Inside Camp Hero: The Real Stranger Things Base

Camp Hero State Park in Montauk, New York, is the site of a former military base that served as the inspiration for the Netflix series Stranger Things. The location, formerly known as the Montauk Air Force Station, is central to various conspiracy theories regarding government experiments. The show's creators, the Duffer brothers, initially set the story in Montauk before moving it to the fictional Hawkins, Indiana. The park features a distinctive radar tower and buildings disguised as a fishing village. While the official history cites coastal defense, urban legends suggest a history of psychological experiments and underground tunnels.

Camp Hero is a state park located on the easternmost tip of Long Island in Montauk, New York. The site was formerly the Montauk Air Force Station, which closed in 1982 and reopened as a state park in 2002. According to signs in the park, the US Army commissioned the base in May 1942, five months after the US entered World War II. The primary purpose was to defend against German submarines and boats.

The base was named for Major General Andrew Hero Jr., who served as the chief of coast artillery from 1926 to 1930. The Army deactivated the base in 1947 and transferred it to the US Air Force in 1951. The Air Force remained there until 1982. The location is approximately 123 miles outside New York City.

The base was designed for surveillance and defense. It featured:

• Antiaircraft artillery training stations
• Surveillance and height-finding radar
• Live-fire training ranges

The site was used extensively for training until its closure in the 1980s.

The connection between the base and Stranger Things is well-documented by the show's creators. In 2016, Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed that the series was originally sold as Montauk. They chose the name because they liked the coastal setting. Matt Duffer noted that Montauk was also the basis for Amity Island, the fictional location of the movie Jaws, which is one of their favorite films.

The setting was changed to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, because the creators realized it would be impossible to shoot on Long Island during the winter. Despite the location change, the show's atmosphere remains heavily influenced by the Montauk base. The series finale even included a direct reference to Montauk when the character Hopper mentioned the town was looking for a new sheriff.

The show's narrative involves a group of pre-teens tangled in government conspiracies and alternate dimensions. One of the main characters, Eleven, is a girl with telekinesis who was abducted and experimented on in a government lab. This mirrors conspiracy theories surrounding the Montauk base involving experiments on children.

Camp Hero has been at the center of conspiracy theories for decades. These theories were popularized by author Preston Nichols in his 1992 book, The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time. Nichols claimed to have recovered repressed memories of working at the base in the 1970s and 1980s.

Key claims from the conspiracy theories include:

• Researchers repressed memories of employees subjected to experiments.
• Scientists used the Montauk Chair, a device using electromagnets to strengthen psychic powers.
• Abducted children were used in experiments, similar to Eleven and her 'siblings' in the show.
• Subjects were sent to an unknown dimension, resembling the Upside Down.

One local resident, Joe Loffreno, told the New York Post in 2020 that he believes he was one of the children abducted and experimented on. He stated, "They did a very bad thing to us out there. We were just little kids. They had no right to experiment on us. It was a very dark, very evil thing."

Another theory suggests a vast network of underground tunnels connects the structures. Filmmaker Christopher Garetano, director of Montauk Chronicles, claimed that the History Channel found proof of these tunnels while filming The Dark Files. He stated, "Something extraordinary was found, which goes against all the official statements that there isn't anything there."

Visitors to Camp Hero State Park can explore the remnants of the base. The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset, with an entry fee of $8, though New York residents with an Empire Pass enter for free. The park covers 754 acres of land, some of which is designated as a wildlife and plant sanctuary and is off-limits to the public.

Key landmarks visible in the park include:

• The Radar Tower: A 90-foot tower with a 40-foot-wide dish built in 1960. It was used to detect airborne objects more than 200 miles away. It is the only remaining tower of its kind from the Cold War era.
• The Gymnasium: The only structure left from the original 'downtown' Camp Hero. It was disguised to look like a church.
• Batteries 112 and 113: Concrete batteries built in the 1940s that contained two 16-inch guns each. The artillery was removed in 1947.

The park is known for its eerie atmosphere. The radar tower, in particular, has been described as unsettling. One resident noted that while they did not believe all the 'zombie stuff,' the impact the tower had on the town was real.

Visitors are warned about erosion on the bluffs and the presence of ticks carrying Lyme disease. The park also contains warnings about potential unexploded ammunition, a remnant of its time as an active military base. Despite the spooky atmosphere, the park is also a popular spot for fishing.

The origin of Stranger Things was subject to a legal dispute. In 2018, filmmaker Charlie Kessler sued the Duffer brothers. Kessler claimed they stole the idea for the show from his script titled The Montauk Project. However, the Duffer brothers denied these claims. Kessler dropped the lawsuit in 2019.