldn't shake it.

And so, a number of years later, I decided to make my own way along the legendary Nevada highway, my family in tow. We flew into Las Vegas and checked into the Stratosphere Hotel at the south end of the Strip. This was truly a bizarre trip from the start, because when we first looked out the window of our hotel room we saw a worker scrubbing what looked like blood off the outer wall of the parking garage. It turned out that this had been a suicide attempt gone wrong. We kept the curtains drawn for the rest of our stay.

But I digress.

After some sightseeing, a dip in the pool and an uneasy night’s sleep, we prepared for our trip to Groom Lake and Area 51.  Following a breakfast of champions of curried chicken, beer and slots, we loaded up the trunk with about a dozen gallons of water,  filled up the tank of our rented Mustang convertible and headed out. 

THE VERTICAL HIGHWAY

The road to Groom Lake—Nevada State Route 375-- is also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway. In fact, it was actually officially named that by the Nevada legislature.  If you’ve ever seen video or pictures of the “vertical highway” where the road is so long and straight ahead that it looks like it’s going straight up into the sky—that’s what it’s like along much of the trip to Area 51.

It's a very long trip, and you may not pass anyone at all along this road—a road which runs about one hundred and fifty miles from Las Vegas through forlorn desert wilderness.

Fortunately for us, though it was summer it was relatively cool—only in the mid ‘80s Fahrenheit—and so we didn’t have to worry about the engine overheating, which can be a frequent problem along the road, especially since there are no gas stations, no stores, no houses . . . nothing but the enigmatic "Black Mailbox" and the E.T. Jerky shop just before you turn on to the last, long stretch of this fabled byway.

When you reach the tiny hamlet of Rachel, Nevada—otherwise known as the UFO Capital of the World--you have arrived.

And so we did.

COVERT OPS, AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL TAVERN . . . AND AN UNLIKELY LITTLE NAMESAKE

The only things in Rachel, Nevada are a gas station, a mobile home park where most of the maybe one hundred residents live, a tiny cemetery and a world- famous bar and restaurant called the Little Ale Inn. The owners remark that some people think the name refers to an “ale house” or tavern—but most believe it should really be spelled ALI -Inn . . .more than a nod to Groom Lake and Area 51. Stepping inside, you can’t really believe it’s anything but the latter, because the entire place is filled with UFO memorabilia, photos and merchandise. The food is great, and you should eat here (not that you have any choice. Unless you bought a supply of E.T Jerky back on the road, you'll otherwise starve to death out here in short order).

After an excellent BLT and the ritual shot of Alien Tequila (from an alien-shaped bottle), we learned about Rachel from some very friendly folks hanging out at the bar.

Rachel has an interesting history aside from its proximity to Area 51. It’s the youngest town in Nevada and was founded in 1978 as the town of Sandy (for obvious reasons) by a man named D.C. Day. Day had a daughter named Rachel Jones—she was the first child born in Sandy, and she sadly passed away when she was just two years old. If you travel to Rachel, you definitely want to visit the little (and I do mean little) Rachel Cemetery. 

Before the founding of the town here, of course, Native Americans had lived in the area for millennia, and visitors sometimes find their artifacts, petroglyphs and other reminders of the tribe in the surrounding mountains.

But Area 51’s most famous history began during the Cold War when the CIA was feeling out the military strength of the Soviet Union. Kelly Johnson was an aircraft designer who headed up a special team called the Skunk Works, and it was this team who designed the U-2 spy planes to gather intelligence on Soviet bombers and missile bases.  Groom Lake was chosen by Johnson for the team’s work because of the surrounding mountains and the dry lake bed that would make an excellent runway.

But by that time, this area—which had been known generically as the Nevada Test Site--had already been used for testing weapons, and hundreds of explosions were set off here during the Cold War’s early days.

Secrecy has shrouded Area 51 from the beginning, with reports of UFOs joining talk of the black aircraft being developed there for the military, and it’s often claimed that hidden hangars exist under nearby Papoose Lake—another dry lake within the restricted area--and that these hangars house alien spacecraft, alien corpses and even living aliens reportedly working with engineers to develop secret aircraft for the military.

Staff at Area 51 are flown into the compound each day on a super-secret airline known as JANET which flies out of a restricted terminal at the Las Vegas airport. Some say the name JANET is an acronym for Just Another Non-Existent Terminal. 

IRRESISTIBLE

The most recent boom of interest in Area 51 began with the appearance of a man named Bob Lazar on the Joe Rogan podcast in June of 2019. Lazar remains one of the most controversial figures in UFO-logy. People either totally love and believe him—or just the opposite—as he claims he worked at Area 51 to reverse engineer an alien spacecraft. Interestingly, there do seem to be others who back up his claims, and he also passed a polygraph test, for whatever that may be worth.  Still, there are many significant holes in his story, such as a total absence of evidence that he ever went to the schools he claims to have attended (though some say it’s because the record has been wiped clean by THE POWERS THAT BE).  

Though the reverse engineering of alien craft at Groom Lake is debatable, what’s fact is that Area 51 is the place where some of the most famous “black aircraft” were developed.  Many of these have now been declassified and so we know that the U-2 spy planes, including the U-2 Dragon Lady, the A-12 Oxcart, SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk—this was the first stealth bomber—, and the Boeing Bird of Prey were all developed here at Area 51.

There are many stories of people who have tried to breach security and get into Area 51. Unless you were living under a rock in 2019, you probably saw the “Storm Area 51: They Can’t Stop All of Us” event that became a sensation on Facebook. That event was sparked by the aforementioned Joe Rogan show, quickly spiraling into a potential nightmare, both for the government and for local law enforcement, with over a million people saying they were going to attend the event and break into Area 51.  You can read about how that went here (spoiler: not as planned).

If you ever listened to Art Bell on overnight radio (broadcasting from the Pahrump, Nevada desert, no less), you know that Area 51 was a favorite topic for both Bell and his listeners, and occasionally there would be someone who claimed to have breached security at Groom Lake and got inside the installment. But the only legitimate documented breach that we know of was that of a man who wasn’t even interested in black aircraft or aliens.

A NOBLE QUEST . . . DENIED

Jerry Freeman was an archaeologist who, in the mid-1990s, was deeply involved in researching the so-called Lost Forty-Niners. One of the most heartbreaking stories of the Old West, the tale centers on the California Gold Rush of 1849 and a long wagon train that went West that year in search of fortune.

If you are at all into American history, you might remember that the Gold Rush happened just two years after the Donner party got lost in the Sierras and resorted to cannibalism, so these gold rushers were hyper-cautious about heading into that mountain range themselves. They decided to avoid the Sierras by going south instead, and at some point, their guide found a map that showed a seeming shortcut. In order to shave off some time from the journey, the wagon train headed along the new route.

It soon became apparent, however, that they were not on the right path, and half of the wagons turned back. The others held fast to the alleged shortcut--and ended up enduring a nightmare that lasted over 300 miles and seven weeks, leaving the wagon train's supplies decimated--and four members dead. One of the deaths occurred in a horrifically desolate, waterless region. In memory of their dead comrade's passing there, his companions named the place Death Valley.

During their ordeal, the Lost Forty-Niners had carved trail markers into rocks along the way—seven of them in total. And it was these markers that Jerry Freeman went in search of. He and his team found six of the markers. But the seventh one was—you guessed it—within the Groom Lake restricted area, and strictly off limits to any visitors whatsoever.

Freeman begged the Air Force numerous times to be allowed into the compound to search for the seventh marker. He even volunteered to be blindfolded and escorted to the canyon where he knew the inscription could be found. But no matter how hard he pleaded, the Air Force turned him down.  So he went to his representative, Senator McKeon, who appealed to the Pentagon for permission to allow Freeman in to do complete his research.

But his pleas, too, were rebuffed.

Freeman was livid.  He felt the trail marker was a crucial piece of history that needed to be recorded, and that as an American he had a right to complete his task of finding it. He decided to go in search of the last trail marker without permission.

He would enter Area 51.

ROGUE IN THE DESERT

It would be a one-hundred-mile hike alone through arid wasteland from the edge of the base’s nuclear test site to the site of the seventh marker. Before he left, Freeman told a local newspaper reporter of his plans, so that someone on the outside would know where he was. He was half convinced that, were he to be caught, he would never be heard from again. On the day in question, a relative dropped him off near the entry point, the two planning to rendezvous there several days later. Freeman had his cell phone to keep in touch with his ride—as well as with the reporter to whom he had confided his plans.

Days on—and dangerously later than planned--Freeman reached Nye Canyon, where he knew the seventh marker had been inscribed. But by then, he was out of water, and it was almost dark. He had just a couple of hours of time left to search for the lost marker; during those hours he was suffering from dehydration and barely able to walk or even think.

As soon as evening fell, Freeman made his way to one of the buildings he had passed and drank water out of a hose at a nuclear dump site—a necessary choice that would rear its head years later when doctors wondered if this had been a contributing factor in the return of the cancer that eventually killed him.

Ironically, by that last fateful night Freeman had abandoned everything he had brought with him---just like the Lost Forty-Niners had done on their own ill-fated journey—including his butane stove, canteens, extra clothing, and even his cell phone.

Freeman made it out, but mere hours and a canteen of water short of his treasure. Later, when the newspaper published his story, an Area 51 representative commented that the government’s “feelings were hurt” by Freeman’s breach of security at the base.

Jerry Freeman passed away in 2001. To date, the seventh trail marker of the Lost Forty-Niners remains undocumented.

AN INTERSTELLAR SCENT

I hope you can see why Groom Lake has been such a fascinating place for me, leading me to want to create a fragrance inspired by it.  The original fragrance formula was popular with a lot of you, but there were also many who tried it and said it smelled like dryer sheets. Not necessarily a bad thing (hands up, laundry sniffers), but also not exactly what a perfumer aspires to.

In retrospect, I think this was a blessing in disguise, because while I thought about how to “fix” the dryer sheet problem, I realized that I had left out a key element of Groom Lake when I was deciding what aspects of the area I wanted the fragrance notes to represent.

I knew I wanted to represent the tequila shots that everyone drinks at the Little Ale Inn in Rachel, because this is a ritual that is synonymous with the place. In fact, the gift shop actually sells souvenir tequila in these alien-shaped bottles. So, tequila and lime went in.

I definitely needed golden sands, so that went in. Desert cactus went in for the unique flora in the Mojave Desert, of course. And there’s a note of canyon rock as well, for the mountain ranges that surround Groom Lake.

But what I had completely forgotten was the very essence of Area 51: the smell of the black aircraft that have been developed there, and—maybe—the spacecraft that are being reverse-engineered in the base’s most secret facilities (though some say these have no engines and are propelled by the laws of physics).

Still, I decided to add “jet fuel” to the mix.  Not real jet fuel, of course, but a note evocative of it.   (Incidentally, gasoline is one of the most loved scents in the world. In fact, it seems an inordinate number of people have an addiction to smelling gasoline, and this isn’t safe, so if you’re one of them, please get help!)

But again, I digress.

It would be a long road to creating a jet fuel perfume oil to use in the Groom Lake formula.  I won’t tell you exactly what’s in the blend, but I think it came out great, and that’s it’s evocative without being unwearable. I’m excited for you guys to try the new formula; let me know what you think!

So. . .  tequila, lime, desert cactus, golden sands, canyon rock and jet fuel.

That’s Groom Lake, and I hope you love it.

Thanks for opening this bottle with me!

Ursula

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You can use the code FRIENDS10 anytime to get 10 percent off Groom Lake—and your whole order—at ghostshipfragrance.com

(NOTE: Though I included links in this post, they are not affiliate links--just stuff I think is really interesting!)