As interesting as all this was I didn't
begin to seriously study the subject till mid
1997. I had come across the infamous Popular
Mechanics article which reported that Area 51
had been shut down and moved to Utah.
Immediately, this struck me as being
unlikely.
Based on my limited knowledge of the
facility, it seemed to me that it would be a
grueling task to relocate this entire
installation and its personnel to another
state. Especially when there were so many
remote areas of the Nevada Test Site that, if
necessary, could be utilized. After poking
around on the internet I quickly learned that
this article was entirely mistaken.
Not long after that I was cleaning out a
drawer when I came across a list I had made
several years earlier of goals I had set for
myself (probably the result of collegic
boredom.) Much to my surprise, among them was
"see Area 51." I remembered hearing about a
proposed military land seizure that would
encompass the only accessible viewpoints of
the base. However, that was years earlier,
and I wasn't sure how it had turned out.
Well, back
to the internet. After a little more poking
around I learned that yes indeed, the
military had taken these viewpoints, but
there was one spot left. A remote peak, some
26 miles from the heart of the base, that
truly adventurous individuals could scale to
get a look at the non-existant facility.
Some time later I was purrusing bookstore
when something caught my eye, a new book
entitled "Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles."
I'm generally not the kind of person who
believes in signs, but I got the erie
sense I was being pointed in a direction, and
that direction towards Nevada.
As I delved into the pages of The
Dreamland Chronicles I quickly learned it
was not at all what I had expected, rather
than a placid look at the history and
folklore of Dreamland I was treated to a
charming, witty, and involved account of the
band of civilians that lurk around the
restricted borders of Area 51.
I have to admit, the adventurer in me was
aroused. Extraterrestrials, UFO's, black
aircraft, government conspiracies, who could
resist? Tooling around the desert in rental
cars, hiking remote peaks to peer down upon
the perverbial skeletons in our nations
closet, watching for odd lights in the night
sky. Oh yeah, this was for me!
Preceding my first visit to Area 51 I had
educated myself
to the best of my ability using the few tools
at my disposal, the most prominent being the
internet. I spent hours wading through
mountians of information, seperating that
which was credible from that which was
ridiculous. This proved to be a daunting
task. Confirming the simplest piece of
information could take all night. I
bookmarked websites, made notes, and
carefully studied various researchers in the
field to determine whose findings could be
trusted and whose couldn't.
It was a frustrating experience. There
were two problems I ran into. The first was
impartiality, or the lack there of. Everyone
thought they had the answer, and everyone's
answer was different. No one had the nerve to
simply say "I don't know what's going on
there, but whatever it is, it sure is
interesting." It seemed as though everyone
was attempting to validate their conclusions,
rather than risk finding out that their
assumptions may be wrong.
The second problem I ran into was the vast
majority of the sites I visited only focused
on one fascit of dreamland. One site would
focus entirely on military accountablity,
another site would be devoted to secret
aircraft. What I needed was a site that could
get me up to speed. One that would serve as
an introduction to the subject. But alas,
this site eluded my search.
After returning from my first expedition
to Dreamland (which will be covered later) I
had decided to set a goal for myself. This
goal was to create that site which had eluded
me in my primary research. A site that could
serve as an introduction to the topic, and
perhaps offer a few other tid-bits of
information found rarely, or not at all, on
the net. I began construction on the site in
early January 1998. I did have very limited
experience on the net playing around with
website design, it was next to nothing
really, but I did know the basics of HTML,
and the rest I could learn.
I opted for a simple layout, one where
EVERYTHING would be accesible from the main
page. Nothing frustrates me more than knowing
there is a piece of information on a site,
but not remembering how to find it. To assure
that the information I provided was correct I
made sure that each fact was confirmed by at
least two seperate, credible, sources. Which
in hindsight may not have been enough as
months later I was still occasionally
discovering minor errors which I immediately
corrected.
I had my buddy Joe scan a few pictures
from my trip for the site. One day, I
designed a "Dreamland 51" logo on the back of
a napkin, which my Area 51 traveling
companion Secret Squirrel transferred onto
the net. I had chosen the name "Dreamland 51"
because it seemed to encompass the two sides
of Area 51. "Dreamland" in referance to the
military (or hard evidence) side, and "51"
obviously taken from "Area 51" which has come
to be associated with UFO's and cover-ups (or
the folklore side.)
After posting the opening of "Dreamland
51" on alt.conspiracy.area51 and adding a
link to it on www.ufomind.com the site
recieved a couple hundred hits within its
first month or so. The feedback I received
was favorable and encouraging. Much to my
surprise I also started recieving E-mails
from people with questions who were planning
on visiting the area. I happily answered
those questions I could and recommended sites
which I believed could possibly provide an
answer for those I couldn't.
The site remained dormant for awhile, it
served its original purpose and I was happy
with that. I made a couple more trips to Area
51, then for some reason I started getting
the itch to work on it again. Not knowing
what else to do I revised some sections,
added some book reviews, and began offer
other bits of information that I had picked
up on my trips. Things like where to stay,
where to eat, the closest ATM's ect.
Strangely, I noticed my site being noted as
much for these bits of information as it was
for everything else.
Again, the site went into a stage of
dormancy, but was soon woken again. I hadn't
really put any thought into adding anything
else to the site, but a reocurring
observation in the Area 51 newsgroup begged
for a response. The observation was that if
there was anything alien at or near Area 51
it would long since have been moved. The
response was an article entitled "Where Have
All The Saucers Gone?" Which attempted to
illustrate the difficulty and lack of
necessity for this relocation.
I recieved minor feedback from the
article, but it was positive, and motivated
me to write a couple more (admittedly
unmotivated) articles. Thus, was the
begining, and perhaps end, of "Majestic's
Forum".
In it's first year Dreamland 51 recieved
just over 2000 hits, and as of this writing
now averages about 500 hits a month.
