In the spring of 1995 Nevada State Assemblyman Roy Neighbors introduced a bill to rename the stretch of Nevada state route 375 that lies adjacent to the Nevada Test Site as "The Extraterrestrial Highway." The state legislature blessedly killed the bill as a waste of time and resources. Some time later Governor Bob Miller reintroduced the bill, but not to the legislature. He introduced the measure in a meeting of the State Transportation Board, which he happens to chair. The bill obviously passed.
Testimony for the bill was heard from Pat Travis, proprietor of the Lil-Ali-Inn and Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II a resident of Nevada who claims to be an alien. Shortly after the bill was passed, the governor flew to Los Angeles to make arrangements with 20th Century Fox to jointly market the Highway with their upcoming film Independence Day, which was partially set in Nevada but filmed in Utah and California. The governor never consulted or notified any officials or residents of Lincoln county, wherein the renamed portion of the highway rests.
Almost comically, the misnamed Area 51 Research Center, fought with local and state officials to delay the unveiling of the newly named highway on the basis of visitor safety. They felt that the lonely stretch of road's very proximity to the poorly marked boundary of the restricted Nevada Test Site represented a danger to curious tourists, as many people have reported loss of property and infringement of civil rights while being detained by the NTS security personnel. There was also some concern that the aliens and their unlicensed UFO's may represent some possible danger to unwary travelers.
The Area 51 Research Center never really seemed to grasp that the entire reason for renaming the highway was to draw tourist money on the thinly veiled suggestion that something was amiss on the NTS and that any adversity, whether from mysterious security personnel or rambunctious aliens, was just the sort of thing that sold the whole concept.
What everyone, including the governor, seemed to forget is that there is no Area 51, and the added numbers of slack-jawed sciencticians drawn to this seemingly official justification of the presence of Aliens, only makes the jobs of these security personnel that much harder.