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During the early 1940’s, a small landing strip was built into the dirt of the desert floor by Groom Lake, Nevada. Little did anyone know, this area of landing strip would soon turn into one of the largest talked about government secrets of all time. We now know this area of land as Area 51. The military base that is located at Area 51 has a long history of unusual stories and supposed government cover ups, which make it one of the most interesting places in the United States. So what exactly is at area 51, and why won’t the government release more information about it? During the time of World War II, two airplane runways were built at Groom Lake, Nevada. These airstrips were just two lanes of run down dirt that were around six thousand feet long. These stripes were used for training new flyers of the Nellis Air Force Base. After the end of World War II, the lanes were not kept up and soon disappeared (Wallace 1997). During April of 1955, a test pilot for the government was ordered to find a place to test a new plane of the United States, the U-2 spy plane. The pilot decided on a spot on the south end of Groom Lake. Work soon started on the building of a center to test the new U-2 planes. After three months of w