https://www.wired.com/story/the-area-51-raid-was-the-worst-way-to-spot-an-alien-or-ufo/

Normally, when you turn onto Highway 375 from Crystal Springs, in Nevada, a big green road sign sits near picnic tables and shade trees baking under the relentless desert sun. EXTRATERRESTRIAL HIGHWAY, the sign reads, in a retro-futuristic font suggestive of a space computer. This road was so named—around the time Independence Day came out—because it’s the stretch of asphalt closest to Area 51. Many a curious visitor have traveled its miles, watching for jet tests and drone forays, hoping to see something they might later boast was a UFO. For decades, some have thought the secretive base holds not just jets within its boundaries but also maybe aliens and their technology. This, of course, is conspiracy theory, based on not much but strange aerodynamic sightings and the word of a man named Bob Lazar. But the region kind of embraces its notoriety with a wink-wink and a nudge-nudge.

This week, though, the sign disappeared, removed in advance of the Storm Area 51 events taking place in the towns of Rachel and Hiko, Nevada. Officials were afraid that too many people would stop to pose for selfies, snarling the intersection. If the festivities so far, including Friday’s early-morning “attempt” to “breach” the base, are any indication, that is exactly the kind of trouble officials should have been worried about.