Downtown Camp Hero, Part 1 Montauk, New York -

If you have been reading my blog for years you may recall a lengthy post on one of the most fascinating locations for exploration in the country: Camp Hero on the tip of Long Island. I recently discovered that the images from that lengthy post were all inexplicably gone–broken–when I checked in on it before this recent return, prompting me to dig up the images to fix the post. After, as I began googling Camp Hero again, several of my related posts were viewed immediately. The discovery and timing of this activity just kind of creeped me out.

And therein lies the draw. The place just oozes that creepiness–the inexplicable kind that you’ll likely never put your finger on. But you can walk about it as it sits decaying, just like the hope for the government to fully disclose its history. After all, it was an army base constructed to deceive–every structure in its “Downtown” intended to resemble the parts of an innocuous fishing village. But inside and underneath: a sophisticated arsenal of long range weapons, disguised bunkers, barracks, training facilities, a tunnel system, ammunition stockpiles, and possibly a nuclear reactor and even more secret structures–confirmed by geologists–that did not appear on maps.

A believer that conspiracy theories often serve to further challenge access to guarded truths, I know I will never know what happened at Camp Hero. But the lure, the secrecy, has allowed many theories to churn deeply, including the ones related to the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. In fact, Montauk was once a working name of the the series! And there is the radar right on the cover of the pitch book (below).

Though all of this has revived interest in Camp Hero State Park, there was no one around during our visit. Despite several previous visits, this would be the first time I explored the “downtown” though clearly identified on the park map for years…