Groom Lake

USA / Nevada / Indian Springs /
 interesting place, salt pan / flat, dry lake
Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (KXTA) on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin.

Lead and silver were discovered in the southern part of the Groom Range in 1864, and the English Groome Lead Mines Limited company financed the Conception Mines in the 1870s, giving the district its name (nearby mines included Maria, Willow and White Lake). The interests in Groom were acquired by J. B. Osborne and partners and patented in 1876, and his son acquired the interests in the 1890s. Claims were incorporated as two 1916 companies with mining continuing until 1918 and resuming after World War II until the early 1950s.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groom_Lake_(salt_flat)
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°16'28"N   115°48'4"W

Comments

  • Note the circular lines leading from the runways, curving clockwise around the lake. These are not roads/jeep trails, and are measured in perfect arcs
  • B3Fiend: I noticed and wondered about that too. Those were permanently painted into the lake for the CIA's A-12 OXCART program and were called "the hook". Google it. The A-12 (and the later SR-71) had a really high take off and landing speed. The idea was that if the pilot had to abort a take-off or his brakes/drogue chute failed on landing, he could drive the aircraft off the runway onto the soft lakebed and make a big curve until it stopped instead of going off the end of the runway and crashing in the rocks and sagebrush.
  • Alien Technology????
This article was last modified 3 years ago