ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 5, 1996 TAG: 9602050027
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
THE TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT renamed Route 375 to attract terrestrials' vacation money.
Space aliens at last have their own landing strip in the Nevada desert - courtesy of the state.
Desolate state Route 375 officially has been christened the Extraterrestrial Highway - a nod by the state's transportation board to the area's reputation for otherworldly sightings, and a ploy to attract more money-spending terrestrial tourists.
Four highway signs proclaiming the new status will go up in the next couple of months. ``Of course they're going to be both horizontal and vertical so extraterrestrials can see them as they land,'' chuckled Tom Tait, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism.
Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, chairman of the board that approved the new designation last week, suggested the signs be placed flat on the ground so aliens can land on them.
Of more earthly concern, though, is making the signs big enough - maybe 8 feet wide. ``Otherwise, if they're small we're worried they'll be stolen,'' said Tom Stephens, director of Nevada's Department of Transportation. ``Wouldn't that be a nice decoration for your room if you were a teen-ager?''
The highway sits 140 miles northeast of Las Vegas and, more importantly, just outside a top-secret Air Force range known informally as Area 51. The blacktop runs through an isolated swath of desert that has long been a mecca for UFO-seekers from around the world.
Visitors and locals alike tell stories of seeing spaceships with odd lights traveling at warp speed. The fact that all these sightings are close to a secret installation where experimental aircraft are believed to be tested has only fueled rumors that the military is testing captured alien spaceships. Not surprisingly, the government denies this.
But Nevada has never been shy about coming up with gimmicks to make a little money, and the campaign to publicize the desert as a potential spaceport for extraterrestrials - and a destination for their earthbound friends - has been bubbling for a while.
The local Pioneer Territory division of the state tourism commission took up the cause several months ago and recommended the highway be renamed.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB