Dulce Base

Overview

An alleged secret underground facility beneath Archuleta Mesa near Dulce, New Mexico, said by conspiracy proponents to be a joint US-government / extraterrestrial laboratory. The story originated with the disinformation campaign that the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations directed against Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz from 1980 onwards.

Details

Origin:

Alleged location: Archuleta Mesa, near the town of Dulce in northwestern New Mexico, USA, on the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

Regions:

New Mexico, Rio Arriba County, Jicarilla Apache Nation, Archuleta Mesa

First Reported:

1979-07-01

Full Account

Dulce Base is the name given to an alleged secret underground facility supposedly located beneath Archuleta Mesa near the town of Dulce, in northwestern New Mexico. According to conspiracy proponents, the facility is a joint US-government and extraterrestrial laboratory housing horrific human and animal experiments on multiple subterranean levels. The narrative has its origins in the activities of Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz (1927–2003), who in July 1979 began self-funded UFO investigations and came to believe he was intercepting alien communications near Kirtland Air Force Base. In May 1980 hypnosis sessions with the alleged abductee Myrna Hansen, conducted by psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle, generated narratives of underground bases with 'body parts floating in vats'. Bennewitz contacted Kirtland AFB on 24 October 1980, and on 2 December 1981 wrote to Senator Pete Domenici describing a 'Dulce War' he placed in late 1979 or early 1980. UFOlogist William Moore publicly admitted on 1 July 1989 that he and US Air Force Office of Special Investigations officer Richard Doty had run a deliberate disinformation campaign against Bennewitz; CIA-archived materials from 1992 corroborated the campaign. Bennewitz was hospitalized for psychiatric care in August 1988. The narrative was further amplified in 1987 by John Lear, in 1988 by sensational coverage in the Weekly World News, and through pseudonymous figures including 'Jason Bishop III' (Thomas Allen LeVesque), who later acknowledged fabricating his accounts. No physical evidence, photographs, or documentary records of the alleged facility have ever surfaced. Political scientist Michael Barkun has noted that real Cold War-era missile and military installations in the region lent superficial credibility to the rumours, but characterizes the alien-firefight claims as far outside even the most aggressive secret-base claims. Dulce locals have at times leaned into the legend for tourism, hosting a Dulce Base UFO Conference in 2016.

Also Known As

• Archuleta Mesa Base (New Mexico, USA)

Etymology

Origin:

Modern English; named for the town of Dulce, New Mexico, near which the alleged base is said to lie

Meaning:

'Dulce Base' refers to the supposed underground facility under Archuleta Mesa

First Use:

Late 1970s / early 1980s, in the writings and statements of Paul Bennewitz

Timeline

• 1979-07-01 — Paul Bennewitz begins self-funded UFO investigations near Albuquerque and Kirtland AFB (Origin point of the Dulce Base narrative)
• 1980-05-01 — Hypnosis sessions with Myrna Hansen, conducted by psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle, produce accounts of an underground base with body parts floating in vats (Seeds the 'Dulce' imagery of the conspiracy)
• 1980-10-24 — Bennewitz contacts Kirtland AFB with his findings (Triggers the formal AFOSI engagement that becomes a disinformation operation)
• 1981-12-02 — Bennewitz writes to Senator Pete Domenici describing a 'Dulce War' he places in late 1979 or early 1980 (First documented appearance of the 'Dulce War' motif)
• 1987-01-01 — UFOlogist John Lear publicly endorses the existence of the Dulce facility (Major amplification of the narrative within UFO subculture)
• 1988-08-01 — Bennewitz is hospitalized for psychiatric care after a mental-health crisis (Documents the personal cost of the AFOSI campaign)
• 1989-07-01 — William Moore publicly admits at a MUFON conference that he and AFOSI agent Richard Doty fed Bennewitz disinformation (Definitive on-the-record acknowledgement of the disinformation campaign)
• 1992-01-01 — Documents in the CIA library (a 1992 Monroe Institute document) corroborate the AFOSI / William Moore campaign against Bennewitz (Independent corroboration of the disinformation operation)
• 2016-01-01 — Dulce, New Mexico hosts a Dulce Base UFO Conference (Local civic adoption of the conspiracy narrative for tourism)

Sightings & Evidence

Cultural Significance

Dulce Base belief is sustained largely outside the mainstream UFO community by a self-reinforcing network of lectures, podcasts, and websites.

Related Phenomena

• Area 51 — Real US military installation around which similar conspiracy narratives have grown
• Men in Black — Recurrent UFO-mythos figures linked to alleged government-alien collusion
• Reptilians — Frequently invoked alongside Dulce Base in larger conspiracy narratives
• Greys — Alleged extraterrestrial occupants of Dulce Base in conspiracy literature
• Montauk Project — Comparable underground/secret-government conspiracy narrative

Tags

Sources

• Dulce Base — Wikipedia
• Paul Bennewitz — Wikipedia
• Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth — Paraview Pocket Books
• A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America — University of California Press