Recently I was reading an article in a local entertainment
magazine which had an eye-catching front cover design and featured the phrase
"Utah's Area 51." OK, so it
wasn't too recently, as I had not updated my blog in some time when I read that, and this
was back while I was still attending college. So at least a couple years have
passed. But in interstellar time, that's
nothing at all! Therefore, I'll stick
with my "recently" claim and go from there.
The article in question spoke of how there are off-limits
areas in the Utah West Desert, out past the city of Tooele (pronounced
'too-ill-uh,' and not 'tool-ee'), where secret things take place. For those of you not in the know, the region
being discussed is a fairly vast and sparsely populated piece of real estate
that stretches from the shores of the Great Salt Lake outward into the state of
Nevada. My own personal experience with
it is limited to the occasional excursion out to central California via US
Interstate 80, heading west for a fourteen-ish hour drive. Now I am given to understand that some folk
go this stretch of highway out to Wendover Nevada in order to gamble. From my few forays through that town, I'd
never have known that it held anything more exciting than a gas station and a
burger joint or two (and just to make you aware, thinly-veiled sarcasm dripped
from my typing fingers as I entered that last, as anyone who travels through
the Nevada side of Wendover between dusk and dawn can't miss the casino lights
glaring across the wide expanse of alkaline desert landscape - you'd have to be
either sound-asleep or stone dead to miss them).
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| The Bonneville Salt Flats, on the way to Wendover. It's a pretty desolate view for an hour or more. Then you get to Wendover and the view is only minuscule improved. / Source: Utah.com |
