Security

Gallery: Inside Alaska's Answer to Area 51

200 miles northeast of Anchorage, there’s a massive military facility tucked deep in the black pine. What goes on at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (Haarp) depends on who you ask. Self-directed “researchers” like Nick Begich say the collection of transmitters and receivers is conducting secret tests of monstrous weapons for the Defense […]
To get to Haarp drive 200 miles northeast of Anchorage. Then take the Tok Cutoff for 11.3 miles and turn onto an...
To get to Haarp, drive 200 miles northeast of Anchorage. Then take the Tok Cutoff for 11.3 miles, and turn onto an unmarked road. You'll be met by this sign, at the facility's front gates.Noah Shachtman

200 miles northeast of Anchorage, there's a massive military facility tucked deep in the black pine. What goes on at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (Haarp) depends on who you ask. Self-directed “researchers” like Nick Begich say the collection of transmitters and receivers is conducting secret tests of monstrous weapons for the Defense Department: mind control, weather manipulation, long-distance spying. The military scientists in charge of this military installation insist that Haarp has absolutely no direct military applications whatsoever. It "is and always was and was planned to be a research facility," says Dr. Paul Kossey, the Air Force's program manager. Haarp's antennas are being used to study the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer of Earth’s atmosphere, by pumping it full of energy. That's why Haarp's scientists are creating artificial Northern Lights, beaming radio waves into the crevasses of nearby Mt. Wrangell, and bouncing signals off of the Moon. Naturally.

Last year, I got a rare chance to see Haarp for myself. Here's what I found.

Haarp039s main antenna array consists of 180 silver poles rising from the ground each a foot thick 72 feet tall and...

Haarp's main antenna array consists of 180 silver poles rising from the ground, each a foot thick, 72 feet tall, and spaced precisely 80 feet apart.

João Canziani
The Northern Lights are normally triggered by solar winds. But with Haarp aurora can now be manmade too.

The Northern Lights are normally triggered by solar winds. But with Haarp, aurora can now be man-made, too.

Department of Defense
quotStare up and listen to the wind in the guide wiresquot says one unidentified Haarp scientist. quotIt039s as close to...

"Stare up and listen to the wind in the guide wires," says one unidentified Haarp scientist. "It's as close to a religious experience as you're ever going to get."

João Canziani
Haarp is an unclassified facility. But the flow of information there is tightly controlled.

Haarp is an unclassified facility. But the flow of information there is tightly controlled.

João Canziani
Five 3600horsepower dieselelectric generators produce the energy that Haarp channels into the heavens.

Five 3,600-horsepower diesel-electric generators produce the energy that Haarp channels into the heavens.

João Canziani
At Haarp039s digital control center scientist pulse shape and direct blasts of massively powerful highfrequency radio waves.

At Haarp's digital control center, scientist pulse, shape and direct blasts of massively powerful high-frequency radio waves.

João Canziani
Haarp039s collection of instruments often look like relics from an alien boneyard. It only makes the place feel more...

Haarp's collection of instruments often look like relics from an alien boneyard. It only makes the place feel more mysterious.

João Canziani
Haarp039s scientists view the state of the ionosphere with this quotoptical dome.quot

Haarp's scientists view the state of the ionosphere with this "optical dome."

João Canziani
Nick Begich has been obsessed with uncovering mysteries ever since his congressman father disappeared in 1972. With...

Nick Begich has been obsessed with uncovering mysteries ever since his congressman father disappeared in 1972. With Haarp, he hit the conspiracy jackpot -- a far North answer to Area 51.

João Canziani