Ever since Richard Shaver's stories of the Deros, it seems that we have been trying to put aliens "underground", so to speak. Even further back than that, if one enters the world of myth and legend and of the hollow earth. I've recently read three new books on this theme. The first, Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures by William Michael Mott, takes the mythical and historical part of this and runs with it. Mott also covers Richard Shaver's ideas in detail.

The second and third books are Underground Bases and Tunnels: What is the government trying to hide? and Underwater and Underground Bases, both by Richard Sauder, Ph D. In these books Sauder looks at the various stories of underground alien bases in the context of real underground bases that have been built or planned by the U.S. government and the military.

Underground bases are certainly real. Is it any surprise to find that many, if not most, military bases and government centers have underground components? Think back to the 1950s and 60s, if you were alive then. If you're too young, then ask your parents. The cold war was raging, and Americans believed that there was a real danger of attack with nuclear weapons. In most every American city and town, any large building with a basement and any semblance of a solid structure was designated as a Civil Defense shelter and stocked with food for use as a fallout shelter in case of a nuclear attack. Plans for building one's own fallout shelter were available. Many people built one in the basement of their home. Prefabricated shelters that could be buried in one's back yard could be purchased. These shelters ranged from simple ones to some that were more elaborate, with generators and creature comforts.

Can it be any surprise then, that during this period, the government built huge secret underground bases and shelters for the President, Congress, and other key people in the government and the military? There is said to be a large underground bunker beneath the White House, and another one beneath Camp David in case the President happened to be there when an attack took place. There's a bunker beneath the Pentagon, but the Pentagon's main underground facility appears to be a place called Raven Rock in Pennsylvania. Everyone knows about NORAD, built inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. More recently, we found out about Mount Weather, constructed in the 1950s in a mountain in Virginia. This self-sufficient underground city was built to house the U.S. government in the event of a nuclear attack. It's now said to be the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These are just a few of the hundreds of underground installations of various sizes across the country. It would be no surprise at all to find that every U.S. military base, where it's practical, has an underground bunker. What about defense-related industries? Sure. State governments? Bunkers under Governor's mansions and state legislature buildings? Why not?

Some folks are convinced that parts of the U.S., particularly the western states, are crisscrossed by underground tunnels and that huge bases are everywhere, some occupied by aliens. There's not a lot of evidence for these tunnels. Tunnel boring machines exist, and the Rand Corporation did feasibility studies on such devices years ago, but it's difficult to see how such a machine could go through an area that's as heavily monitored by seismologists as California is without being detected on those sensitive instruments. There are lots of maps that purportedly show the locations of these tunnels and bases, but they're based on little besides rumors and a few UFO sighting reports. There's even supposed to be one beneath the Denver Airport.

Many of these maps also purportedly show the locations of underground alien bases. Archuleta Mesa, near Dulce, New Mexico, is the place most often mentioned as the site of an underground alien base, with Area 51 being a close second. It's very likely that there is an underground facility at Area 51, but the evidence for an alien presence is apparently rumor and nothing more.

How did Archuleta Mesa, or Mount Archuleta, become a suspected alien base? It goes back to about 1979, when Paul Bennewitz, a physicist and UFO researcher from Albuquerque, NM, went up to the area to investigate cattle mutilations on ranches near Archuleta Mesa. Around the same time, Bennewitz and Dr. Leo Sprinkle made the acquaintance of Myrna Hansen, an abductee who claimed she had been taken to an underground base by aliens after being abducted in northern New Mexico. Apparently, Bennewitz put these two things together, plus a few UFO sightings that he himself had at Mount Archuleta, and came up with the idea that there must be an alien base inside the mountain. Bennewitz' theory was picked up by John Lear and others, and soon the idea had taken hold, with more stories of the base being added by people such as Phil Schneider. Perhaps Bennewitz should have looked closer to home. Sauder says that there is a large underground base at Manzano, which was practically within shouting distance of Bennewitz' home.

Is there a base, either alien or military, underneath Mount Archuleta? An Indian reservation is a very unlikely place for such a base. Reservations are owned by their Native American occupants, who generally don't take kindly to the government coming in and using their land for such purposes. A location on the Nevada Test Site would be more likely. Mount Archuleta has no security to speak of. The area is open to oil, gas, and coal exploration. Anyone can come and go as long as they don't antagonize the Jicarilla Indians. Several people have gone and checked out the site, and most people who go there don't find any evidence of an underground base.

This article was previously published in 2000. It has been edited slightly.

Print References: • Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures by Wm. Michael Mott • Underground Bases and Tunnels: What is the government trying to hide? by Richard Sauder, Ph.D. • Underwater and Underground Bases by Richard Sauder, Ph.D.