The town of XXXXXXX, Nevada is famous for being able to keep secrets. Most of the people there work for the government in some capacity, the majority of those being employed "down at the test site". Large secrets CAN be kept by large groups of people. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise.

The Nevada Test Site is more than 1,350 square miles. Over 900 nuclear tests were conducted there. For a period of about 2 years I lived at an isolated station, many miles from the nearest town, not on the test site, but just outside the border. I did not work for the federal government, nor did I have anything to do with the test site. I'll say I ran heavy equipment doing road work and leave it there.

Living out there was very interesting. In one of the job shacks there was a huge pile of signs, to be used for redirecting the highway, marking all lanes to go one way only, in the event of the Yellowstone caldera going off.

Not that it would matter. We'd all be toast.

The EPA would come by twice a year and check the well water for heavy metals and radioactive isotopes associated with nuclear testing. My boss was an old timer who showed me all the previous tests and how the levels kept going up, but as the allowable levels went up as well, the tests were a complete joke. I got curious, and read that most of the nuclear contaminants your body absorb from water occur while bathing or showering. Don't bother with the bottled water unless you plan on bathing in it. (Every windy day in Las Vegas brings a radioactive dust storm.)

I was also shown a place called Moore's Station (outside of the test site). The story was that Howard Hughes came up with a scheme to harness the power of a nuclear bomb, by drilling a mile into the earth and lining the hole with silicone. The idea was that the bomb's energy would somehow be contained inside a glass shell, and would have the ability to power Las Vegas for an entire year by somehow tapping into it. I guess when you have enough money, people tell you "yes" more than they should.

There were US Department of Energy signs proclaiming that the area was full of "petroleum impacted soil" and "removal of soil is prohibited".

Two bombs were buried there, but only one was detonated. The other one lay dormant in it's mile deep tomb.

There, in the desert, above the underground explosion, was a perfect circle where nothing would grow, no sagebrush, no rabbits, not even a rattlesnake would enter that pale circle.

My old time boss showed me where the other bomb was buried. There were 2 wires actually sticking out of the ground right there. I decided to touch them to the battery terminals on my pick-up truck, just for the hell of it, but alas, I did not become death, the destroyer of worlds, as Oppenheimer did. Some guys have all the fun.

Before drones were really in the public mind, I used to watch these Department of Defense guys (I think that's who they were) playing with them, just off the highway. It was a pathetic sight. These dudes would run and throw 'em like javelins and 9 times out of 10, the drone would just crash, never even take off.

Sometimes they'd circle over the little cluster of houses where we were, and practice observing us. One day, my co-workers and I decided to shoot bottle rockets at one of the drones, as we were getting very annoyed at the sound of it. The things were loud, "BZZZZZZZ".

We were asked not to do that again. Funny thing is, we were gonna shoot at 'em with pistols after we ran out of bottle rockets. Not to take 'em down, but just to give these guys some live fire practice, and show our annoyance.

I never saw anything even closely resembling a UFO while I was out there. I did however, see 2 helicopters flying very low, that disappeared right before my very eyes. They were not only invisible, but also silent.

I made friends with a guy from New Mexico, whose uncle was a big contractor. He was working down at the test site for his uncle, updating the plumbing. He went all over the the whole place. Even Area 51 has toilets.

I used to get him drunk and hammer him with questions. (I'm a curious sort.) To his credit, he just repeated over and over again that he's not allowed to speak about anything he sees or hears out there. The most I ever got out of him was "There's no such thing as aliens, believe me."

One guy did tell me that they had Humvees that ran on water out there, and had for years, it wasn't any big secret.

Living out there was the first time I'd lived away from a big city. I used to love to go drive the endless dirt roads leading into the mountains, miles away from any humans, just me and my dog and a 12 pack on ice, going up and down 2 track goat trails that hadn't been traveled for years. The isolation was wonderful.

Prolific Writing by Design