Beneath the Shadows of the Radar: the Secrets of Camp Hero

When thinking about suspicious military facilities, our first thought is normally Area 51, the worldwide famous Air Force installation in Nevada, United States. But among other lesser known bases, one of them is quite mysterious on its own, with rumors of time travelling, brainwashing and alien contact. Welcome to Camp Hero.

Located in Montauk Point, at the tip of Long Island-NY, Camp Hero Park was once an Air Force Station, now abandoned and transformed into a state park for historical preservation. With its 415 acres of beautiful forests, beaches and wetlands,it is difficult to imagine that it has a darker and peculiar past. Created in 1792 and named after Major General Andrew Hero Jr., Fort Hero became an important military base due to its location between two major American cities: New York and Boston. During World War II it was upgraded and renamed Camp Hero, receiving docks, hangars and even a torpedo testing facility. The base was also disguised as a harmless village --even a church was built to accommodate the gymnasium-- to avoid being recognized and attacked by the German Navy.

At the end of the war, Camp Hero was shut down and used as training ground for soldiers, only to be reopened along with a surveillance station to locate potential soviet air attacks. The massive SAGE radar was built in 1958, and is currently the only one still in existence. After the ground artillery portion of the base was closed in 1957, it continued serving as a surveillance station until deemed obsolete and shut down in 1981. But at the time, rumors were starting to cross Long Island about the strange things seen near Camp Hero.

The huge SAGE radar rotated every 12 seconds, and was reported to frighten animals, cause nightmares and break electronic objects. Some people believed that the microwaves emitted by the surveillance base could control minds, and used tinfoil hats to protect themselves. Even after being shut down, in 2009 local residents reported to authorities to have reportedly seen the radar plate rotate northeast after pointing to northwest since 1996. A few days later, it seemingly moved again to southwest, causing a lot of speculation about the facility being still active.

But that, as some say, is just the tip of the iceberg. In 1992, electric engineer Preston Nichols published a book called "The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time", describing some of the supposedly illegal activities done in Camp Hero during the Cold War. Nichols claimed having recovered some memories that were supposedly blocked after working in research projects at the Army base, called the Project Montauk. There was speculation involving psychological weapons such as brain controlling along with research about time travelling. Alfred Bielek, allegedly another survivor, seemingly traveled through time and reached a confidential testing site in 1983.

a supposedly close up of Junior

It was rumored that the US Army hired Nazi scientists after WWII to work secretly with the creation of mind controlled super soldiers and other kinds of experiments, like the MK-Ultra project and the Philadelphia Experiment. In Long Island, Stewart Swerdlow claimed to have been kidnapped along with other young boys and trained to be a super spy. The soldiers were called "the Montauk boys" and supposedly had their consciousness tapped by scientists. Reportedly, one of the boys was said to have accidentally caused a hole in the space-time tissue, resulting in a fourth-dimensional creature named "Junior".

Another man, going by the name of Larry James, is quoted as saying that he headed the Montauk Project's Time Control program during the late 70s. Along with him, Preston Nichols confirms that time travelling was studied, among other phenomena. The Montauk Project is also said to have possessed a piece of alien technology called "the Montauk Chair" and alien beings that were kept in rooms beneath the ground. Nichols says, “We had the little grays and larger grays as well as a variety of reptilian beings. The large grays didn’t want anything to do with me...when I entered a room, they would leave”. He also points toward the countless manholes scattered through the park, now sealed, saying that there's an enormous underground base and tunnel section beneath the facilities.

In a forum about investigations of the Montauk Project, a man claims to have entered through one of the manholes that was easier to be unsealed. Allegedly, the tunnels were flooded, sometimes with water to the neck. Here's a transcript of a piece of the description:
"We traversed a series of tunnels. I took a bunch of pictures, but unfortunately I got my camera wet and wasn’t able to get them back. The thing about the whole experience that stood out most in my mind was the crazy noises and the really strange energy/noise pulse that emanated through the tunnel. It was like a 'wuh wuh wuh' noise and you could actually feel the pulse in your body."

Besides these stories, there were some testimonials about strange creatures seen near Camp Hero. Aliens, mutants, reptilian creatures, ghosts and even Junior himself were apparently sighted, and in 2008 a discovery refueled the discussions about the mysteries of this place. An odd creature was found dead in the shore, with a body resembling a racoon and a strange beak, and was named "the Montauk Monster". Some believe it was the result of experiments made in the military base or in Plum Island, located near the place. But as most things regarding Camp Hero, it remains a mystery.

Even if it's not as famous as other urban myths, the events of Camp Hero and Project Montauk still inspire debates and questions to a lot of people, even inspiring the Netflix produced series Stranger Things. It has also been documented in the movie "Montauk Chronicles" (2015) and the TV show "The Dark Files" produced by History Channel. All in all, the park can still be visited and is a nice place if you like the mix between nature and historical, abandoned buildings. I just wouldn't recommend going at night. Who knows what --or who-- you might encounter wandering through the trees...