Page 36 - 200808 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August 2008

36 From The ‘X’ Zone Newsroom From The ‘X’ Zone Newsroom 36 In the Nevada desert, In the Nevada desert, there's something out there's something out there – a Black Mailbox there – a Black Mailbox The men park near the mailbox and a bullet-dinged stop sign, and open their doors to silence. The box is made of quarter-inch-thick bulletproof metal, and its door is clamped shut with a Master Lock. Its owner, say the black letters printed on its side, is STEVE MEDLIN, HC 61, BOX 80. Visitors have added bumper stickers and their own musings: "Trust no one." "I am the last alien." "It's become this mecca," says a Las Vegas man who's admiring the weathered box. He wears a Johnnie Walker RVs ball cap and declines to give his name. "That's probably the most photographed mailbox in the world," Arnold says, his gruff voice tinged with awe. The owners of the mailbox, Steve and and is labeled ALIEN and DROP BOX; some Minutes pass; the sky watchers never Glenda Medlin, moved in 1973 to a cattle ranch people slide in dollar bills. lower their gazes. in Tikaboo Valley, about 80 miles north of Las Despite years passing, the Black Spidell: "It's a big sky, big universe." Vegas. There was no talk of aliens, and no home Mailbox remains an enigma, puzzled over on Arnold: "It would be naive to think mail delivery. Internet message boards: we're the only ones." A few years later, a local tungsten quarry 6/27/03: the farmer painted it white in Spidell: "I'd like to know the games reopened. Some miners moved to a trailer park hopes that people would stop being fascinated they're playing with us. The abductions and all." near the Medlins; it grew into the town of with this mysterious black mailbox in the middle They continue the UFO chatter. Rachel. Postal carriers began delivery, and the of nowhere "After I see one, I always check my couple put up a common black rural mailbox 5/3/05: Steve Medlin has a government clock," Spidell says. about six miles from their home, near Highway contract to provide cattle for the space aliens to Pause. 375. mutilate "In case I've been abducted." In 1989, according to a history of 2/25/08: Can anybody give me any info That way, she says, she could figure out Rachel, a man named Bob Lazar told a Las on the rancher. . . . I know his mailbox is famous afterward how long she'd been missing. Vegas television station that he had worked with and his cattle look strange. . . . I bet he has The others nod in understanding. alien spacecraft at nearby Nellis Air Force stories. The pauses lengthen. Two hours crawl Range. He and his buddies, Lazar claimed, also The sun disappears, and the surrounding by. It's so dark now the mailbox seems like a watched saucer test flights in Tikaboo Valley. Groom, Timpahute and Pahranagat mountains mirage. There's a glow emanating from behind So many tourists soon descended on blacken. Stars peek through clouds. It's 52 the mountains, but the group decides it's merely Rachel -- on the edge of the valley -- that the degrees -- unseasonably cold for spring -- and the Las Vegas Strip. Rachel Bar & Grill was renamed the Little Arnold and the other sky watchers are shivering Crosby clutches a half-filled Coors, A'Le'Inn. People would down Alien Burgers through lined gloves and wool ponchos. They quietly surveying the night. A friend wanders and beer there before making their way to the pace near the mailbox, one of the few things off, and his flashlight occasionally blinks, mailbox, the only landmark in Tikaboo Valley. visible in the dark. jarring the group. The mailbox acquired a cult-like following. They clutch digital cameras and night- "We're not counting on seeing "For some reason, Tuesday nights was vision binoculars that tint everything green. anything," Crosby finally says. when they thought the aliens came out. Then it They tilt back their heads, training their lenses Wait. was Wednesdays," Glenda Medlin says with on the sky. Someone clicks on a scanner, but it There's a light in the sky. A fast-moving notable disdain. UFO tourists left messages in broadcasts only silence. Becky Spidell, 60, and light. the mailbox for the aliens -- on business cards, her husband join the group, which passes time The group debates in hushed tones: Is it napkins and notebook scraps. "They were trading stories that, back home, are usually a shooting star? A spaceship? waiting for the aliens to abduct them, and they pooh-poohed. They train their binoculars on it, hoping. were anxious to meet them. . . . We'd just shake "My mother was a UFO person. We had "Probably a commercial jet," someone our heads," says Medlin, who long ago stopped a big telescope in the living room," says Spidell, concludes. reading the notes. "It was so asinine." who runs a mobile home park in Phoenix. "I Crosby slumps. Some people opened the couple's mail, was so embarrassed -- I wouldn't bring friends "Well," he says, "I can say I was here." hoping to intercept classified correspondence. over." After Crosby's friend returns, the group Some camped at the mailbox -- for weeks. A But three years ago, after seeing the disbands -- it's too frigid to camp until dawn. few shot the mailbox, leaving holes in the Little A'Le'Inn on television, Spidell and her They start their cars and warm their fingers, the Medlins' bills and junk mail. That was too much husband headed to Tikaboo Valley in early mailbox flickering in their headlights. They for the ranchers. summer. She said that she peered out her car drive away, united in their certainty that the sky Medlin doesn't remember when her window and glimpsed three orange UFOs, is hiding something. [] husband swapped the black mailbox for the followed by a giant saucer. larger white bulletproof one, but an online "We watched it for a little bit," she says, posting pegs the date as March 27, 1996. The "and then it went over the mountain and it next month, the state baptized Highway 375 as glowed for two or three minutes. It landed at the Extraterrestrial Highway, making headlines Area 51." The Spidells have returned every year internationally. since. Steve Medlin attached a second box "My youngest daughter thinks I'm nuts," solely for the alien-seekers: It has a mail slot she says. "I think this is the mother's curse."