Every military base is a little mysterious. After all, unless you're a member of the armed forces with access to the facility, you can't just walk in. But civilians can get clearance to enter most U.S. military bases, granted that they clear a few security checkpoints and they have a reason to be there. That's not true everywhere, though. Some U.S. military facilities are essentially inaccessible to anyone but the military personnel and contractors who work there. A few locations are so secret, the government is hesitant to admit they even exist. And with that level of security, questions are sure to follow. What secrets to they contain? These are the most mysterious military facilities in the U.S.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00You can't simply walk into American military bases any time you please. Their tendency
00:05toward secrecy thus leads to plenty of curiosity on the public's part. So when it comes to
00:10U.S. military facilities, there are still some pretty mysterious ones out there, even
00:14today.
00:15From the outside, Frederick, Maryland's Fort Detrick may look like a pretty standard military
00:19installation. It has a sprawling campus that hosts one of the United States military's
00:23most terrifying and secret initiatives, biological weapons. It all started around 1950. That's
00:29when the U.S. Army determined that Fort Detrick, a mere 50 miles or so from Washington, D.C.,
00:33would be the best place where the military would begin developing and testing biological
00:37weapons.
00:38At the time, it was kept top secret as scientists created various bioweapons. The program was
00:43retired in 1969 and replaced by a bioweapons defense program, which is still active today.
00:49Fort Detrick was also the central base for the CIA program known as MK-ULTRA, in which
00:54sometimes unwitting test subjects were given LSD and other mind-altering drugs in an attempt
00:59to develop mind-control tactics. That program remains mysterious today, in large part because
01:04many of the documents related to it were destroyed in the 70s. Fort Detrick is now home to a
01:09state-of-the-art facility meant to contain all of that potentially deadly research material.
01:15The origins of operations at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex are so notoriously particular
01:20that it's become a standard for hush-hush military installations. Located near Colorado
01:24Springs, Colorado, it's understandable why so much of the facility's operations have
01:28been kept quiet over the years, considering its history.
01:32As reported by Wired, the true heyday of the complex came shortly after its completion
01:36in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. The complex is buried deep into the side of
01:41its namesake mountain, and with its network of tunnels and life support systems, it provided
01:45an attractive bunker in the event of a nearby nuclear attack. The shielding provided by
01:50granite does much of the work, along with earthquake-resistant architecture and plenty
01:54of shielding for all the electronics.
01:56Though reporters are occasionally invited inside for a limited tour of the facilities,
02:00much of what goes on inside Cheyenne Mountain Complex is still shrouded in secrecy. It needs
02:05to be, as it once housed operations for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and
02:09other monitoring and defense networks. The complex is now a backup command and training
02:14center, though many wonder if such an extensive and heavily shielded facility is really being
02:18allowed to sit more or less dormant in a tumultuous world.
02:22The base itself is a wonder of technology and engineering.
02:26One of the most notorious military bases of all time, the installation known as Area 51
02:30remains locked down. In part, that's because it's located in the remote Nevada desert,
02:35but officials have also gone to great lengths to remain mum about it. It's been such a big
02:39secret that the U.S. government didn't even acknowledge its existence until 2013. Many
02:44speculate that this is because Area 51, officially known as Groom Lake, is all about espionage.
02:49If you were a government official who managed a program meant to monitor Soviet activity
02:53during the Cold War, you probably wouldn't publicize your work.
02:57The secrecy has led to some pretty wild conspiracy theories over the years. Some of the more
03:01mundane ones speculate that Area 51 is a top-secret testing ground for espionage equipment and
03:06high-tech aircraft. Meanwhile, the more out-there theories maintain that it's not just spy planes
03:11at Groom Lake, but instead extraterrestrial craft, perhaps even complete with alien pilots.
03:17But with security contractors patrolling the perimeter and access to the site highly restricted,
03:21no one on the outside knows for sure.
03:23So now the government has admitted Area 51 exists, but that is about all.
03:29As far as mysterious military installations go, it makes sense that any place dealing
03:33with high-tech intelligence and surveillance would be pretty locked down. After high-profile
03:38leaks from former contractors and military employees like Edward Snowden and Chelsea
03:42Manning, you can be certain that security measures around these places are at a high
03:45level.
03:46And that's precisely why some intelligence facilities are so compelling to those of us
03:50on the outside. Take the Utah Data Center, operated by the National Security Administration.
03:56As reported by The Atlantic, many have wondered why it would be located in Utah, though the
04:00state certainly has plenty of remote areas and a distinct lack of natural disasters.
04:05Local communities have also given the NSA a sweet deal on water rights and other infrastructure
04:09needs. So what exactly is happening at this NSA data center?
04:13All anyone seems to feel confident about is that it likely stores massive amounts of data
04:18collected via any number of undisclosed methods. As reported by NPR, many people assume that
04:23quite a lot of that data is harvested directly from American citizens and their communications.
04:28While administrators have plainly stated that they don't hold such data and instead focus
04:32on foreign targets, the lack of detail has been met with plenty of skepticism.
04:37The nature of a top-secret military bunker is that it must be kept, well, secret. It
04:42may seem like a fun mystery to people on the outside, but the very nature of such an installation
04:46means that people in the know absolutely must keep their mouths shut. That's a big reason
04:51why people are so interested in Virginia's Mount Weather, a highly secretive military
04:55installation about an hour from Washington, D.C.
04:57In part, that's because Mount Weather is a bit of an open secret. It may have been a
05:02bit more concealed in the previous years, but the events of September 11, 2001 led to
05:06a visible flood of government officials and their vehicles into the area. Reports from
05:10over the years hint at a sprawling, well-supplied complex, complete with an independent electrical
05:15system and a helipad. There's speculation that Mount Weather is just one of a series
05:19of similar sites, but that's just about all civilians seem to know about the place. The
05:24perimeter is heavily controlled, and anyone who attempts to breach the fence would likely
05:28be met with serious resistance.
05:31Some of the most mysterious U.S. military bases and facilities are actually located
05:34in overseas territories and small landholdings. Atop amongst those is a base located on a
05:39small atoll that's part of the Chagas Islands in the Indian Ocean. The base in question,
05:44Diego Garcia, exists in part because of a unique agreement between the United States
05:48and the United Kingdom. In 1965, the U.S. agreed to lease the atoll from the British
05:53to create a base, but the arrangement was kept strictly secret. While other nearby nations
05:58gained independence from the British Empire, the agreement basically meant that the Chagas
06:02Islands are still under the thumb of colonial British powers, and the people who inhabited
06:06the islands were kicked off to make way for the Americans and their secretive facility.
06:11Though the agreement is now out in the open, the exact operations of Diego Garcia remain
06:15murky. Part of that's due to the pure physical distance of the place from anywhere else.
06:20But as reported by CNN, the British government has admitted that the CIA has flown in detainees,
06:26leading some people to wonder if the remote nature of the base has allowed it to become
06:29an alarmingly secretive version of Guantanamo Bay.
06:34The Alaska-based HARP, which stands for High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is ostensibly
06:39a government-run research effort to study our planet's upper atmosphere. But as reported
06:44by NBC, some people have speculated that it's actually to create or manage weather-based
06:48weapons systems that can cause massive storms and deadly earthquakes.
06:52I've read some theories that HARP can be used to manipulate the weather. Is this possible?
06:57However, none of these conspiracy theorists have come up with a good explanation for how
07:01a weather station located in Alaska could be responsible for something like earthquakes
07:05in Haiti.
07:07Though the military claimed it was only undertaking the project because it was largely interested
07:11in how radio signals traveled through the atmosphere, its remote nature and military
07:15security has led to plenty of suspicion. Even now that HARP has been transferred from the
07:19U.S. Air Force to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, some still cast a wary eye at this
07:24remote facility.
07:26In another context, Raven Rock Mountain Complex sounds like it could be the title of a pretty
07:30groovy prog-rock album. But the reality of Raven Rock is far more locked down and potentially
07:35sinister. Reports strongly indicate that much of Raven Rock Mountain Complex is underground.
07:41According to Atlas Obscura, the site also goes by the moniker Site R, the Alternate
07:45Joint Communications Center, and, more colloquially, the Underground Pentagon.
07:50As you may very well guess at this point, Raven Rock is yet another extensive government
07:54bunker that was created during the Cold War, as American officials fretted over the threats
07:58of nuclear annihilation. Located in Fairfield, Pennsylvania, it appears to be the retreat
08:03site for Pentagon personnel.
08:04I don't know whether it's true or not. There's supposed to be some kind of an underground
08:09thing like from Virginia all the way up where they could drive up if they wanted to.
08:13Though the site's construction was covered by local press during the 50s, it remains
08:17covered by a veil of secrecy to this day. Military representatives may send over unclassified
08:23information to reporters, but what about the classified material? No one but a small group
08:28of workers there knows exactly what is in the bunker. Though, as Wired notes, perhaps
08:32it's high time that we discarded the idea of bunkers anyway, as a modern warhead with
08:37a coordinates to a known site like Raven Rock could easily destroy the complex.
08:42If you ever find yourself in a gathering of UFO enthusiasts, you could certainly mention
08:46your interest in Area 51. But if you really want to make an impression, you should start
08:49asking about Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
08:52Located in the rather unassuming city of Dayton, Ohio, Wright-Patterson has long been the subject
08:57of mystery and conspiracy theories. And some of those theories are actually linked to verifiable
09:01facts. As reported by the Dayton Daily News, Wright-Patterson was the host site for Project
09:06Blue Book, the government investigation intended to look into UFOs that officially ended in
09:112009. There's even a series of murals on base painted by German POWs that include green
09:16goblin-esque creatures, and some people have interpreted to mean that the Germans somehow
09:21witnessed little green men from outer space.
09:24Central to many theories is the possibly real, possibly mythical Hangar 18 somewhere on the
09:28base. Some of the bolder theories contend that Hangar 18 houses debris from extraterrestrial
09:33craft and maybe even the non-human pilots themselves, which may be linked to the 1947
09:38crash on Roswell, New Mexico. However, the Air Force has repeatedly denied these claims,
09:43saying that there has never been a Hangar 18, though there is a Building 18 on base.
09:48Furthermore, nobody's come forth with definitive proof for any of these claims.
09:52While some people may think that they could potentially visit some of these facilities
09:56and at least survive their experience, some military facilities are off-limits for very
10:00good reasons. It's one thing to lark about just outside the gates of Area 51, but it's
10:05something else entirely to visit another base and get a bad case of anthrax.
10:10Located in a remote section of Utah, Dugway Proving Ground is run by the U.S. military
10:14with the intent to test chemical and biological weapons. Understandably, then, access to the
10:19site is strictly controlled. In addition to the extensive laboratories on site, there
10:23are also training grounds, including a series of linked shipping containers that may have
10:27been modified to appear like cramped cave environments.
10:30Though little is known about the exact nature of testing at Dugway, there have been multiple
10:34incidents that have marked this facility's past. According to Smithsonian Magazine,
10:38around 6,000 sheep in the area were killed in March 1968. They were done in by a jet
10:44spraying nerve gas at too high an altitude. The gas dispersed beyond the grounds and coated
10:49grass that was later consumed by the sheep.
10:52More recently, a lab at Dugway inadvertently shipped live samples of anthrax across the
10:56country, which, naturally enough, raised considerable alarm.