How Area 51 Likely Got Its Name From the Nevada Test Site’s Numbering System
Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out explained in a Fact Quickie how Area 51, the secretive U.S. Air Force research facility in southern Nevada near Groom Lake, likely got its numerical designation, laying out a circumstantial case that it was named as part of the system used to number the nuclear test areas at the neighboring Nevada Test Site.
Despite the CIA’s release of previously classified documents in 2013 that acknowledged the existence of Area 51 as a top-secret U.S. government research facility, many questions about the site remain unanswered. One of the most innocuous, but nonetheless puzzling, is its choice of name.
Whistler noted that nuclear tests held outside the Nevada Test Site’s boundaries still received area numbers, including Area 52 near Tonopah and Area 58 near Fallon.
The Original 2017 Video
