Friday, May 09, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CORRECTION (5/10/03): The map with this story included an error. The community at the junction of U.S. Highway 93 and state routes 381 and 375 is Crystal Springs.

Fun no alien to Rachel

Residents of community near Area 51 ready to launch celebration of town's 25 years of existence

Five-month-old tourist Aden Kenneth Jim and his grandmother, Andrea Etsitty, play with a group of toy aliens Thursday at the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, which is celebrating its 25th birthday this weekend. Photo by John Gurzinski/REVIEW-JOURNAL. Fay Day, left, widow of D.C. Day, the man considered the founder of Rachel, runs the only convenience store and gas station in the town. Here, she talks with Kaye Medlin, local Chamber of Commerce president, about this weekend's 25th anniversary festivities. Photo by John Gurzinski/REVIEW-JOURNAL. Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

RACHEL -- Alfalfa fields and rumors of aliens are about all this town has, aside from a single gas station, a church with no minister and what locals say is a proud heritage worth celebrating every year with a huge parade.

This year, the big party is set to start Saturday morning.

Fewer than 100 people live in Rachel, which sits along the Extraterrestrial Highway, not far from the super-secret government facilities at Area 51.

It's rumored that the government has kept extraterrestrial craft and alien bodies hidden at Area 51, though not everyone here believes it.

Most, if not all, of the people who live here plan on gathering this weekend to celebrate Rachel's official 25th birthday party, called Rachel Days.

"Really, it's just to have fun and get everybody together," said Kaye Medlin, the local Chamber of Commerce president.

Back in the 1970s, when the town was little more than a place for folks who worked at the nearby Tempiute mine to park their trailers, it didn't really have an appealing name.

Tempiute Village, it was called for a while. Sometimes it was called Sand Springs because it sits in the Sand Springs Valley, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

But some residents weren't satisfied with those names, and they sought a new one. Then, early in 1978, Rachel Jones was born in her family's trailer here. She is still the only child to have been born here.

And so the town was renamed Rachel.

Since then, locals have been gathering each spring to celebrate their home. They parade down the highway and through town to D.C. Day Park, named after the man considered the town's founder.

This year, because it is Rachel's 25th birthday, organizers hope for a big turnout. The parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday and will be followed by festivities at the park, including a barbecue, crafts and a battle of the bands.

Fay Day, 78, the widow of D.C. Day, recalled Thursday how there was virtually nothing in town back when she and her husband arrived in the 1960s.

"There was nobody here but us," she said while working the counter at the gas station and convenience store she runs.

By the late ¹70s, however, the town had power and telephone service, the local mobile home park was full, and there was even a bar and grill. The population ran somewhere between 200 and 300 at the time.

But the mine soon closed, and scores of people left. Rachel Jones, the town's namesake, had moved to Washington state, where she died in 1980. The locals erected a memorial to her.

Rachel, the town, would not simply fade away, however. Townsfolk latched on to a phenomena that has kept people from around the world interested in it.

Aliens.

"Rachel's more famous in Europe than in the United States," said Devin Loving, who moved to Rachel about a year ago after some time in Southern California and Las Vegas. "In Japan, it's practically a cult."

A peek at the guest sign-in book in Day's convenience store backs that up. Dozens of tourists from near and far have stopped by.

Over at what might be the most famous place in town, the Little A'Le'Inn, a bar and grill, motel and gift shop, Chuck Clark is the resident Area 51 expert. He wrote a book about it, and he can be found at the bar most days chatting about aliens, alternate dimensions and time travel.

Clark moved to Rachel about nine years ago, he said, partly because he likes to take pictures of the sky at night, and it's really dark in Rachel at night.

But he also left California for Rachel because of the alien connection, he said.

"I figured I'd kill a couple of birds with one stone," said Clark, who then told a story about how, when he was 11 years old, he and a group of friends saw a formation of unidentified flying aircraft hovering in the sky in the California desert.

"There was never a word on the news or in the papers," he said.

"That got me interested. Definitely."