Keep Out!: Top Secret Places Governments Don't Want You to Know About

The wild saga of the notorious underground base at Dulce, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, is as fantastic as it is terrifying. It is a tale filled with hard-to-define rumors, outrageous government deceit and disinformation, hostile extraterrestrials from beyond our solar system, and dark secrets of an alien nature emanating from within the black heart of mysterious subterranean caverns. (It is not an exaggeration to say it’s a saga that would have been worthy of an entire season of The X-Files, nevermind a single episode.) When one carefully peels away the distortions, the myths, and the lies surrounding this base, what remains just might be a nightmarish reality of otherworldly proportions.

A veritable army of evil alien intruders have, for decades, made their home within a vast, futuristic underworld deep below Archuleta Mesa — a huge peak that extends 9,078 feet above sea level in Rio Arriba County. Most ominous of all: the expected warning to Keep Out! extends not only to the general public and eagle-eyed UFO sleuths, but to the entire U.S. government as well. That’s right: the aliens have complete control of the base, and anyone who dares to trespass upon their dark abode, from the president down, will receive nothing less than swift and fatal justice — and they may even become the victims of unspeakable genetic experimentation too.

At least, that is the incredible legend that has come to be believed by whole swathes of the UFO research community. But sorting fact from fiction in this infinitely weird and convoluted affair is no easy task.

The Facts

The saga of the Dulce base began in the late 1970s with a physicist named Paul Bennewitz, who, after digging into Air Force and National Security Agency (NSA) secret projects at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, came to believe that those projects were connected to the activities of sinister extraterrestrials and UFOs. It became all too easy for Bennewitz to focus his attention on such operations: Rather conveniently — much to the concern of the Air Force — his company, Thunder Scientific Labs, actually bordered on the perimeter of Kirtland itself.

It seems, however, that what Bennewitz had really tapped into was a wealth of classified projects connected to (a) NSA communications systems, (b) test flights, and maybe even crashes, of early prototype Stealth aircraft, and (c) Air Force technologies designed to secretly track the movements of spy satellites launched into Earth orbit by the former Soviet Union.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. Intelligence community was far less worried by Bennewitz’s UFO beliefs than it was concerned about his digging into their actual secret programs. There was a very real concern on the part of officialdom that in seeking to penetrate the covert operations of Kirtland in search of UFOs, Bennewitz would inadvertently reveal to the Russians information and technology that had to be kept hidden at all costs — even if those costs were destined to include Bennewitz’s own sanity and health.

So, members of the Air Force broke into Bennewitz’s home while he was out, and carefully read his computer files and research notes. They learned the essential parts of his theories: that aliens were mutilating cattle as part of some weird medical experiment; that aliens were abducting American citizens and implanting them with bizarre devices for purposes disturbingly unknown; that aliens were living deep underground in a secure fortress at Dulce; and that the entire human race was very soon going to be in deep and dire trouble as a direct result of the presence of an intergalactic threat. Then, the Air Force gave Bennewitz precisely what he was looking for: conjured-up confirmation that his theories were all terrifyingly true.

Bennewitz was duly bombarded with a mass of alien-themed disinformation, faked official documents, fictitious stories of cosmic horror, rumors of nightmarish underground facilities, and outright lies. This was, basically, a carefully planned ruse. Its goal was to swamp Bennewitz with so much bogus UFO data that it would steer him away from the conventional, classified military projects of a strictly non-UFO nature that he had uncovered at Kirtland Air Force Base. It worked. In fact, it all worked rather too well, and it led to the catastrophic mental, psychological, and physical disintegration of the physicist.

When Bennewitz received confirmation (albeit carefully controlled and utterly fabricated confirmation) that he had stumbled upon the horrible truth and that there really was an alien base deep below Dulce where imprisoned people were being experimented on in horrific fashion by cold-hearted aliens, he became increasingly disturbed, paranoid, and unstable. But he began looking away from Kirtland (the hub of the genuine military secrets that had to be kept secure, no matter what) and towards the vicinity of Dulce, where his actions, research, and theories could be carefully controlled and coldly manipulated by government agents.

Researcher Greg Bishop, who has studied the Bennewitz/Dulce controversy very deeply, has been careful to stress one particularly important factor on this matter: The Air Force’s bone-chilling manipulation of Bennewitz doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of a real underground installation existing somewhere in the region of Dulce. Instead, it means only that we should be extremely careful with the way we analyze and interpret the story and all its many attendant controversies. The tale of the underground base at Dulce is most certainly one that many within the UFO research community wish to hear — after all, it is filled with excitement, alien intrigue, and outrageous, possibly even manifestly illegal government shenanigans. But does that mean the entire story of the underground alien installation at Dulce is bogus? Were the stories of the base simply born out of the fertile imaginations of government agents, as a means to destabilize and frighten Paul Bennewitz to the point where he gave up — or was forced to give up — his research at Kirtland? Many actually believe not. One of the prime reasons for that is simple: For decades, Dulce and its surrounding areas have been a hotbed of very strange activity.

On December 10, 1967, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) detonated a 29-kiloton-yield nuclear device 4,240 feet below ground level, in an attempt to provoke the release and also production of natural gas. Thus was born Gasbuggy, part of an overall project known as Operation Plowshare, which, ostensibly, was designed to explore the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Notably, the location of the Gasbuggy test — which covered an area of 640 acres — was New Mexico’s Carson National Forest, which just happens to be situated only 12 miles from the town of Dulce.

For nine years, gas-production tests and project evaluation activities were conducted; the AEC finally decommissioned and closed the site in 1978. Equipment and structures utilized in the operation were then duly decontaminated, taken apart, and moved to the ultra-secret Department of Energy’s (DoE) Nevada Test Site, which today is known as the Nevada National Security Site. Meanwhile, liquid-form, radioactive waste was dumped into the sizeable cavity that had been created by the nuclear blast, and test-wells were scrupulously sealed. Until 2002, diligent, periodic soil-sampling of the immediate area and its surroundings was undertaken by DoE personnel. And the Environmental Protection Agency has, since 1972, annually monitored water supplies in the area, specifically to ensure there has been no local contamination — which, we are assured with confidence, there has not been.

Rather interestingly, strict laws exist in the vicinity of the Gasbuggy explosion, specifically warning against any and all extensive underground digging. In fact, a plaque at the site makes it very clear that there must be no subsurface intrusion, whatsoever, within a radius of 600 feet from surface to ground zero to a vertical depth of between 1,500 and 4,500 feet without the specific permission of the U.S. government. Inevitably, and perhaps even understandably, this has led to suspicions that the real reason why the world of officialdom does not want people digging deep in and around the area is in case they stumble upon evidence of — or even entrance points to — the legendary underground alien base.

Cattle Mutilations

Underground detonations and alien base rumors aside, Dulce has also become notable for another reason — and it’s one of a decidedly grisly nature. Between 1975 and 1978, the town of Dulce became a hotbed of reports of cattle mutilation, a gruesome activity that has plagued North America for more than four decades: An uninvited, unwelcome guest roams the countryside stealthily by night, performing terrible acts of mutilation on cattle. Organs, blood, and glands are removed in ways that suggest a superior technology is the culprit. In many instances of such mutilation, unidentified aerial lights are reported in the same locales, implying that the two occurrences are somehow deeply interconnected.

Black, unmarked, military helicopters are also often seen in the vicinity of these mutilation incidents, and stories abound of witnesses being threatened into silence by dark, governmental forces. Who, or what, is responsible for these horrific acts of butchery is a topic that has provoked intense debate. Wild predators, devil-worshipping cults, UFOs, and covert biological-warfare operations undertaken by secret arms of the government have all been suggested as the guilty parties. The macabre mystery, meanwhile, continues to rage. And the mutilators silently continue without interruption.

For the men and women of the FBI assigned to deal with the cattle mutilations in and around Dulce in the 1970s, the first step was to review the files of Police Officer Gabe Valdez, of the nearby city of Española. Between August 1975 and the summer of 1978, almost 30 cases of cattle mutilation were recorded by Valdez in the Rio Arriba area, with many indicating that the attacks were the work of a well-equipped, highly advanced intelligence. One report, filed by Valdez in June 1976, stands out in particular. At 8 p.m. on June 13, Valdez was contacted by a rancher named Manuel Gomez and advised that Gomez had found a 3-year-old cow on his ranch that bore all the classic signs of mutilation. As Valdez listened carefully, Gomez stated that the cow’s left ear, tongue, udder, and rectum had been removed with what appeared to be a sharp instrument. Yet there was absolutely no blood in the immediate vicinity of the cow, nor were any footprints in evidence. There were, however, marks of some sort…they were marks that gave every impression that some form of unknown aerial object had landed and carried out a grisly attack on the unfortunate animal.

At 5 a.m. on the following day, Valdez set off for the Gomez ranch, along with Paul Riley, of the New Mexico Cattle Sanitary Board. On arriving, Officer Valdez and Riley were confronted by a scene of complete carnage. The cow was just as Gomez had described, lying on its right side, vital body parts having been removed with the utmost precision. But that was not all. There were also strange landing marks. Valdez recorded the details in a two-page report written shortly afterward, now declassified by the FBI.

The document might have read like science fiction, but it was just about as far removed from fiction as you could imagine. Investigations at the site, led by Valdez, revealed that some form of aircraft had landed at least twice, in the process depositing three pod marks positioned in a triangular shape. Further, careful investigation at the scene demonstrated that the tripod markings had pursued the cow for approximately 600 feet. Other evidence showed that grass around the areas on which the tripods had landed was inexplicably and significantly scorched. Also, a yellow-colored, oily substance was located in two places under the small tripod patterns. On this latter point, Valdez wrote in his report that the substance was dispatched to a forensic lab of the New Mexico State Police. The outcome? The staff was unable to offer any meaningful explanation regarding the nature of the substance.

Three days later, Valdez contacted Dr. Howard Burgess, a retired scientist from Sandia Laboratories, and asked him to conduct a radiation test at the scene. The results were astounding. All around the tripod marks and in the immediate tracks, the radiation count was twice that of normal. Valdez came up with an intriguing hypothesis for this revelation: It was his opinion that someone was deliberately leaving the radiation traces as part of a concerted effort to confuse and hinder those working to resolve the cattle mutilation controversy.

Valdez discovered something else too. In the days between his first visit to the Gomez ranch and his second visit with Dr. Howard Burgess, the mysterious aerial object had returned. This led to a distressing discovery: “There was also evidence that the tripod marks had returned and removed the left ear. Tripod marks were found over Mr. Gomez’s tire tracks of his original visit. The left ear was intact when Mr. Gomez first found the cow. The cow had a 3-month-old calf which has not been located since the incident. This appears strange since a small calf normally stays around the mother even though the cow is dead.”[28]

Valdez noted in his report that this incident was typical of those he had investigated throughout the course of a 16-month period. Perhaps most pertinent, Valdez had been able to determine that in at least one case, the animal in question was found to have a high dose of a particular tranquilizing agent in its bloodstream. There was also major concern on the part of Valdez that government-associated laboratories were not reporting complete findings on the controversy. For that reason, Valdez ensured that samples from the slain cattle were later submitted to private chemists for separate, independent analysis. Valdez was fully aware of the theories that all of the mutilations were the work of either satanic cults or natural predators, but he dismissed them: “Both [theories] have been ruled out due to expertise and preciseness and the cost involved to conduct such a sophisticated and secretive operation. It should also be noted that during the spring of 1974 when a tremendous amount of cattle were lost due to heavy snowfalls, the carcasses had been eaten by predators. These carcasses did not resemble the carcasses of the mutilated cows.”[29]

Another FBI document from May 1978, the content of which is also based upon the investigations of Valdez, refers to a second incident when abnormal radiation traces were found: “It is believed that this type of radiation is not harmful to humans, although approximately seven people who visited the mutilation site complained of nausea and headaches. However, this writer has had no such symptoms after checking approximately 11 mutilations in the past four months. Identical mutilations have been taking place all over the Southwest. It is strange that no eyewitnesses have come forward or that no accidents [have] occurred. One has to admit that whoever is responsible for the mutilations is very well organized, with boundless financing and secrecy.”[30]

Strange landing-marks, elevated radiation readings, and tranquilizing drugs…upon what had Officer Valdez stumbled? Was this a highly secret government-sponsored or military-controlled operation, perhaps centered on germ-warfare testing, or maybe something even more bizarre? FBI documentation generated as a direct result of Valdez’s police reports suggests that the Bureau took very seriously the evidence and official testimony that the officer had collected: “Officer Valdez stated that Colorado probably has the most mutilations occurring within their State and that over the past four years approximately 30 have occurred in New Mexico. He stated that of these 30, 15 have occurred on Indian Reservations but he did know that many mutilations have gone unreported which have occurred on the Indian reservations because the Indians, particularly in the Pueblos, are extremely superstitious and will not even allow officers in to investigate in some instances. Officer Valdez stated since the outset of these mutilations there have been an estimated 8,000 animals mutilated which would place the loss at approximately $1,000,000.”[31]

Armed with a $50,000 grant, a three-person team led by Director Kenneth M. Rommel, Jr., who had served with the FBI for 28 years, began investigations. To the surprise of no one who viewed the study as little more than a whitewash, Rommel found very little out of the ordinary. In fact, he found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. By the summer of 1980, he had prepared a final, extensive, bound report entitled “Operation Animal Mutilation,” copies of which were circulated throughout the FBI. The final entry in the FBI’s cattle-mutilation file sums up Rommel’s conclusions: “A perusal of this report reflects it adds nothing new with regard to potential investigation by the Albuquerque FBI of alleged mutilations on Indian lands in New Mexico.”[32] The door on the cattle-mutilations of Dulce was quietly and decisively closed. So we are told, anyway.

Were the cattle killings really due to the regular predations of normal wild predators? Were they the work of military personnel engaged in strange biological warfare experimentation? Or might they have been caused by malevolent aliens, covertly surfacing after sunset from their cavernous underground abode at nearby Dulce, and engaging in a liberal amount of nightmarish genetic experimentation? Was it only a coincidence that, with its Gasbuggy program, the Department of Energy just happened to have been blasting deep underground in the 1960s, in the very same area where it was said the extraterrestrials were hiding out in the 1970s? Was the purpose behind Gasbuggy actually wholly different from what we have been told? Incredibly, might it really have been a Top Secret attempt by an utterly panicked U.S. government to destroy the underground alien base with a powerful nuclear device, before the intruders from the stars became unstoppable in their apocalyptic agenda?

It is precisely these questions that, more than 30 years after Paul Bennewitz began focusing his attentions on Dulce, have kept alive the controversy surrounding the alleged alien installation beneath the little New Mexican town. The controversy shows no signs of stopping either. In fact, the stories concerning Dulce’s underground nightmare have become progressively more and more extreme and outlandish as the years have advanced. Since the mid-1980s — by which time the government’s blackhearted actions had reduced Paul Bennewitz to a shell of his former self — a wealth of outrageous stories have surfaced suggesting that the true nature of the underground alien base at Dulce is far more horrific than had previously been suggested or even imagined.

Nightmare Hall

An author going by the pseudonym of “Branton” wrote of a shadowy individual named Thomas Castello, who claimed to have had access to the Dulce base and to inside information on diabolical medical experiments undertaken by the aliens on both human and animal captives. Branton’s source said that deep inside what was allegedly known as Nightmare Hall, supposedly just one part of a vast, multi-leveled facility under Archuleta Peak: “Experiments [are] done on fish, seals, birds and mice that are vastly altered from their original forms. There are multi-armed and multi-legged humans and several cages of bat-like creatures up to seven feet tall…. I frequently encountered humans in cages, usually dazed or drugged, but sometimes they cried for help.”[33]

Wild and controversial stuff, to be sure; however, the data came from an author using an alias, who in turn secured it from a source that has been unable to offer definitive proof of his testimony, which effectively renders the tale useless in terms of offering us hard evidence in support of the theory that the Dulce base really exists.

Alien Occupation

As the 1980s progressed and ultimately became the 1990s, the stories mutated even more. Suggestions that diminutive aliens with large bald heads and black eyes — the so-called “Grays” of UFO lore and popular culture — in the company of vicious, bipedal, reptilian entities, were entirely running the base with a lethal, iron-grip, took hold within the UFO research arena. As did widely circulated tales to the effect that, in 1979, a veritable infantry of highly trained U.S. military personnel stormed the base, in an effort to try to wipe out the alien hordes once and for all. The story goes that the operation was a catastrophic failure, and what was left of the Delta Force — style team made a hasty retreat after suffering defeat, countless casualties, and a large number of fatalities. Since then, rumors persist that the government has been reluctantly forced to keep a considerable distance, all the while quietly trying to figure out a permanent way to rid the Earth of the alien threat, and destroy its cavernous home far beneath New Mexico.

To what extent any of these admittedly outrageous claims and tales have a basis in fact is anybody’s guess. They may merely be the latest in a series of lies and half-truths spread by the Intelligence community, in a fashion similar to the way Paul Bennewitz was psychologically pummeled in the late 1970s. Whatever the case, the Dulce specter still continues to loom in the 21st century almost as large as Archuleta Mesa itself.

On March 29, 2009, the first Underground Base Conference was held in the area, and it attracted a packed audience, all eager to hear the full scoop on what was really going on deep beneath them. Then, in January 2010, a researcher named Anthony Sanchez spoke with a retired U.S. Air Force operative who confirmed the reality of the Dulce facility. But that was not all: Sanchez’s source advised him that rather than there being just one secret base, there were actually three underground facilities in the area: one, as has long been rumored, below Archuleta Mesa, which is said to be code-named TA-D1; a second, two-story complex, dubbed TA-D2, built close to the Colorado state line; and a third base, TA-D3, located in the Leandro Canyon, which, interestingly enough, is very close to the Project Gasbuggy test site of 1967. Sanchez was advised that “T.A.” is an abbreviation for “Technical Area.”

Notably, Sanchez’s (unsurprisingly) unnamed colonel asserted that no one named Thomas Castello had ever been employed in connection with the Dulce facilities, and that the stories of malevolent, reptilian aliens prowling around the depths of New Mexico were utterly bogus. Interestingly, however, the colonel did confirm the reality of the disastrous 1979 altercation between elements of the U.S. military and what he vaguely described as certain other inhabitants of the Dulce base.

Essentially, that is where matters stand to this day. Although many within the UFO research community scoff at what sounds like the script for some mega-scale movie, the story refuses to roll over and die. What is really going on beneath Dulce, New Mexico?

Remote Viewing

The town of Dulce may not be alone when it comes to the controversy of secret alien bases in the United States. The details are unfortunately scant, but a somewhat similar story — also from the 1970s — came from the late Pat Price, who, before his untimely and sudden death in 1974, was one of the U.S. government’s most successful psychic spies. In the early 1970s, elements of the Intelligence community, including the CIA, U.S. Army Intelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, explored such controversial areas as extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychic phenomena, with a specific view to determining if such mental powers could be utilized as a means to spy on the former Soviet Union. The results were decidedly mixed, but Price proved to be a highly successful remote-viewer, as such spies became known.

One of the more unsettling things that Price reportedly uncovered, via psychic means, was the existence of a huge alien base hidden deep inside Alaska’s Mount Hayes, the highest mountain in the eastern Alaskan Range. According to Price’s findings, the aliens were very human-looking, aside from exhibiting certain differences in their heart, lungs, blood, and eyes. More disturbing, the E.T.s were said to be using advanced psychic powers to control certain elements of the populace — for purposes unknown, but suspected of being manifestly sinister in nature and intent. This surely begs an important question: How many more secret, Dulce-like alien bases might there be across our world, carefully hidden from prying human eyes, and possibly even inaccessible to worried governments, utterly powerless to stop a spreading, extraterrestrial infestation?