We drove down the so-called Extraterrestrial Highway last summer. I came to realize that Area 51 is a good 30 miles from any highways and the only access to the whole complex is along guarded roads that probably have locked gates on them in more than one location. So the logistics of 200,000 people getting into Area 51 is not very easy to imagine. If there was anything there to protect then the guards of those secrets would have a fairly large amount of time to increase security or move things away. So I don’t imagine this could possibly lead to anything other than a bunch of confused city people trying to navigate their way around endless unmarked gravel roads in broiling dusty salt flats. I would love to have the tire repair franchise at the little town at the end of the ET Highway.
I would also imagine that if there is anything there it would be deep underground behind blast doors that can take a direct hit from a nuclear bomb. The surface is probably just barracks and hangars for conventional aircraft.
Maybe the government just wants everyone to believe that aliens are locked up in Area 51.
While the conspiracy theorists wander in circles there, maybe all this time, the aliens have been locked up somewhere else. ;-)
Mix in plenty of South Americans, and they’ll give you free room and board as well as medical care while you are in there.