Medlin Ranch

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The owners of the Black Mailbox, Steve and Glenda Medlin, moved in 1973 to this cattle ranch in Tikaboo Valley, about 80 miles north of Las Vegas. There was no talk of aliens, and no home mail delivery.
A few years later, a local tungsten mine re-opened.
Some miners moved to a trailer park near the Medlins' and it grew into the town of Rachel. Postal carriers began delivery, and the couple put up a common black rural mailbox about six miles from their home, out on Highway 375.
In 1989, according to a history of Rachel, a man named Bob Lazar told a Las Vegas television station that he had worked with alien spacecraft at nearby Nellis Air Force Range. He and his buddies, Lazar claimed, also watched saucer test flights in Tikaboo Valley.
So many tourists soon descended on the little settlement of Rachel that the Rachel Bar & Grill was renamed the Little A'Le'Inn. People would down Alien Burgers and beer there before making their way out to the Medlins' mailbox, the only landmark in Tikaboo Valley. The mailbox acquired a cult-like following.
For some reason, Tuesday nights was when they thought the aliens came out.
Then it was Wednesdays.
UFO tourists left messages in the mailbox for the aliens -- on business cards, napkins and notebook scraps.
Some people opened the couple's mail, hoping to intercept classified correspondence. Some camped at the mailbox, for weeks at a time.
A few shot the mailbox, leaving holes in the Medlins' bills and junk mail.
That was too much for the ranchers. Medlin swapped the standard black U.S Postal Service issue mailbox for the larger white bulletproof one on 27 March 1996. (Yes. Flying-saucer bloggers do keep meticulous records of such events)
The next month, the state baptized Highway 375 as the Extraterrestrial Highway, making headlines internationally.
Steve Medlin has attached a second box solely for the alien-seekers: It has a mail slot and is labeled ALIEN and DROP BOX; some people slide in dollar bills.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°24'9"N   115°32'13"W

Comments

  • Area 51 would be even MORE secret if it weren't for that Medlin rancher! Get it? Sort of a play on what those crazy villains from ScoobyDoo say! Medlin sounds like meddling. Damn am I clever!
  • oh I get it!! 3 years later..dang that is funny!!!
  • Oh yea! Hahahahahahaha! Just got it!
  • Wow, this joke is catching on!!! Hahaha
  • I get it. I think?
  • What joke? That the Black Mailbox is white, but those in the know still call it the Black Mailbox?
  • Any secret routes to the top of the mountains? It might be a privileged point of sightseeing Area 51. In the case of military intervention a camera-equipped drone would be quite useful.
  • They expanded the boundaries so you cannot see the base from any nearby mountains. There is only one far far away, a dedicated hike, and a high powered scope to see anything. I hate to even think about what would happen to someone who flew a drone over the base. It would involve and M-16 and a face plant.
  • Ha!
  • The mailbox was traded out for the white one on 27 MAR 1996. On 26 MAR 1997, the Heaven's Gate cult mass-suicided in Rancho Santa Fe, California in hopes of catching an alien craft on the tails of a comet. 32796 / 32697. 27. 9. Draw your own conclusions. ;)
  • Such effort to explain the joke is almost funnier than the joke itself. =)
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This article was last modified 13 years ago