[MUSIC PLAYING]
GLEN CAMPBELL: This is as
close as we can legally
get to Area 51.
MATT WEBER: I'm pretty
nervous right now.
Because I know
there's guys up there,
and I know they've got guns.
And I know that, like,
they don't want us here.
It's kind of exciting.
Yeah, It's exciting.
And there's nothing
to worry about,
as long as you know
where the border is
and you don't cross it.
Yeah.
If you cross that border, they
have the right to shoot you.
Yeah.
They haven't shot
anybody, but it
doesn't mean they can't
make an exception for you.
This might be the first.
It might be the first time.
CRAIG BENZINE: So here we
are the middle of the desert,
in a small town
called Rachel, Nevada.
Why are we here, Matt?
MATT WEBER: Because
we're going to go
to one of the most well known to
top secret military facilities
in the world.
Which is?
Area 51.
I was kind of hoping you'd
be wearing a black suit.
Uh, yeah, I was going
to ask you about that.
You're doing the
"Men in Black" thing?
Yeah, it fits the
theme, you know, aliens.
Yeah, but, I mean, we're going
to be just going to the place,
we don't work for it.
You know what,
you go to Area 51,
I'm just going to go to this
bar, because that looks good.
There's a bar?
CRAIG BENZINE: Yeah.
OK, well, I'm going
to go to Area 51.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MATT WEBER: For
those who don't know,
Area 51 is a top-secret
military base in the middle
of the Nevada desert.
Over the years, people have
claimed that the government has
been using this remote
location to test recovered
UFO technology,
dissect alien bodies,
and develop exotic
energy weapons.
[SCREAMING]
Despite the secrecy
surrounding the location,
area 51 has been featured
prominently in pop culture,
showing up in movies,
TV, and video games.
While the government
has declassified
some of the projects
it has worked on there,
much of Area 51 remains
shrouded in secrecy.
CRAIG BENZINE: Mike Rugnetta,
I can't believe I just
ran into you in this bar.
We just both happened
to be at the A'Le'Inn.
CRAIG BENZINE:
Yeah, that's right.
MIKE RUGNETTA: Yeah.
CRAIG BENZINE: What's
your impression of Area 51
since you've been here?
MIKE RUGNETTA: It's, I mean, one
of the things that's, I think,
the most interesting about it is
that there's not a lot around.
Right?
I mean, you sort
of understand it
as this middle of
nowhere secret place.
But it also has this
massive cultural presence.
You know, like, most people
know what Area 51 is.
But you come here, and
it's like, it really is--
it's far off the beaten path.
There's not a lot of things that
sort of announce its presence.
GLEN CAMPBELL: Well, the
whole idea of Area 51
is it's a place where the
government can test things
without anyone looking in.
MATT WEBER: This
is Glen Campbell,
and he wrote the
book on Area 51.
Literally, he wrote
the "Area 51 Viewer's
Guide," a comprehensive manual
of all things Area 51 related.
GLEN CAMPBELL: So you have a
lot of land between the base
and public land.
So you could cross
the border here,
you can walk across
the border here,
but you would still have to
hike 15 miles just to get
to the perimeter of the base.
How do you know all about this?
I looked it up on Wikipedia.
Ha, yeah?
No, I think you--
I was, back in the 1990s,
I was the Area 51 publicist.
I took it upon myself
to tell the world, hey,
there's a secret base out here.
How you, doing, sir?
Montel Williams.
Montel, good day sir.
And I was wildly successful.
At the beginning of the
1990s, virtually no one
had heard of Area
51, and by 1994, it
was a public phenomenon.
MATT WEBER: Area 51 first came
to the attention of the public
when a man named Bob Lazar
came forward, and claimed
to be a former employee
at the facility.
Throughout the
'80s, Lazar appeared
in newspapers,
magazines, and on TV,
claiming he worked in reverse
engineering alien spacecraft
at Area 51.
But Area 51 didn't really come
to the attention of the wider
public until five unnamed
contractors, and the widows
of contractors, filed
suit against the US Air
Force and the EPA.
They claim they were exposed
to toxic materials at Area 51.
But the case was rejected
due to lack of evidence,
since all the information
about the base was classified.
After all, in order to
prove that you were exposed
to toxic chemicals at
your place of employment,
you first have to prove that
your place of employment
exists.
This secrecy, along with
Bob Lazar's bazaar accounts,
fueled Area 51's
image as a hot spot
for classified UFO activity.
GLEN CAMPBELL: So
I first came here
because this is a place
where you could see UFOs
on a scheduled basis.
You just come here on a
Wednesday, the story goes,
and you could see UFOs.
So I came on a Wednesday,
and I looked up
in the sky in the general
direction of Area 51,
and I saw some fantastic
lights in the sky.
So this was what the
UFO literature told me
I should see, and I
actually saw them.
And if I had gone home
after that one experience,
I would've thought I saw a UFO.
The trouble is, I came
back the next night.
Thursday night.
Thursday night, when we're
not supposed to see them.
And I saw these
bright lights again.
And at that point, I
could see something
I hadn't seen the
first night, which
was a stream of smoke coming off
of each of these plasma balls.
And I'm thinking to myself,
these are supposed to be UFOs,
with anti gravity technology,
burning element 115,
why do they have smoke
coming off the top of them?
And I thought, well,
are they diesel powered?
Is it a diesel engine?
And at that point, I put
the two things together.
Well, these are probably
flares of burning magnesium.
And they're probably on little
parachutes, or balloons,
or something, where
the hot exhaust
can keep them buoyed up.
And right then I realized,
OK, that's what I'm seeing.
I'm seeing bombing activity.
I'm seeing military activity
in some bombing range
far beyond Area 51.
People didn't understand that
this was also an active war
games area.
So you had battles going on
here, on a nightly basis.
And a lot of those battles
involved some bright lights
in the sky, that could
be interpreted UFOs.
At that point, I had
explained the UFO stories,
but I still saw that there was
this secret base out there.
There was this real
base that the government
didn't talk about.
And that alone became
fascinating to me.
That cried out for attention.
I mean, I thought, why doesn't
the world know about it?
And should the
world know about it?
So I turned from a UFO watcher
into a government secrecy
activist.
Well, do you want
to go check it out?
Or do you want to get
as close as we can?
Sure, we can do that.
All right.
We can go to some
signs and see where
they're telling you not to go.
MATT WEBER: All right, yeah,
let's go to where we can't go.
[LAUGHTER]
GLEN CAMPBELL: So it's
13 miles to the border,
and then we'll encounter
some keep out signs.
We're going to keep out.
That's as close as we can get?
GLEN CAMPBELL: That's as
close as we can legally get.
MATT WEBER: OK.
All right, where are we, Glen?
GLEN CAMPBELL: We're
on Groom Lake Road.
This is one of the main
roads into the base.
Many Area 51 workers
will take this road.
There's also a bus
that brings Area 51
workers in on this road.
MATT WEBER: We've
got a car coming.
I it some employees?
GLEN CAMPBELL: It's
probably someone coming out
of the base, yes.
And, had you always been
fascinated by UFOs before hand?
I was fascinated
by UFOs as a kid.
That's mainly because I wanted
them to come and take me away.
MATT WEBER: What didn't you like
about where or when you were?
Well, I wasn't very
happy as a child.
I wanted to escape.
And back in those days,
you did a lot of reading.
And I read some UFO
books, and I found them
very, very interesting
and tantalizing.
As I grew up, and as I
became more confident,
in my teen years, I
didn't need the aliens
to rescue me, anymore.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
As we're approaching
the border, we're
going to see these two guys in
a SUV up on the top of the hill.
They're always there
looking down on the border.
They're on their
side of the border.
They're always
there looking down
on who's ever
approaching the border.
They're not going to do anything
unless we cross the border.
Now, at one point, I
mean, wasn't the use
of deadly force authorized?
Yes, there are
still signs out here
that say, use of deadly
force authorized.
So, technically, they can kill
you if you cross that line.
As far as I know, no
one's been killed.
I'm not going to
test it, myself.
MATT WEBER: He, he,
yeah, let's not test it.
GLEN CAMPBELL: I'm going
to come around the corner,
and we'll see the signs.
And we'll drive right up
to them, and I'll stop.
MATT WEBER: Oh, wow, right here.
GLEN CAMPBELL: Yes.
This is really unusual.
There are two cars on the
hill, instead of just one.
Maybe they've called out
reinforcements just for us.
MATT WEBER: This
is really exciting
and a little terrifying.
Should I be scared?
Yes, you should be scared.
OK.
GLEN CAMPBELL: If
you cross the border,
you should be scared, because
it's going to ruin your day.
MATT WEBER: So, who
are these guys here,
that are watching us?
OK, so these are
hired contractors.
They don't work for the
government directly,
they work for a private
company, which provides security
out here.
We call these guys
the camo dudes.
MATT WEBER: OK.
It's kind of unusual to
see two vehicles there,
but there's always a
vehicle parked there
when you come down.
MATT WEBER: Can we get out here?
Yeah, we get out.
This is as close as we can
legally get to Area 51.
This is actually
the Nellis Range.
So we would have to cross
another 10 miles of desert
before we even get the
border of Area 51, itself.
How many times
have you been here?
Oh, hundreds of
times, probably.
Hundreds of times to
this border, itself.
Most of this border is marked
only by these orange posts
every few hundred yards.
So if you were walking out
here in the wilderness,
it would be very easy to
stumble across this border.
Let's go look at the razor wire.
I want to touch the razor wire.
Is that safe?
It is actually kind of sharp.
But as I say, it's
only for show,
because you could just
walk around the razor wire.
It's just kind of a
visual symbol to tell you
this is where the border is.
Touching the razor wire.
GLEN CAMPBELL: I could jump
right over this if I wanted to.
Yeah, it seems like it.
Those guys on the hill, they're
on their side of the line.
So they have every
right to be there,
and we have every
right to not be there.
But we can still wave, and
see if they'll wave back.
MATT WEBER: It's hard to tell.
GLEN CAMPBELL: We could walk
right up there in the hills,
and we'd see that the
border is right there,
so it's safe to walk
up into those hills.
When I was a younger
man, I've walked up,
I went up to the
base of those rocks,
snuck up to the
base of the rocks,
and then poked my head up.
[LAUGHTER]
And see if I could
get a shot of them.
What did they do?
GLEN CAMPBELL: They just moved
their truck back real fast.
MATT WEBER: OK.
GLEN CAMPBELL: But I knew
where the border was,
and it goes up to the
top of those rocks.
So I knew I could walk up
to the top of the rocks
and shoot right across at them.
I actually have no
problems with secrecy,
with the government having
a facility like this.
I understand that
national defense
involves keeping secrets.
It involves developing weapons
that no one else knows about.
I just think there needs to
be limits to the secrecy.
I think 10 years from
now, we will know what
was going on at Area 51 today.
And that's how things work.
After 10 years, or 20 years,
things are declassified,
and we'll know.
It was some sort of
conventional equipment,
some sort of drone,
some sort of thing
that we're using
now in Afghanistan,
was probably tested
out there at Area 51.
MATT WEBER: So in the
rest of this playlist,
we're going to go out and
look for some secrets.
Secret places, secret art,
and secrets of the universe.
And I've got some questions for
you to answer in the comments.
What is it about secrets
that's so fascinating?
Why do we keep secrets?
Also, about Area 51, would
it be more interesting if we
knew what was going in there?
Yeah, what do you
think's going on there?
Why are we so
obsessed about Area 51?
What's going on in there?
Do you know what's
going on in there?
No.
Tell us in the comments.
Lots of questions
for you to answer.
Don't keep them a secret.
Nope.
Thanks for watching, and
thanks to Glen Campbell
for showing us around Area 51.
If you want to learn more
about him, and Area 51,
and all the other
things he does,
there's a link in
the description.
And also, thanks to Mike
Rugnetta, he's got a channel.
Yeah, he does,
PBS Idea Channel.
It's really good, check it out.
And if you liked
this video, consider
clicking like and subscribing.
And you could also check
out our Patreon page
if you'd like to support us.
Last video, we went
and saw some Earthships,
and this is what you
had to say about them.
A lot of people were concerned
about the internet connection
at the Earthships.
Don't worry, they had Wi-Fi.
The electrical system
in an Earthship
can handle all
modern conveniences,
like refrigerators,
TVs, and Wi-Fi.
CRAIG BENZINE: Do they
have a ping-pong table?
They didn't, well, not in
the one we were in, but I--
CRAIG BENZINE: I'm not going.
I'm not going.
I think you can bring one.
Of many of you were
concerned that you
can't build an
Earthship everywhere,
such as densely
populated cities.
Obviously, you can't build
an Earthship skyscraper,
but you can build them in a lot
of places, like rural areas,
or the suburbs.
And a lot of elements
that go into an Earthship
could be applied
to other buildings,
to make them more
sustainable and efficient.
Like having more
solar panels in user,
or using greywater
to flush toilets.
Earthships are not
going to be the one
perfect solution to solving
our climate crisis or housing
issues.
There is actually no
one perfect solution,
but I think we can learn
a lot from Earthships,
and it's a step in
the right direction.
Many of you were also
concerned about the cost
of building an Earthship,
and it really varies.
They have a ton of
different designs
to suit a ton of
different needs,
and they're generally cheaper to
build than a traditional home,
mostly due to the
type of materials
they used to build them.
They sell the
information online.
If you want to know
how to build one,
the link is in the description.
One new model
they're working on,
they're going to bring to
the people of Nepal who were
affected by the earthquake.
This model is easy
and cheap enough
to build that they can teach
the locals over a couple days
how to construct one,
using the materials readily
available to them.
Thanks for all your
great comments.
Next week we're going to be
talking about Henry Darger.
He's an artist who has this
giant body of work, including
a 15,000 page
novel, none of which
was known until after he died.
Yeah.
It was a secret.
Yeah, check it out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
