Just outside of Montauk is what remains of Camp Hero, a strategic military foothold with roots all the way back to the Revolutionary War. In 1942 the US Army commissioned the construction of Camp Hero also known as the Montauk Air Force Station. All part of America's Coastal Defense Strategy if the Nazis ever made it over the pond, it was well disguised as a small fishing village, this camouflage one of the many reasons it's viewed so suspiciously. But really, the best defense is a defense that the enemy doesn't know that you have

By the mid 80s, I guess the government realized they were probably pretty safe from the Nazis and the bulk of the land was donated to the National Park Service and the base itself was decommissioned

Through the 80s and 90s not much happened with the land until September 18 2002 when it opened as Camp Hero State Park. Some parts of the camp remained closed off and guarded, especially the areas near the old satellite installations, but for the most part it's hard to imagine that anything horrific and terrible happened here, but according to a handful of people, it did 

The Montauk Project

Trying to read about this theory from 2nd and 3rd hand sources left my head reeling, every article seemed to tackle some different aspect of the theory, and none of them provided a clear timeline of events in any fashion. Stories about secret government experiments in the Montauk area have allegedly circulated since the early 1980s. But wouldn't reach the public consciousness until a 1992 publication

So I gave up and grabbed the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Montauk Project: Experiments in a Time

Experiments in Time

The book "The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time" written by Preston Nichols and Peter Moon told a story of secret experiments allegedly carried out at the Camp Hero site known as the Montauk Project.

The primary areas of interest for the project were military experiments in fields such as time travel, teleportation, mind control, contact with extraterrestrial life, and staging faked Apollo Moon landings.

In the book Nichols claims he recovered a slew of repressed memories about his role in the project. After this book was published more people would come forward claiming similar recovered memories. The book became really popular among conspiracy theorists and spawned several sequels and since inspired a plethora of books, movies and tv shows. If any of this sounds familiar, this is also a source of inspiration for the Netflix show Stranger Things.

So where is the line between fact and fiction? Is there even one? The book opens with this:

"Because the subject matter of this book is controversial, we would like to offer some guidelines. [...]Some of the data you will read in this book can be considered as "soft facts".

Soft facts are not untrue, they are just not backed up by irrefutable documentation. A "hard fact" would be documentation or hard physical evidence that could stand up to scrutiny.

By the nature of the subject matter and security considerations, hard facts about the Montauk Project have been very difficult to obtain. This work is being presented as non-fiction as it contains no falsehoods to the best knowledge of the authors. However, it can also be read as pure science fiction if that is more suitable to the reader" ~ Preston Nichols, The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time

"Preston Nichols has always tried to avoid hard facts as stated above, not because they do not exist but rather because, per his statement, he is afraid to prove the Montauk Project for fear of his life. While I believe his fears are passe due. to the time that has passed since his employment in the defense industry, it does not behoove myself nor anyone else to overlook the trauma he experienced and how this might affect his decision making." ~ Peter Moon, The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time

This book is considered the heart and origins of this conspiracy theory, this is where it all comes from, and that's how it starts. I feel like I don't need to say this, but this is going to be a wild fucking ride. Hold onto your butts

Nichols: AIL Days

1971: The year is 1971, and Preston Nichols has started a new job at company known as AIL (Airborne Instruments Laboratory). Nichols claims to be a down to earth man, an electrical engineer with a specialty in electromagnetic phenomena and with little interest in the paranormal. Seems pretty normal

But on the side, he had been given a grant to study telepathy, the study was intended to prove its existence, but Nichols took it as an opportunity to disprove it, which he failed to do. His research was pretty straight forward, collaborating with a handful of purported psychics, performing tests and recording their responses. Everyone needs a hobby 

1974: Nichols discovers that every day at the same hour for 20 mins, all the psychics he worked with would experience some sort of mind jamming, preventing them for thinking effectively. Nichols suspected electrical interference, so took some radio equipment and attempted to trace the signal. He tracked it back to a radar antenna located on a nearby military base, known as Camp Hero. He tried to investigate it but security wouldn't let him onsite. With no access to the broadcast point, Nichols is forced to forget about this strange phenomenon for the next ten years 

1984: Nichols gets word that Camp Hero has been abandoned and sees an opportunity, with Brian, one of his psychic subjects, they sneak into what remains of the base. Debris and papers are scattered everywhere as if the place had been abandoned in a rush.

They come across what looks like a homeless man, who tells them he'd been living there since the base had been abandoned the previous year. He goes on to say that there had been a big experiment that went haywire which is what caused the base to get abandoned. Which was farfetched as was, but the man then went on to say that he had been a technician at the base and Nichols had been his boss

He said that Nichols and many of the other scientists had fled the base when a beast had appeared on the base in the culminating event that would get it shut down. He described a myriad of experiments and studies the base had been involved in from weather management to mind control.

1984: Nichols gets word that Camp Hero has been abandoned and sees an opportunity, with Brian, one of his psychic subjects, they sneak into what remains of the base. Debris and papers are scattered everywhere as if the place had been abandoned in a rush.

They come across what looks like a homeless man, who tells them he'd been living there since the base had been abandoned the previous year. He goes on to say that there had been a big experiment that went haywire which is what caused the base to get abandoned. Which was farfetched as was, but the man then went on to say that he had been a technician at the base and Nichols had been his boss

He said that Nichols and many of the other scientists had fled the base when a beast had appeared on the base in the culminating event that would get it shut down. He described a myriad of experiments and studies the base had been involved in from weather management to mind control. 

He said that Nichols and many of the other scientists had fled the base when a beast had appeared on the base in the culminating event that would get it shut down. He described a myriad of experiments and studies the base had been involved in from weather management to mind control.

Nichols didn't believe any of this

A few weeks later, while Nichols was working in his personal lab at the back of his house, a stranger barged in. He claimed that he knew Nichols and that he'd been this man's boss. He mentioned a lot of the same things the homeless man had including that it had snowed in the middle of august and hurricane winds, storms, hail and lightning coming from out of nowhere. He also talked about the strange animal behavior, where wild animals would come into town en masse, sometimes crashing through windows

Nichols decided to talk to the Chief of Police about these strange events, who only confirmed them, and even talked about a strange period of time where crimes were only committed in a two hour window every day. Also during this time teenagers were reported to get together in big groups suddenly, and then after the 2 hours, would mysteriously all go their separate ways

After this point things would continue to get stranger. Soon people he ran into in town, at the office and even at the ham-radio fests he was a big fan of began to claim to know him, when he couldn't recall even seeing them before. And each came with their own plethora of strange stories about the events around Camp Hero

Enter Duncan Cameron

Nov 1984: In Nov 1984, Nichols is working in the lab at the back of his house when a man named Duncan Cameron shows up with a piece of radio equipment he wanted Nichols help with. This wasn't that unusual, Nichols was a well-known radio nerd in the area and it was common for people to drop in with questions.

They got to talking and Duncan reveals that he's a psychic. Nichols tells him about the study he'd been working on for the last decade and Duncan wanted to get involved! Duncan showed a surprising aptitude for the work and became the perfect partner for Nichols in his research, almost too perfect, which began to make Nichols suspicious

Nichols decided to take him to Camp Hero, telling Duncan that he wanted to see if he recognized the place. He did and not just that he was able to tell Nichols what each building had been for, where to find the mess hall, bulletin board and plethora of small details that only someone that had spent an inordinate amount of time in a place would know

Duncan was able to expand on the kind of research that had been done here. When they entered the transmitter building, Duncan suddenly entered into a trance a began to spew out information. Nichols shook him out of it and brought him back to his labs where he did work with him to unblock his memories

The more they unlocked the more Duncan could tell him about the research that had been done and the Montauk Project. Then Duncan blurted out that he had been programmed to come to Nichols, befriend him, kill him and destroy all his research. Duncan had no conscious recollection of this up until that moment and swore he would no longer help those that had programmed him

As Nichols continued to work with Duncan, more was revealed including that he'd been involved in the Philadelphia Experiment, part of the crew with his brother Ed. And it wasn't just Duncan remembering things, Nichols began to remember things as well, including his involvement in the Montauk Project. Neither Duncan or Nichols knew what to do with this information

Jul 1986: the pair would go on to do a panel the US Psychotronics Association (USPA) conference outside of Chicago . There they would talk about their recovered memories and the experiments of Camp Hero. Their talk caused an uproar and word got around fast, as they had planned. With their story public, they believed this would give them a bit of a defense against those that wouldn't want them to digging into this.

It was after this they connected with Al Bielek. He heard their talk and it triggered memories in him as well and joined the other two on their hunt for the truth. 

Two Timelines

1989: For Nichols, he had normal memories from the period of 1973-1983, but his recovering memories told him that he had been working on the Montauk Project during that time. Eventually he and Duncan realized that Nichols had been existing in two separate time tracks at the same time. As Nichols puts it "as bizarre as it may sound, it was the only sensible explanation under the circumstances"

Nichols could remember years where he'd come home and be totally exhausted, was this the toll the split realities took on him?

1990: One day Nichols had been constructing a Delta T antenna on the roof of his laboratory. As he worked on the antenna more and more of his memories seemed to recover until one day in early June, he could remember everything.

All I could figure was that the Delta T antenna was storing up time flux waves as I was connecting it together.

July 1990: Nichols was laid off and not long after, all his close connections were removed as well. After having worked at AIL for close to 20 years he no longer had any links to or friends in the company.

Peter Moon would meet Nichols shortly after this. Nichols would eventually tell Moon about his recovered memories and the two began talking about writing a book. 

Before Montauk

Before we get into the details of the actual Montauk Project, it's important we talk about some precursors. The Montauk Project was the culmination of several other experiments and studies that came decades before it. 

The Rainbow Project / The Philadelphia Experiment

The Philadelphia Experiment is an alleged United States Navy experiment (aka Project Rainbow) done on August 12, 1943. According to legend, the destroyer USS Eldridge was made invisible, dematerialized, and teleported from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Norfolk, Virginia, and back again to the Philadelphia Naval Yard. The experiment allegedly had horrible side effects on the crew of the ship: some went insane. Others developed mysterious illness. But others still were said to have been fused together with the ship; still alive, but with limbs sealed to the metal. As you can imagine, the navy decided the technology was too dangerous and abandoned it

A Dr Von Neumann, Duncan Cameron and his brother Ed were all involved in this experiment. Yes, the same psychic Duncan, that had worked on the Montauk Project with Nichols. And his brother Ed? Well that was Al Bielek in a previous life. Don't worry we'll get to that later 

Project Phoenix

In the late 1940s the US government began a weather control project code named Phoenix. The concept and technology came from Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian scientist. Reich is the man responsible for the discovery of "orgone" energy also known as "orgasmic or life energy". Orgone itself wasn't controversial, but when he started claiming it could cure cancer, it raised some questions to say the least.

But Project Phoenix wasn't interested in orgone, it was interested in DOR, or deadly orgone radiation. Reich claimed that DOR was created during violent storms and believed if this energy could be harnessed the weather could be controlled. Reich gave his research to project Phoenix and that was the extent of his involvement

The project merged his technology with government technology, and the result was what we know today as "radiosonde" to monitor weather. Which is cool. But the unspoken terrifying implication is that the government knows how to prevent catastrophic weather events... and how to create them. Something apparently Russia has already been doing for some time 

1948: In 1948, Phoenix recruited Dr John Von Neumann and some of his team from the Philadelphia Experiment, seeing an opportunity to blend the technology of both projects. Their goal was to figure out what went wrong with the "human factor"

1950s: Brookhaven Labs on Long Island became the project headquarters and Dr VN was put in charge. The team spent ten years trying to figure out why humans had trouble with electromagnetic fields that shifted them through different times and places.

They discovered that all humans are born with a "time reference" point. At conception a soul is attached to a timeline and we all start from that point. This point is the basic orientation point you have to the universe and how it operates. What happened with the Philadelphia Experiment was that this reference point was thrown off kilter.

1967: The Phoenix Project is completed, and the report was turned in to congress. The project identified the potential the technology had to manipulate and change what and how the human mind thinks. Congress said no, concerned that if the wrong people got a hold of this technology, it could be used against them

1969: Congress orders the project disbanded. 

Project Phoenix II (The Montauk Project)

The Beginnings of the Montauk Project

A project like this wasn't something you could just run out of your garage. This would be a multi billion-dollar venture that would need equipment, staff, materials and the usual staffing amenities of any workplace. Oh and it had to be top secret, as they were directly defying congress, so no one could know what they were up to, you know just designing and testing mind control

Financing and the Nazis

The military couldn't finance the project as it would draw too much attention so some significant financing would have to be acquired.

The financing is shrouded in mystery, but it appeared to be totally private. I do not have documented evidence myself of the financing but have been told by my Montauk acquaintances that the original money came courtesy of the Nazis. ~ The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time

Oh yes. THE NAZIS. There's a whole story about Nazi gold going missing, but we ain't got time for that. Though what you should know is that the Nazi gold did eventually run out. But they had backup funding, from the freemasons and the mob if things got dire

Preparing the Facility

1970-1971: Camp hero was converted to a proper testing facility, staff hired, equipment acquired and set up. This process took a year and by late 1971 the project was underway

The staff was a mix of military personnel, government employees and employees supplied by various corporations, with Nichols being one of the latter, joining the project in 1973. Duncan would also join around this time

What Did the Montauk Project Do?

While the original intention of Project Montauk seemed to be mind control and stealth technology for purpose of military use, the experiments performed at Camp Hero seemed to stumble across a myriad of applications and venues for their research to go. The facility would have dozens of initiatives going by the time it got shut down, with many crisscrossing with each other, this makes it hard to distinctly define where one project ends and another begins

The Microwave Oven Experiments

The basis of this project was the discovery that when the stealth radar (or rainbow radar) was on, it seemed to effect overall mood of anyone in range. By changing the frequency and pulse duration of the radar, they could manipulate the emotions of those within its range. This is what Nichols refers to as the "Microwave Oven" experiments

1972/73: The military, desperate to see where this technology can go, offers over their own people as unknowing guinea pigs. Different army units were sent to Montauk under the ruse of R+R. Montauk is beautiful, and the outer base had a nice gym, bowling alley with excellent food and accommodations. They just didn't mention the mind control experiments in the brochure

With success of local tests, they expanded their range to include the townspeople in Long Island, New Jersey, upstate New York and Connecticut, just see how far it could go. 

The Montauk Chair

They had their mind control, but now they needed to work on nuance and precision, the nightmarish results of the Philadelphia Project always in the forefront of their minds. How could they solve the human factor?

With a human of course. They built a chair designed to pick up the brainwaves of a psychic sitting in the chair, combining the psychic's will with the power of the radar technology. This setup would become the lynch pin of the whole project and would eventually be known as the Montauk Chair

This is where we see our three big Montauk Project proponents show up: Nichols is hired to help with the radio frequencies and transmitter / Duncan Cameron was the primary psychic who would sit in the chair and then there was Al Bielek, with his history with the Philadelphia Experiment he had the level of personal experience required to guide this team.

Getting everything up and running was a LOT of trial and error. Issues with interference and calibration plagued the project and for the next 2 years these issues monopolized the Montauk chair team's time

1975: The team wasn't having luck overcoming the interference issues, so they went back to the original plans to figure out where they went wrong. The plans made by the Sirians. Who are the Sirians you ask? Just an alien race from the Sirius star system.

Anyways they consulted the original plans and they found that the coils connected to crystals instead of ordinary electronics. How could they have overlooked that!

So they put a contract out to devise a new chair as part of a secret bid. RCA would win this contract

RCA

You're now thinking of that old CRT television your parents had in the basement that hummed when you turned it on. Why the hell would RCA be hired to make a futuristic chair of an alien design, intended to project psychic powers? Well we can thank Nikola Tesla

To get the Montauk chair operating without interference, they had to replicate what the crystal receivers did with the "Sirian" technology. In the 1930s Nikola Tesla had designed receivers for RCA under the name "N. Terbo" these coil receivers were perfect for the Montauk Chair

These coils would create a bit of a force field around the chair which effectively dealt with the interference they were facing before.

1977: By late 1977 everything was now communicating without glitches with a high degree of fidelity. Projecting the image of someone's thoughts was old news, now they had Duncan concentrating on solid objects. With sufficient concentration Duncan could cause a copy of this object to precipitate out of the ether. This duplicate didn't always end up where and when it was intended (for example it may show up in the mess hall four hours later) needless to say, more finetuning was required, but they were onto something!

Experiments were performed to try and find the limits of this ability, in one case Duncan imagined a whole building onto the base grounds. Just another day in the office

The Montauk Chair: Phase 2

They continued to expand the scope of this project, pushing Duncan further, channeling his powers into different applications. We could spend hours talking about this but here's the cliff notes:

• The seeing eye: Duncan, using a personal effect could use the chair to see through the person's eyes and feel/hear etc all the things that person could
• Thought implants: Duncan could implant specific thoughts into specific people's minds
• He could move or destroy objects all the way in town.
• He could drive animals into town or start a crime wave.

Nichols states that it's important to note that Duncan was in an altered state of consciousness while performing these experiments

By 1978 the mind control techniques were fully developed and recorded. Appropriate tapes were made and distributed to different agencies so that they could be developed into something practical.

In 1979 it was noticed that every once in a while, Duncan's thoughts would suddenly cease, at first thought to be a malfunction it was later determined that his thoughts had entered into a different time stream. The project team realized, they could potentially use this to create time travel

This was real exciting, so the staff of the project were sent to mandatory conferences with a focus on time and how it functioned. No one wants to create time paradoxes. One of the key things they had to learn about was something called "zero time".

Zero time is the great nothing that exists outside of universes, the empty timeless nothing-ness. As all human soul's have a tether to their time reference point, all universes are connected to a zero point, all zero points coincide but never move. This is a point in space time that no matter what, is a complete constant. Think of a merry-go-round, the multiple universes being the horses, and the center column as the zero point

A zero time reference would be vital to unlocking time travel, thankfully good ol' Tesla had created a zero time reference generator in the 20s!

It consisted of an assortment of spinning widgets and rotating wheels. Colloquially, we referred to it as a "whirligig"

Essentially the device would help provide a set of coordinates that could be used as a tether. Didn't want people floating willy-nilly through time.

The process went as follows: Duncan would sit the Montauk Chair. Clear his mind and then focus on a window of time from the current date to the desired date, for example 1990. This would open a portal nearby that anyone could walk through that would lead them to 1990. The door would remain open for as long as Duncan maintained his concentration

I've been told by those who entered the tunnel that it looked like a spiral similar to science fiction style renditions of a vortex. When outside the tunnel, it looked like you were looking through space - from one circular opening through space to a circular but little bit smaller window at the other end. I was considered too valuable to the technical operation and was not allowed to travel through the portal.

1980-1981: precision and consistency were the focus of study during these years. Three primary anchor points were created based on the earth's biorhythms (don't ask): 1943, 1963 and 1983. 

Project Phoenix III

Once the process the hammered out and could be repeated flawlessly, Camp Hero was vacated until only the key personnel remained. Among these were Bielek, Duncan and Nichols

The new objective was to explore time itself. They would strategically scout the past and future, taking note of the circumstances. Through the vortex, they could sample the air, the terrain and everything without entering the portal. For the most part this seemed safe, the only issue was if the base lost power while someone was in the tunnel. They would forever become lost in time and space, but shit happens

It was routine to create a tunnel, grab somebody off the street and send them down. Most of the time these people were winos or derelicts whose absence wouldn't create a furor. If they returned, they would make a full report on what they had encountered. Most of the winos used for the experiments were sobered up for a week before entering a portal, but many didn't make it back. We don't know how many people are still floating around in time, whenever, wherever, and however.

With time and testing these experiments became more advanced, They found that tv and radio signals would travel through the portals, so they began to wire up their subjects, so that they could still get data, even if their subject never returned. Each subject was escorted through the portal, some more willingly than others

It was during this time that the Montauk Boys project began.

In addition to the derelicts, the researchers also used kids for some reason. I'm not sure what exactly the purpose was, but there was one kid at Montauk who would go out and get other kids and bring them to the project. He was like a tractor beam. He lived in Montauk and would circulate around very effectively... Some kids returned home, some didn't. The kids chosen were between 10 and 16, or maybe 18 at the oldest and 9 at the youngest. Most were just about to reach puberty or had just finished it. They were usually blond, blue eyed, tall and light skinned. They fit the Aryan stereotype. To my knowledge, there were no girls in this group. A later investigation showed that Montauk had a NeoNazi connection and that the Nazis were still on the Aryan kick. We don't know where the kids went, what they were educated in or programmed for. Whether they came back or not is still a mystery

What information is available is that they sent every raw recruit into the future to 6037 AD, always to the same point, to what appeared to be a dead city in ruins. Everything was stationary, not unlike a dream state. There were no signs of life. In the center of the city was a square with a gold horse on a pedestal. There were inscriptions on that pedestal, and recruits were sent there to read what they said. Each recruit would interpret and report. We still don't know what the researchers were after. They could have been trying to find the same answer from different people. I don't know. Duncan suggested there was technology in the pedestal and that they were trying to get somebody to sense or feel what the technology was. Someone else involved in the project has said the horse was there to test the powers of observation of the recruits and that it also served as a point of reference. The recruits were always asked if they saw anybody in the city

We know a lot of people were shoved somewhere into the future, maybe 200 or 300 years ahead. Estimates range from three to ten thousand people that were eventually abandoned. We have no idea for what purpose.

Nichols and much of the staff were kept out of the loop on the intentions of the project. He does know that they did a lot with WW1 and WW2. Monitoring and taking pictures during this time.

They also discovered that they could record Duncan's brainwaves when establishing a portal to a specific time and place onto tapes. These tapes could then be used to reopen those portals without Duncan having to hang around while they messed with time and space

1981-82 - Mars: The technology was used to gain access into the underground areas in the big pyramid on the planet Mars. Yes, we're going to talk about Cydonia

In 1972 the Viking 1 and 2 satellites took a bunch of pictures mars, among these images are the famous face and pyramid of Mars. It is a common conspiracy theory that these indicate the remains of a Martian civilization and is commonly known as Cydonia

The time scouts had scoured Mars for living inhabitants and were forced to go back 125,000 years before they could find any. Nichols doesn't know what they found out, and Duncan can no longer recall all the details

One thing Duncan does recall is that they found technology they called "The Solar System Defense". Some sort of technology that seemed to protect our solar system from external forces. The Montauk team disabled the system, and retroactively disabled in from 1943 on. It is apparently commonly considered among UFO-ologists that 1943 is the beginning of the massive UFO phenomena today

There's not much more I can say about Mars at this point except that the movie Total Recall is fancifully based upon some of the events that occurred with the Montauk Project. The way they used the chair in that movie is strikingly similar.

The End Days

Time and space research continued, with countless missions running until Aug 5th 1983.

On August 5th 1983, they were given the direction to run the transmitter nonstop. They did as they were told, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred until the 12th. The equipment dropped out of synch with its target and instead locked on to something else: The USS Eldridge, exactly 40 years prior, at the time of the Philadelphia Experiment

Nichols is uncertain if this had been the intention or if it had been by accident. Through the portal they could see the ship and 1943 Duncan and his brother Ed. The researchers ensured that 1983 Duncan didn't see himself to avoid a time paradox

Natural laws were being violated, and it seemed everyone involved felt uncomfortable. Three colleagues and myself had been privately voicing misgivings about the project over a period of months. We had talked about the pitfalls of dealing with time and how this might affect the karma of the planet. We hoped the project would truncate itself. Consequently, our little cabal created a contingency program that only Duncan could activate. It was designed to crash the entire project.

Someone from the group approached Duncan while he was still in the chair and whispered, "The time is now" It would be from this moment that all hell would break loose

Duncan's thoughts shifted and no one could've anticipated what happened next. Elsewhere on the base Duncan had manifested a monster from his subconscious.

It was big, hairy, hungry and nasty. It would eat anything it could find, and it smashed everything in sight. Several different people saw it, but almost everyone described a different beast. It was either 9 feet tall or 30 feet tall, depending on who saw it. I personally believe it was about 9 or 10 feet in height. Fright does strange things to people, and no one was sure what the exact physical constitution of this monster was. No one was in any frame of mind to calmly and collectively analyze its exact nature.

Nichols's supervisor ordered for the generators to be switched off, in hopes of stopping the phenomena, this did nothing, and they needed to find another plan and fast

This problem was tackled in two ways

1. Somebody needed to go through the portal to the Eldridge to turn off the transmitters there in 1943, by smashing if necessary
2. Somebody needed to stop the transmitters in Montauk

Nichols became responsible for the latter. When the off switch, pulling the plug and disconnecting power to the base failed to shut it down, Nichols had to take an acetylene torch to the cables and then they hacked at the transmitter and the control panel, until finally the transmitter groaned and stopped

All the lights went off. We'd done it. It was at this point that the beast stopped moving and faded back into the ether. The portal closed and that was the end of that episode. Today, you can still see the torch marks where I'd cut things apart.

Those who had gone in 1943 to shut down the transmitter rescued as many people as they could from the USS Eldridge. After this the power was restored to the base, but the base was quickly emptied as most personnel were rounded up, debriefed and brainwashed accordingly

May/June 1984: A squad of Black Berets descended on the abandoned base, reportedly ordered to shoot anything that moved. They were followed by a second crew to remove all secret equipment which was considered too sensitive to leave behind

The next step was to prepare the underground to be sealed. Certain incriminating evidence was removed at this point. I've heard that a room with hundreds of skeletons was cleared out during this evolution.

6 months later a caravan of cement mixers were spotted on the base. They filled the vast underground areas of Camp Hero with cement, elevator shafts, stairwells, vents, anything that could lead to the redacted underground operations

Nichols says you can visit the base today but it's illegal to cross the fence to the inside of the base and that there are other dangers to consider. In the late 80s, two people who Nichols knows had been part of the Montauk Project had visited the site. They claimed they were abducted and don't remember what happened to them

Who was really behind the Montauk Project? There are countless intrigues and scenarios one can envision. Religionists can bring in God and the Devil. UFO aficionados can offer a grand scheme of aliens vying for our solar system. Left wingers will offer explanations concerning the CIA and secret government. I believe that all of the above can shed light on actually happened at Montauk. It is also my hope that this book will bring more people out of the woodwork.

The Fallout

Since the publication of the book, dozens if not hundreds have come forward claiming knowledge about the Montauk Project, some claiming to have been part of the project team, others being test subjects or victims.

Nichols, Bielek and Cameron would go on to tell their story wherever they could be heard: hosting panels at conventions across the country and being interviewed for television and radio programs (Bielek once claimed to have given interviews to over 50 radio/televisions shows and at over 50 conventions). When they weren't doing this, they were still busy digging into the Montauk Project.

Around the time of publication, Stewart Swerdlow would come forward, claiming to be one of the Montauk Boys. Swerdlow became part of the core crew and even published a book in 1998 detailing his experience called "Montauk: the Alien Connection"

These four men: Bielek, Cameron, Nichols and Swerdlow are considered the source of truth, but with a little searching it's easy to find dozens of others accounts online, whole websites dedicated to these individual tales and investigations. Each rendition plugging in their own flavor and attaching a new handful of conspiracy theories to the legend

The thing about the Montauk Project is it has been 30 years since the book was published and there's still people every day coming forward to say they have recovered memories and had been involved in one way or another. This makes the mythos a living, breathing thing that's always changing

You can understand my confusion when I first started looking into this

Next: The Montauk Project: Proof and Disproof

Full Source List

• The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Montauk_Project:_Experiments_in_Time 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk,_New_York 
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hero_State_Park