Area 51 request filed in 2005, the CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time, declassifying documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51. Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, north-northwest of Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield. The site was acquired by the United States Air Force in 1955, primarily for the flight testing of the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. The area around Area 51, including the small town of Rachel on the "Extraterrestrial Highway", is
U.S. Route 51 in Louisiana neighborhood in Jefferson Parish remained in the state highway system as a disconnected part of Route 33 until the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering. The remainder of US 51 carried no state route designation after the renumbering, which eliminated unnecessary concurrencies between U.S. and state routes. Paving projects during the late 1920s and early 1930s led to the early realignment of two portions of US 51 in Tangipahoa Parish. The original route between Independence and Amite City followed what is now known as Old US 51 and remained for a time in the pre-1955 state highway system as State Route 1094.