Montauk’s Camp Hero is my favorite place on the East End. I go there for the hiking trails and views from the cliffs, but often find myself pondering its history as a secret military base during WW2. It’s also hard to resist delving into the site’s dark urban legend.

At the eastern-most point of the United States the camp provided wartime defense in the 1940s disguised as a small fishing village, but some say it remained in operation long after that for more sinister purposes. The site is now a State park loaded with hiking trails, beautiful views of the Atlantic, picnic spots, and WW2-era structures. Placards beside huge batteries, which stored military vehicles and held large coastal gun emplacements, explain the camp’s wartime history. The batteries were decommissioned in1947, but parts of the camp were still in operation during the Cold War.

The giant radar tower, which still stands high over the ruins like a steel beacon, was to provide early warning for the east coast by transmitting the alert if German U-boats or submarines were detected in the Atlantic. The tower remained active for the US Air Force until 1980. It sits near boarded-up barracks that once housed military personnel, and a small building disguised as a church that was actually a gym. In addition to these relics, there are ominous signs along the hiking trails leading to the beach that warn of landmines that could still be live. On shore lay hollowed-out fortifications that were prepared for use as defense artillery against potential invaders. Salty waves from the raging sea now gush through the eroded concrete walls onto the rocky beach.

Salty waves from the raging sea now gush through the eroded concrete walls onto the rocky beach. The historical record says the base closed following the war, but legend has it that it was re-opened in the early 1980s for top-secret scientific research known as The Montauk Project. Conspiracy theorists say this covert operation drew on the discoveries of Nikola Tesla, whose theories and experimentation were considered unorthodox by conventional science. In some of Tesla’s letters, he refers to correspondence with highly advanced beings from outer space.

According to some published accounts, extra-terrestrials assisted the CIA with mind control and inter-dimensional travel that opened portals to other dimensions and let in beings from beyond that still roam the site. It is reported the aliens lived in the camp’s underground bunkers. Most disturbing are reports that children were used in the mind control experiments. Youngsters put under spells and commanded to leap from tall buildings were sacrificed in the name of science, according to the legend.