We all know the story. Officially, the United States has never acknowledged the existence of Area 51. Unofficially, it is the most well-known top secret military location in the world. You can see it on Google maps. And there are scores of books about it. Almost 400 of them.

The newest book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen, proposes something new, sinister, and unnerving. The creation of Area 51 was the result of governments conspiring against each other.

"The idea that Area 51 was this test facility working to move science and technology faster and further than any other nation is true and is one of the great hallmarks of Area 51," Jacobson told NPR. "There are other areas of the base that are controversial — but they both exist simultaneously — out there in the desert."

One of the most controversial theories is that the Roswell UFO was a Russian plot to unhinge the United States by thinking it was being invaded by aliens. Jacobson alleges that the UFO was a top secret Nazi-inspired spy plane manned by mini-pilots who had been experimented on by Josef Mengele. The goal was simple. They wanted to scare Americans.

Ironically, the story getting all the attention is one of the weakest in her new book about Area 51. Some of it is more compelling. There are scores of stories detailing research and paranoia of a government during the cold war.

"All I can do is tell people what I always do. Until you've taken the ride out as close as you can go to Area 51, you're only a spectator," says James Hoke, president of TourGuy.com LLC. "But once you sit in the SUV and scan the horizon, you'll think differently. You're going to see someone staring back at you and their orders are to use excessive force."

The tours, which are available every Wednesday (or by special arrangement), give Las Vegas visitors the closest encounter possible without getting arrested or worse. Beginning at 7 a.m. with a hotel pick up, the tour takes visitors into some of the most desolate and uninhabited areas of the United States and right up to the point of no return. All of them fear and hope for some type of experience.


"One of my favorite stops along the tour is looking at Indian petroglyphs that resemble aliens located on the edge of an ancient dry lake," says Hoke. "Many Native Americans brush up against the possibility that we have been visited and may not even be alone. Many speak of Star Beings that could travel about the skies in beams of light like the sun."

Along with this stop, the full-day tour includes all of the most famous sites in Nevada that are related to the extraterrestrial, including the Extraterrestrial Highway, Little A’le’ Inn restaurant, infamous Black Mailbox, and the perimeter of Area 51.

With almost 80 percent of all Nevada owned by the government and the largest no-fly zones in America, anything is possible. All of these sightings could be aliens or a long series of government experiments and espionage.

For more information about Area 51 tours from Las Vegas, please visit www.tourguy.com. TourGuy.com has approximately 50 additional tours to some famous locations around Las Vegas, including the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Zion National Park. All of these range from half-day to full-day tours.