Area 51 CIA Files, Film & Other Historical Documents

Area 51 CIA Files, Film & Other Historical Documents

2,154  pages of CIA, Air Force, DIA, Atomic Energy Commission files and twenty minutes of CIA film, related to the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake often referred to by using the disambiguation "Area 51." The base there conducts research and operations that are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).

An approximately 575-square mile basin area of southern Nevada, 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas, has been called Groom Lake after a dry lake in the area, Watertown, Paradise Ranch, The Ranch,  Dreamland, The Area, recently and officially the government facility there is called Homey Airport. However, the region and the facility is most commonly referred to as Area 51.

35,000 to 60,000 years ago salt lakes in southern Nevada began to dry up. Leaving behind numerous dry lakebeds. Paleo-Indians inhabited the Great Basin Desert region beginning around 10,000 B.C. Numic-speaking Shoshonean Indians lived in the area until 1000 A.D. The area was part of the land succeeded to the United States by Mexico after the Mexican-American War in 1848.

In 1864 Bob Groom found mineable ore in an area near a dry lake Mormon pioneers in the 1850's named Misery Lake. Groom began a mining operation, Groom Mine, there in 1872. The nearby dry lake became known as Groom Lake.  In 1885 a  group of investors led by Patrick Sheahan bought the mine.

In 1942 the region was restricted from public access by the War Department. A landing strip next to Groom Lake was made by compacting soil for use by the Fourth Air Force's bombing and gunnery range.

In 1955 work in Burbank at Lockheed's Skunk Works facility on the Aquatone Project (the U-2) had advanced to the stage that mangers of the project were looking for a place to establish a testing area and training grounds for the U-2. In March, a site was selected. However, the site was deemed to not be secure enough.

On 13 April 1955, a small Beechcraft plane flew around Nevada. The plane carried Richard "Dick" Bissel, the CIA's top official on the U-2’s Development team, Col. Osmund "Ossie" Ritland from the Air Force and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, Lockheed's chief engineer. The plane was piloted by Tony Le Vier, Lockheed's top test pilot. They were looking for a good area to set-up a test base for the U-2.

The day before Johnson and Le Vier spotted what appeared to be an airstrip by a salt flat known as Groom Lake, near the northeast corner of the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Nevada Proving Ground. They were now returning with Bissel and Ritland to show them the site. After debating about if it was safe to land on the old airstrip.  Le Vier set the plane down on the lakebed instead, and all four walked over to examine the strip.

In a document in this collection Clearance Johnson wrote, "When we showed Ozzie and Dick this site… they were much impressed·. We flew over to Frenchman's Flats, quite illegally,  and found another site in the atomic test area. Checked fallout radiation and it was apparently OK. Site was a dandy, but will take much red tape to get cleared."

The facility already there was named Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field. It was built in 1942 and was used as a airstrip for an aerial gunnery range for Army Air Corps pilots. The site was abandoned after World War II and the airstrip had deteriorated to dust. The Air Force acquired the site. Work soon began on building a facility there under the direction of Lockheed’s Skunk Works.

In July 1955, what would soon be called Watertown Strip was completed at a cost of $800,000. Constructed there were three hangars, a control tower, mess hall, runway, and the placement of numerous mobile homes. The first U-2 arrived on July 23. On August 19, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10633. It made for the first time the airspace over "Area 51" restricted.

The facility was called Watertown Strip or just Watertown because of flooding in the basin from rain running off the nearby mountains. The facility would later begin to be referred to as Paradise Ranch or "The Ranch" for short, presumably to make to the facility sound more appealing to potential workers who were being recruited to move to the site. Those who worked there preferred to call it "Dreamland." Occasionally operations at the Ranch had to be suspended due to nearby atomic tests.

In June 1957, the entire Area 51 facility had to be evacuated because the Atomic Energy Commission was about to conduct the Plumbbob series of nuclear tests, whose fallout was expected to contaminate the Groom Lake facility. All remaining CIA and Air Force personnel, materiel, and aircraft were transferred to Edwards Air Force Base. The testing also led to the  end of mining at Groom Mine.

In 1958, the area was officially made part of the Nevada Test Site and was given the destination "Area 51."

In 1959, work began on improving the site for use by the OXCART project. In September 1959, EG&G agreed to move its radar test facility to the former U-2 testing site at Area 51 of the Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Proving Grounds.

In the following years Area 51 was used for projects including the Oxcart Project, the D-21 Tagboard drone, Have Doughnut Project (evaluation of captured Soviet MiG jets),  the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and a variety of  training, support, development and study of a wide range of developed and acquired experimental aircraft and weapons systems.  The research and operations at Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).

In 1995, action by the Department of Interior withdrew 3,972 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, from public access, creating a larger security buffer zone to prevent public viewing of activities at Groom Lake.

The CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base there for the first time on June 25, 2013, following the release of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005, for a 1992 report.


This collection includes

CIA Files

1,668 pages of CIA files (including three differentiated copies of a key report on the U-2) dating from 1955 to 2011. Most date from the mid 1950's, when at Area 51 base facilities were being constructed for the U-2 reconnaissance plane project, and the mid-1960's when Area 51 was busy with activity involving the testing, training and mission operations involving the Oxcart Project (Lockheed A-12, SR-71 Blackbird).

Highlights include:

Documents from early 1955 cover the search for a place for testing and training activity for the U-2.

Documents about and memos on the investigation into the November 1955 crash of a C-54 transport plane bringing personnel to Area 51, killing all 14 on-board.

A memo on the decision to make Las Vegas off limits to personnel at Area 51.

A 1963 flight surgeon guide covering the special needs of pilots at Area 51.     

Documents concerning the May 1963 crash of an A-12 as it was attempting a return to Area 51.

"The CIA and Overhead Reconnaissance – the U-2 and OXCART Program, 1954-1974 ," when this 1992 CIA history was more fully released in 2013, it was the first time the CIA officially acknowledged the existence of operations at Area 51. This collection includes three copies of this history, releases from 1998, 2011 and 2013, to show the CIA’s evolution in deciding what should remain secret.

Memos showing concern that in 1974 astronauts aboard Skylab photographed Area 51 from space.

A 1981 draft of a history of the U-2 program written by fabled Lockheed chief engineer Clarence (Kelly) L. Johnson.
 

CIA Film: Angels in Paradise

Subject: The Development of the U-2 at Area 51 (Watertown). The CIA in 1959 had one of the U-2 contractors, Hycon Manufacturing Company, produce this film. It was written and photographed by Don Downie and Jim Jarbee. The film was created to show family members of the people working on the Angel reconnaissance project to explain the workers' long absences from home.  Includes footage shot at Area 51 and film of crashes of U-2 planes.

 
CIA Photographs

42 CIA photographs of  activities at Area 51. Includes 6 photographs of the crash site of a 1963 crash of a Lockheed A-12.

 
DIA File

A 1969 Defense Intelligence Agency report on Project Have Doughnut. the testing of a captured Soviet Mig jet acquired in 1967, which took place at Area 51.

Abstract: This report presents the results of the tactical evaluation of a Soviet FISHBED E (1HG-21F-13) aircraft performed under the management of the Foreign Technology Division, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. The evaluation consisted of comparative and tactical flights against both USN and USAF first line fighter aircraft. Results of the performance and flight test evaluation, system and subsystem characteristics, design features and technological information acquired.

 
Atomic Energy Commission

“Background Information on Nevada Nuclear Test (1957)”

This information booklet was produced by the Atomic Energy Commission's Office of Test Information in 1957 and was distributed to the news media. It discloses the Watertown Project (Area 51 facility.) It publicly discloses that Watertown was "a small facility at Groom Dry Lake adjacent to the northeast corner of the Nevada Test Site, and within the boundaries of the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range." It also stated that construction there, "included dormitories, equipment, buildings and a small air strip. " The booklet mentions that the U-2 was flown from there and maintains the cover story that the U-2 was a Weather Service plane that flew at high-altitude for meteorological study.

 
Air Force Documents

A Manual for Detachment 3 of the Air Force Security Police, responsible for security at Area 51 and a manual for Area 51 emergency responders identifying the "hazardous byproducts of burning wreckage" of an F-117A stealth fighter.

 
Photographs: Groom Mine 1916-1917

10 Photographs of activity at Groom Mine.

Groom Mine, located in Lincoln County, Nevada, first opened in the 1870s. Most mining in the area, mostly of silver chloride ores, had finished by 1874. Groom Mine continued to operate, finally ceasing operations in 1954.

During World War II, Groom Mine became surrounded by military activity, which continued into the 21st century. In the 1950s, the mine was exposed to fallout from nuclear testing that was being carried out at the Nevada Test Site. During the late 20th century, atomic testing,  military activities, including the destruction of a mill and the restriction of access to the mine, affected work there. The United States Government seized the mine under eminent domain from its previous owners, descendants of  Patrick Sheahan, in 2015.