First off, Area 51 proper, is only part of the whole complex...
But what if, according to the theory, Area 51 were really no longer a secret research facility and WAS abandoned?
No. As some mentioned, regardless of it being "public", it's still away from prying eyes, and is a HUGE complex. This isn't something you just
walk away from...you just make it more secret (hence the recent land grabs)...
JANET planes still land, and yes, they may not look like scientists or engineers, but neither do others who work in other research facilities (such as
my pop for one)...
There's still the underground facility (which has housing, and most city provided services, such as movies, eating, etc.) which is then linked to
other parts of the complex, such as S2, S3, and the infamous S4 (Site 4). Supposedly, S3 and S4 are the only sections related to aliens, with S1 and
S2 being related to the testing of derived technology, and contracting with Lockheed, Boeing, etc. for use of the facility when testing experimental
planes. S3 is rumored to contain the bodies, as well as the last EBE "guest", whereas S4 is where the reverse engineering takes place.
It's said that some of these scientists came here back when the base was first operational, and haven't left the base ever, since. While that
sounds far-fetched, I then thought, that if I was working on a genuine UFO every day...I could deal with not leaving too...
Oddly enough, I've been to an underground research base before (not an alien-related one of course, this was for avionics), and the ID-4 depiction,
was pretty damned close to the appearance of it... It's likely pretty accurate as to what you'd see under Area 51 and environs....
[Edited on 6-11-2003 by Gazrok]