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Area 19, along with Area 20 to its west, from the northern cap to the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This sizable chunk of real estate was added to the NTS in response to the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which ended atmospheric testing. The distance and geology of Rainier Mesa and Pahute Mesa areas made them seem like and ideal location for massive underground tests.
What first attracts attention to Area 19 is a simple power line.
It is visible on both the Las Vegas aircraft sectional chart and the Pahute
Mesa 1:100,000 USGS map. It begins at an evem larger line near Highway
95 at Lathrop Wells, and runs almost due north through the NTS, terminating
in Area 19. It would appear to be one of the main power feeds for
the entire NTS, with considerable load carrying capability. According
to NTS maps, the line terminates in Area 19 as a 34.5 kilovolt line
at a 1,000 KVA substation.
The maps show the line ending in the center of an unusual double ring
of roads, a configuration not seen in other areas of the NTS. Strangely,
there is no facility listed on any NTS document at the line's termination.
Officially, there just isn't anything there. Yet aerial and satellite
photos do indeed show something there. Finally, the very boundaries
of Area 19 seem to be drawn around where the power line terminates.
The location is absolutely centered in the middle of the nothernly bulge
of the Area 19 boundary.
Area 19 is as far from anywhere within the Nellis Complex, shielded by many many miles. It is much more remote than even the Groom Lake Test Facility. A quick look at a large scale map reveals the location is fairly centered within the overall Nellis Complex, with viewing opportunities from neighboring peaks out of the question.
According to documents from the NTS, most of Area 19 is set aside for nuclear weapons testing, and is shown as being assigned to the Los Alamos NAtional LAboratory (LANL). However, Paul McGinnis was informed by the folks at the NTS that Areas 19 and 20 were under control of the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA). He was further told that the NTS had no knowledge of what classified programs the DNA had underway in those two areas.
Ben Rich, the manager of Lockheed's Skunkworks, was asked a question. He was asked "hypothetically speaking, if we had possession of extraterrestrial debris or even craft, who would you suppose would be handling it?" To this Rich literally growled, "Los Alamos!" and wouldn't discuss it further.
It was the recollection of a former worker at the NTS that "an awful lot of drilling" was done in Area 19, but relatively few nuclear blasts. He says there was a story released that the drillers hit an underground lake, as a result the NTS was not able to fully utilize the area.
