Spacemen Land at Vegas Airport

Conspiracy theorists, secret agents and space abductees, take note: Soon you won’t need to drive far out into the desert to reach the mysterious Area 51.

The super-secret Air Force base cum cultural lightning rod for all things alien has inspired a themed shopping experience in Las Vegas’ new $300-million airport terminal, which opens June 15. Shoppers will be able to browse under hovering spacecraft among “Star Trek” videos and glowing jewelry as lifelike space creatures peer over their shoulders.

The real Area 51, 100 miles north of Las Vegas, attracts UFO buffs worldwide. Aficionados of unexplained phenomena take state Route 375--Nevada’s official “Extraterrestrial Highway”--to reach the parched outpost of Rachel. They gather there at the Little A’Le’Inn tavern and motel to watch lights moving in the night sky. Key scenes of “Independence Day” were set there.

McCarran International Airport’s Area 51 is in the east wing of the spacious new terminal with the unglamorous name D Gates--no, not after the former L.A. police chief, but because the A, B and C gates were there first. This Area 51 will be within the Nevada Desert shopping zone, sprawling between a bank of slot machines and the duty-free shops.

Kathy Hussey, an executive of airport concessionaire W.H. Smith Inc., said she had been pondering possible shopping themes for the new terminal when she happened upon an air show at Nellis AFB. There she saw the light: Actually, she spotted merchants from Rachel selling Area 51 merchandise. She hurried back to the office to contact vendors.

“There is so much alien stuff out there,” she said as construction workers hauled an ungainly model flying saucer through the unfinished terminal toward the future store. She plans to sell educational space videos, alien-infested lava lamps and copies of the definitive reference work, “Area 51 Viewer’s Guide” by Glenn Campbell, a researcher who has done a lot to make the shadowy place a cultural icon in recent years.

Meanwhile, longtime Las Vegas writer-editor Jim Barrows said he has heard word of another even more mysterious base out in the desert: Area 58.

“Just mention Area 58 now and people go ballistic,” he said.