"It has also been revealed that an unusual facility within Dugway may house experimental craft, possibly of alien origin. . . . (In the past) convoy trucks had been seen entering the hangar with their cargo covered by tarpaulins. One truck was seen which was carrying something oval or circular in shape and being about 30 feet wide. The truck was accompanied by five men. Could this have been a flying disc-shaped craft? Three concentric fences were later built around the hangar."

Dave Rosenfeld, president of Utah UFO Hunters, has an Internet page devoted to tracking strange goings-on at Dugway, including "alien presence." The page is at www.aliendave.com/UUFOH_DugwayProvingGrounds.html.

"Numerous UFOs have been seen and reported in the area in and around Dugway," Rosenfeld, who goes by the nickname "Alien Dave," said in e-mail to the Deseret Morning News. Most of the disks, black triangles, orange spheres, flying wings and manta ray-shaped objects must be secret military aircraft, he thinks.

But Rosenfeld added that military aircraft can't account for "all the unknowns seen in the area. It might be that our star visitors are keeping an eye on Dugway too!"

He considers Dugway "the new area 51. And probably the new military spaceport."

Responding to a question, he wrote, "Yes, we have been watching Dugway and the UTTR (the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range), we have seen some very interesting things out there."

Dugway, located in Utah's western desert and larger than the land area of Rhode Island, is where military experts develop defenses against biological and chemical attacks. Its recently announced expansion project includes plans for anti-terrorism training facilities.

The proving ground does not develop offensive chemical and biological weapons, but in past decades, before a ban on such arms, it experimented with them.

The earlier testing left contamination on land adjacent to the base, according to reports obtained by the Deseret Morning News.

A few years ago, Utahns descended from Jesse F. Cannon, original owner of the land, sued to force the government to either clean up their private property or buy it. They lost in August 2003, when the U.S. 10th District Court of Appeals ruled against them on a jurisdictional technicality.

Still, said Judge Bobby R. Baldock, the government had been an "abysmal failure" in cleaning up over the past half-century.

Should the government feel pressured to clean up the land, it may find it easier or cheaper to acquire and fence it.

During Project Sphinx, which started in the 1950s, the Army leased the Cannon land and used "to bomb the hell out of it," said Louise Cannon, Salt Lake City, one of the plaintiffs. The family's land on Dugway Mountain has old mines and "they used to try and see how lethal gasses moved through the tunnels.