In 1974, William Colby, The director of the CIA at the time, got a panic-inducing memo. According to the memo, astronauts on the Skylab space station took pictures of a location that is sensitive to the CIA.
Obviously, the CIA wanted the pictures classified right away for national security reasons. The Agency debated over the issue with Skylab at length, in what became known as the “Skylab Incident”, but no one knows the ultimate results of the debate. We’d like to see the pictures and decide for ourselves if you don’t mind.
Oh, the Horror
Remember the film "The Blair Witch Project" from 1999? Of course you do. Did you know that a similar horror film by the unoriginal name of "Area 51" was made in 2015? Probably not.
The film tells the story of a group of friends who infiltrate Area 51 (shocking, right?) to find answers about the abduction of one of them. Are there any little green men making an appearance? We'll live it to you to find out.
The Angry Video Game Nerd
Nobody calls James Rolfe by his name. Well, maybe his mother does, but that's not the issue. Most people know him as the Angry Video Game Nerd. His videos have a collective view count of more than 1.5 billion!
So what does he have to do with Area 51? Well, Rolfe used the money he made online to create an Area-51-themed movie involving his online persona. Critics weren't exactly unanimous about "Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie", but it enjoys an insane amount of online fans.
Putting Two and Two Together
Dwayne A. Day is a space historian. (Apparently, it's a thing.) He took a special interest in the mysterious pictures taken from Skylab space station. The debate around the subject never mentions Area 51 by name, but he was convinced that this is what's shown in the astronauts' pictures. At the time of the Skylab Incident, the government didn't even confirm that Area 51 even existed!
Day ended up publishing an article titled "Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident" in an online magazine called "The Space Review" in 2006. Such determination!
Mining Away
Before Area 51 occupied the land currently housing it, there was occupied by the Groome Lead Mines Limited. This English mining company mined silver and lead around what we know today as Groom Lake. (Can you guess how the lake got its name?)
Groome Lead Mines Limited was a key player in the mining industry during the 1870s.