posted on May, 17 2017 @ 08:08 PM
5 Real-Life 'Stranger Things'-Montauk, Long Island Parallels
Netflix’s newest original drama series Stranger Things is fueling binge-watch fests across the country and racking up major kudos from critics,
praised for its imaginative and, at times, terrifying integration of sci-fi, horror and ’80s-themed nostalgia. Yet how many fans know about its
real-life parallels? The mysterious government laboratory, the secret military base, and the extraordinarily mind-blowing experiments that, some
contend, continue to this very day!?
E.T. the Extraterrestrial, The Goonies, Poltergeist, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Twilight Zone, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Close Encounters of the
Third Kind, X-Files, Fringe—Stranger Things draws from so many cult favorites it’s a veritable sci-fi smorgasbord and an absolute masterpiece. Its
greatest muse, however, may in fact be Long Island, New York, situated on ancient ancestral Native American lands and a paranormal epicenter—home to
countless historical sites, haunted places, unexplained events and puzzling phenomena.
The fictional scenarios portrayed in Stranger Things’ Hawkins, Indiana share several chilling parallels with real-life Long Island, and as someone
who has been known to dabble a wee bit in this fringe area, I say with sincerity that the latter is a hell of a lot stranger than even Stranger Things
depicts. Consider this article a wakeup call
Here are 5 real-life Stranger Things-Montauk, Long Island parallels:
Camp Hero Montauk
The monstrous radar tower at Montauk Air Force Station aka Camp Hero, in Montauk, NY. (Wikimedia Commons)
1. MONTAUK, NY
Stranger Things’ original title was Montauk, named after the sleepy fishing village on Long Island’s easternmost tip. Among so many tales, local
lore tells of young boys being abducted and forced to participate in an assortment of psychological and paranormal experiments on a nearby secret
military base, including time travel, telekinesis, teleportation and mind-control (the 1992 book The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time documents
some of these studies, as does its independent film adaptation, 2014’s Montauk Chronicles). Stranger Things is set in the small, fictional town of
Hawkins, Indiana, and the plot surrounds the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old local boy named Will Byers.
Camp Hero Artillery Bunker
Camp Hero in Montauk, NY, is strewn with blockaded airplane hangars and artillery bunkers closed to the public. (Wikimedia Commons)
2. CAMP HERO
The site of Montauk’s very real covert military installation, known since the 1940s as Fort Hero, aka Montauk Air Force Base, aka “Camp Hero,”
dates as far back as the Revolutionary War. During World War II and the Cold War, it served as a strategic coastal defensive site to thwart potential
attacks or an invasion of New York City by sea, and was intentionally disguised as an actual fishing village to conceal its fortifications from German
U-boats and enemy ships. Its 754-acre grounds were designated a state park and opened to the public in 2002, though many parts of the compound remain
off-limits to this day. The base features an elaborate network of subterranean tunnels and is strewn with airplane hangars and artillery bunkers built
into the side of bluffs that are sealed off by concrete barricades. Most recognizable is its monstrous radar tower, visible from the surrounding area,
as well as from the nearby Montauk lighthouse. Stranger Things’ mysterious, U.S. Department of Energy-backed Hawkins National Laboratory, the site
of bizarre scientific experiments using human subjects—where 11 are held captive and forced to spy on the Russians, among many other
projects—shares eerie similarities to Camp Hero, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy’s very real Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL),
located about 60 miles west of the Montauk base. (More on BNL to come.)
Stranger Things Montauk Monster
Stranger Things’ faceless “Upside Down” creature may bear some similarities to the reptile-humanoid creatures rumored to be roaming around the
subterranean tunnels of Camp Hero in Montauk, NY, but as for any resemblance to the so-called “Montauk Monster” that allegedly washed ashore on
Long Island a few years back, not so much.
RELATED: Long Island Haunts: 13 Creepiest Haunted Places on Long Island
3. LIZARD HUMANOIDS & THE INTERDIMENSIONAL WILDEBEEST
The Montauk base’s underground tunnel complex has long been rumored to be the homestead of half-reptile creatures, known as “Reptoids,” and the
eternal prison of an interdimensional creature who is believed to have led to the destructive demise of the experimentations. There were many
top-secret projects and unsanctioned experiments rumored to be taking place within the Montauk compound, including psychokinetic torture and
collaboration with extraterrestrials. While Stranger Things’ faceless flesh-feasting “Upside Down” realm creature is not an exact doppelganger
of these cold-blooded tunnel dwellers, nor is the havoc-wreaking beast, the show’s bloodthirsty bastard does share at least one similarity with
Montauk’s resident scaly beings and dimension-hopping beast: All are absolutely terrifying.
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Aerial view of Brookhaven National Laboratory taken in 2011. The National Synchrotron Light Source II (under construction) is in the foreground at
right. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is visible at top. (Photo Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory Facebook profile)
RELATED: Einstein Was Right: Black Holes, Gravitational Waves (& Interdimensional Time Travel) Exists
4. BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LAB
Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, might as well just be renamed “Hawkins Lab” in the show’s wake, since they share that many
characteristics. They’re both owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. They’re both steeped in mystery. They’re both off-limits to the public and
well-protected against trespassers (true for the Camp Hero site as well, prior to its re-designation as a state park; more on that in another post).
They both feature mind-blowing facilities and equipment that are literally rewriting everything the scientific community understands about cosmic
matter, the creation of this universe, nano-particles, time, space and so much more we can only begin to comprehend it all. Most importantly for our
purpose here, both Hawkins Lab and BNL are home to an interdimensional portal-vortex, or as the Stranger Things crew refers to it, a “gate.” Yes,
you’ve read that correctly.
Einstein Black Holes Gravitational Waves
The PHENIX detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) records many different particles emerging from
sub-atomic collisions, including photons, electrons, muons, and quark-containing particles called hadrons. The detector is shown here in a
disassembled condition during routine maintenance. (Photo Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory)
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5. BNL’S RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLIDER
Just one of BNL’s many groundbreaking, world-renowned gems, its Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is the stuff of dreams and legends, combined.
Featuring a 2.4-mile, two-lane “racetrack” that collides beams of ions at the speed of light, it quite literally straddles the very fabric between
everything we