Dulce Base is an alleged secret alien underground facility under Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado-New Mexico border near the town of Dulce, New Mexico in the United States. Claims of alien activity there first arose from Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz.
History
Starting in 1979, Bennewitz became convinced he was intercepting electronic communications from alien spacecraft and installations outside of Albuquerque. By the 1980s he believed he had discovered an underground base near Dulce. The story spread rapidly within the UFO community and by 1990, UFOlogist John Lear claimed he had independent confirmations of the base's existence. Political scientist Michael Barkun writes that Cold War underground missile installations in the area gave superficial plausibility to the rumors, making the Dulce base story an "attractive legend" within UFOlogy. According to Barkun, claims about experiments on abductees and firefights between aliens and the Delta Force place the Dulce legend "well outside even the most far-fetched reports of secret underground bases."
In popular culture
- Dulce base was the subject of an episode of the History Channel program UFO Hunters / Hangar 1 - The UFO Files.
- It was also featured in an episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.
- Ancient Aliens Season 2, Episode 4, had a short segment talking about the brief history of the alleged Dulce Base and its impact on the Jicarilla Native American Culture.
- Dulce base is also featured repeatedly on the series Unsealed: Alien Files and Unsealed: Conspiracy Files.
In fiction
- In the alternate history anthology Alternate Presidents, Michael Dukakis is revealed to be an alien upon being taken to Dulce Base, which causes the Base's personnel to rewrite history to allow George H. W. Bush to be elected President instead.
- Dulce Base is key in the Area 51 novels.
- Dulce Base appeared in the comic series The Invisibles, where it housed a secret AIDS vaccine.
- Dulce Base and Archuleta Mesa played a major role in the early run of the Outlanders series of novels from Gold Eagle.
- In the 2012 video game Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, one of the main protagonists mentions Dulce as containing something that would surprise the Russian government.
- Dulce Base is described as "the real Area 51" where the US government in collaboration with an evil alien race keeps locked their enemies in the book I Am Number Four: The Rise of Nine, a science fiction novel for young adults. A major battle between aliens takes place later in that scenario.
References
Further reading
- Gregory J. Bishop, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, Paraview Pocket Books, 2005; ISBN 0-7434-7092-3
- Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press. ISBNÂ 0-520-23805-2.Â
- Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Visible Ink, 1998, ISBN 1-57859-029-9
