Area 51, a top-secret military installation hidden in the desert northwest of Las Vegas, has been shrouded in mystery since 1955. Now, aerospace historian Peter Merlin cuts through the myths and conspiracy folklore to reveal in extraordinary detail the true story of how a ramshackle temporary outpost was ultimately transformed into one of the nation's premier flight test and evaluation facilities for advanced aviation technology and high-tech weapons.

Other books focus on the early years of the Groom Lake test site (circa 1955 to 1969); Dreamland covers that period in greater detail and also continues the story well into the modern era.

This compelling narrative is based on a treasure trove of declassified documents and interviews and is richly illustrated with more than 700 images, many never published before.

Along with collecting declassified government documents, interviews, photos, and other material, the author developed extensive contacts in libraries and archives, submitted numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, conducted oral-history interviews with veterans, and discovered a surprising amount of material that was never classified in the first place.

Author Peter Merlin has appeared in more than a dozen film and television documentaries for the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and others. This manuscript was produced to the same rigorous academic standard as the author's works published by NASA and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.