UFO Hunters Meet at This Mysterious Mailbox Located Outside Area 51

Samantha Franco
Photo Credit: Barry King / WireImage / Getty Images and Craig Mirkin / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 and welcomia / Canva
Photo Credit: Barry King / WireImage / Getty Images and Craig Mirkin / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 and welcomia / Canva

Located far into the Nevada desert is a lone mailbox that’s become the perfect gathering spot for those searching for extraterrestrial life. Is it a landmark for alien lifeforms? Is it a means to communicate with extraterrestrial beings? Or is it just a plain old mailbox? Whatever it is, it certainly gets more visitors than the average postal box.

The weather-worn mailbox is a gathering point for UFO enthusiasts

A mailbox containing two boxes atop one another, covered in stickers in the desert.
The Area 51 Black Mailbox, which is neither black nor the Area 51 mailbox. It is located near Rachel, Nevada on Route 375. (Photo Credit: Craig Mirkin / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

The mailbox belongs to a rancher named Steve Medlin, who’s lived in the area for decades. Over the years, Medlin has had to deal with alien enthusiasts stealing his mail, vandalizing the mailbox, and sending letter after letter trying to reach extraterrestrial beings. This last activity has caused Medlin to add a second smaller box, addressed to “Alien.”

The Black Mailbox has been replaced several times and the current model is made out of bullet-proof metal and locked with a huge padlock. However, despite many efforts to keep the extraterrestrial-obsessed from getting into or damaging the box, little has been done to prevent them from congregating there. “It’s becoming this mecca,” a Las Vegas man said while he was visiting the Black Mailbox.

The mailbox is directly linked to Area 51 (so they say)

A highway sign in a desert, reading "Extraterrestrial Highway"
A photo of the Extraterrestrial Highway, Highway 375, located in Rachel, Nevada. It is the home of numerous UFO sightings and is located close to Area 51. (Photo Credit: MyLoupe / UIG / Getty Images)

The Black Mailbox is located between the Alamo and Rachel along the edge of the Nevada State Route 375 highway, which is also known as the “Extraterrestrial Highway.” It attracts UFO enthusiasts from all over due to its proximity to the secret US Air Force military installation known as Area 51.

Bob Lazar, the self-proclaimed physicist who claimed to work at Area 51 and was a whistleblower who exposed the work done by the US to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology, claimed to have taken guests to the Black Mailbox to catch scheduled UFO sightings. Rumors of Lazar’s connection to the box immediately made it a popular destination among believers.

However, Medlin says that he has never seen any kind of UFOs in the area. All he has witnessed is regular US military air traffic coming and going from the military base. Regardless, people come to see the box and even camp out for days hoping to see UFO activity.

Alien balloons or spy balloons?

A spy balloon in the sky.
A Chinese spy balloon flies above in Charlotte NC, United States on February 04, 2023. The Pentagon announced earlier that it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon above the continental US. (Photo Credit: Peter Zay / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

Recently, there has been an increased interest in UFO sightings due to the appearance of several balloons being shot down over the US and Canada. The first one spotted was initially reported to have been a Chinese spy balloon, but with several more appearing after this, some spectators aren’t too sure they can all be attributed to earthly spy efforts. Some believe they are clear indicators of alien activity, while others believe they are simply plastic bags caught in the wind.

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In fact, many UFO sightings reported these days are coming from the US military itself. Of the 350 UFO sightings recorded by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence over the past two years, pilots of the Navy and Air Force have reported the most of them. While on duty, these pilots are spotting more and more strange devices flying above the US.