The Belen Communications bunkers were built & operated by the Atomic Energy Commission, likely in the 1950s, for long-range (HF radio) communications. It's important to remember that starting in the 1940s & during much of the 1950s, in the USA, strategic nuclear weapons were normally kept in '*civilian' (AEC) custody unless the President granted authority to be turned-over to the military forces. Obviously, there were plans & procedures to turn them over very quickly if-needed. Fissionable materials were legally & technically in the custody of AEC -- nuclear materials, especially the cores,' were stored in AEC-controlled 'special' (atomic/nuclear) Operational Storage Sites located in separate installations adjoining the SAC strategic bomber bases. So there had to be close communication between AEC & DOD to minimize any 'confusion,' and while most of that was through DOD-provided telephone hotlines, AEC had their own HF radio communications network to communicate with their handful of bases near SAC bomber airfields. AEC custody of nuclear weapons ended by the early 1960s, and the National Stockpile & Operational Storage Sites were turned-over tot he US DOD. However, AEC -- namely Sandia Base still had control over a lot of nuclear weapons materials and had a need for reliable communications with their ground-mobile convoys that would discretely, securely transport the nuclear-weapons-grade devices & materials across the nation. HF radio was the primary long-range communications system. Even to this day, the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration maintains their weapons material transportation operations communications & control center at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, though newer technology has greatly reduced (but I don't think eliminated) the need for HF radio, especially large transmitter & receiver sites. AEC phased-out their high-power HF radio network decades-ago, as evidenced by the Belen bunker's long-term abandonment & use as a party-spot for the past 40 years or-so. The reason there had been a second hardened site in the vicinity is because high-power HF radio facilities usually need to separate transmitter sites from receiver sites, to minimize interference. Generally, the larger of the two sites would have been likely to be the transmitter facility, as the transmit gear takes more power and larger equipment than receiver sites. Each site would have had interior space for the radio gear, an operations room with the radio operators (probably just at the larger, transmit site), some sort of small break room, repair shop, bathroom, HVAC equipment, and then power generators may have been there inside the bunker or in a small, separate hardened facility close-by, plus an underground fuel storage tank for the generator(s). I do not believe there would have been below-ground levels -- YES, I see the rectangular pit, but I suspect it housed a power transformer or water storage tank type thing, & isn't a portal to some mysterious underground chamber. Numerous, large radio antennas atop wooden mast poles & steel towers around the bunker, and possibly had hardened antennas normally secured underground, that would raise-up after a nuclear blast had destroyed the 'soft' antennas. The two sites would have been linked by microwave radio and/or underground cable, also with links to :Sandia Base" and/or Kirtland AFB. I'd expect the Sandia Labs historian, and maybe people at the nearby National Museum of Nuclear Science & Industry in ALBQ, would have photographs and blueprints of the old AEC Belen Communications Annexes -- they'd be fascinating to see, and also any old-timers long-familiar with the area should remember seeing the various big, strange antennas each site had back when operational.
The structure was made of WW2 era Quonset huts, and buried under sand. I've been out-and-about in the hills, mountains, and deserts in the Southwest, and there are all kinds of old structures hidden. I once came across a metal manhole cover in the mountains, it turned out to be a door. It wasn't locked, and underwent was a rung ladder which led to a complex of 3 floors. On these floors were old desks, chairs, and cabinets, but nothing else. I ended up furnishing my garage with these things, and kept the site in mind as a place to hide in case WW3 broke out.
Alex, my friend, thanks for posting your videos. They are very interesting, and even pretty informative at times. I wish you the best. PLEASE, be careful on your adventures. Albuquerque and the surrounding areas can get pretty crazy and scary at times. Take care, brother.
I graduated from Belen High in the early 2000s. Our history teacher at the time told us about this. I distinctly remember him saying this went down 5-6 stories. Only the second floor down was filled in when decommissioned. I always thought about trying to break through it. He also spoke about lives being lost during the construction of this. Back in the day, this had huge steel doors that would slam shut behind you, before it was destroyed by idiots. We used to crawl through the ventilation shafts, and theres clearly a few that go down much further.
This would have been great to use when Breaking Bad was being produced. IMO, it would make a great Cannabis grow building, excellent for the dark period. Being covered with dirt would make good insulation for Summer or Winter.
Hello im from belen & have been in the bomb shelter many times! there used to be an entrance from the outside that would get you into the basement that had 2 generators & who knows what other stuff that was left in it that they couldn't get out!? Then the law enforcement cover up all the entrances to keep people out after a rape & a dead body was found in it.😢 but someone dug out the top one. It definitely has a creepy feeling.
There were many more around New Mexico but most were taking apart/ destroyed... when the Athena Missile Program ( and others) was introduced. Most are becoming unclassified. You never know what's in your backyard and is told it's something else not to scare the public.
Please name the other locations. Be as specific as you can. Athena testing was associated with White Sands Missile Ranch & it's couple annexes, such as Green River, Utah. I don't think Belen was associated with the program.
@firefighter575. yes, and a couple of nuclear silos. I have videos on my UA-cam channel. But I know there are bunkers there too. I am yet to explore them.
Im soo sick of these ads I'm sick of seeing TEMU we can barely afford to live paycheck to paycheck I don't wanna buy anything I'm broke but yet you still shove it in our faces it's pathetic
Its definitely an explosive storage igloo and not a bomb shelter/bunker. It has very little soil over the top but heavy sides to channel an explosion up into the air.
Ugh, it's obvious soil from the top has eroded over the decades from wind & rain -- thanks to gravity, it falls...TO THE SIDES! Designs to channel an explosion upward exist at sites that have numerous munitions storage/maintenance facilities, so an explosion at one doesn't cause sympathetic detonation at another, but actually, those facilities also tend to have a lot of material on the top, so that some of material post-blast hopefully falls straight-down back into the facility & extinguishes any fire & attenuates secondary explosions.
Decoy.. Our government was never even remotely concerned about communists bombing US cities with nuclear weapons. Our cities are as full of communists as are theirs. For all intents and purposes, their bombing of a US city would be the same as bombing themselves. We had to pretend as though there were a threat, but It was all smoke and mirrors. Government had tax money to embezzle er I mean a need to pay out premium prices on CHEAP yet Substantial looking projects, and this is where the action happened. Some senator's brother-in-law who happened to own a Military contracted construction company went home with $3 of every $4 that were spent on this fine Tornado shelter. I say tornado shelter because that thing is about as bomb proof as a cardboard box. It just had to look the part long enough for people to forget that they spent money on it. They said that they filled that basement in with concrete :'D BS! There never was a basement. I guarantee you. The hole in the ground in that second room has been just like that since the day they built this thing. Pit/cellar for a generator and fuel to run it. That overhead "escape hatch" at The very back end may have been the exhaust route... but It served as a chimney for drafting out stale air and pulling fresh air into and throughout The facility.
The Belen Communications bunkers were built & operated by the Atomic Energy Commission, likely in the 1950s, for long-range (HF radio) communications. It's important to remember that starting in the 1940s & during much of the 1950s, in the USA, strategic nuclear weapons were normally kept in '*civilian' (AEC) custody unless the President granted authority to be turned-over to the military forces. Obviously, there were plans & procedures to turn them over very quickly if-needed. Fissionable materials were legally & technically in the custody of AEC -- nuclear materials, especially the cores,' were stored in AEC-controlled 'special' (atomic/nuclear) Operational Storage Sites located in separate installations adjoining the SAC strategic bomber bases. So there had to be close communication between AEC & DOD to minimize any 'confusion,' and while most of that was through DOD-provided telephone hotlines, AEC had their own HF radio communications network to communicate with their handful of bases near SAC bomber airfields. AEC custody of nuclear weapons ended by the early 1960s, and the National Stockpile & Operational Storage Sites were turned-over tot he US DOD. However, AEC -- namely Sandia Base still had control over a lot of nuclear weapons materials and had a need for reliable communications with their ground-mobile convoys that would discretely, securely transport the nuclear-weapons-grade devices & materials across the nation. HF radio was the primary long-range communications system. Even to this day, the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration maintains their weapons material transportation operations communications & control center at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, though newer technology has greatly reduced (but I don't think eliminated) the need for HF radio, especially large transmitter & receiver sites. AEC phased-out their high-power HF radio network decades-ago, as evidenced by the Belen bunker's long-term abandonment & use as a party-spot for the past 40 years or-so. The reason there had been a second hardened site in the vicinity is because high-power HF radio facilities usually need to separate transmitter sites from receiver sites, to minimize interference. Generally, the larger of the two sites would have been likely to be the transmitter facility, as the transmit gear takes more power and larger equipment than receiver sites. Each site would have had interior space for the radio gear, an operations room with the radio operators (probably just at the larger, transmit site), some sort of small break room, repair shop, bathroom, HVAC equipment, and then power generators may have been there inside the bunker or in a small, separate hardened facility close-by, plus an underground fuel storage tank for the generator(s). I do not believe there would have been below-ground levels -- YES, I see the rectangular pit, but I suspect it housed a power transformer or water storage tank type thing, & isn't a portal to some mysterious underground chamber. Numerous, large radio antennas atop wooden mast poles & steel towers around the bunker, and possibly had hardened antennas normally secured underground, that would raise-up after a nuclear blast had destroyed the 'soft' antennas. The two sites would have been linked by microwave radio and/or underground cable, also with links to :Sandia Base" and/or Kirtland AFB. I'd expect the Sandia Labs historian, and maybe people at the nearby National Museum of Nuclear Science & Industry in ALBQ, would have photographs and blueprints of the old AEC Belen Communications Annexes -- they'd be fascinating to see, and also any old-timers long-familiar with the area should remember seeing the various big, strange antennas each site had back when operational.
The structure was made of WW2 era Quonset huts, and buried under sand. I've been out-and-about in the hills, mountains, and deserts in the Southwest, and there are all kinds of old structures hidden. I once came across a metal manhole cover in the mountains, it turned out to be a door. It wasn't locked, and underwent was a rung ladder which led to a complex of 3 floors. On these floors were old desks, chairs, and cabinets, but nothing else. I ended up furnishing my garage with these things, and kept the site in mind as a place to hide in case WW3 broke out.
@jpguthrie6669 where was that? If you don't mind sharing?
I'm related to some Guthrie folks from TX...
Alex, my friend, thanks for posting your videos. They are very interesting, and even pretty informative at times. I wish you the best. PLEASE, be careful on your adventures. Albuquerque and the surrounding areas can get pretty crazy and scary at times. Take care, brother.
Spent many weekends during high school as a party place in the 80s. Never been in this deep though.
FYI, the property is not currently for sale. The last listing on MLS was in 2019 and they were asking $98K
That was a deal!
@@AlexMarentes Agreed!
Yes . About fifteen years ago I found a goats head at the entrance. I believe it’s haunted
Could literally make this same thing anywhere on the rez
@@MiguelSanchez-ul6cz Haunted by an innocent goat that some dumb human tortured.
I graduated from Belen High in the early 2000s. Our history teacher at the time told us about this. I distinctly remember him saying this went down 5-6 stories. Only the second floor down was filled in when decommissioned. I always thought about trying to break through it. He also spoke about lives being lost during the construction of this. Back in the day, this had huge steel doors that would slam shut behind you, before it was destroyed by idiots. We used to crawl through the ventilation shafts, and theres clearly a few that go down much further.
@bamf986 Thank you for that tidbit of info
Man oh man do me and my friends have some wild memories out there💯
Looks like a Navajo skin Walker den 😮
I lived in Belen all my life and never new that this was there ☺️
Back in the 80s we had massive parties in there
@@angelina-ny4qs it's past the belen airport
Great video my man keep exploring our state 🔥
A friend of mine from belen showed me this place a long time ago
Pretty cool man glad I found you NM Channels are the best we got to stick togther!
we fish out here
@@SOUTHWESTFISHING505 I'm your new 596 buddy!
Burque in the house
I lived in Belen when I was a teenager. I suprised that I never knew about it 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Great history lesson. Gracias
Nice video and recognized spot here in Belen. Thanks for the video
That’s pretty cool. It’s a nice piece of history.!!
Hi Alex
Really enjoy your videos. Very interesting and informative.
Cool video. I always thought that was an old civil defense shelter
That is an interesting sturcture. Thanks for posting.
This would have been great to use when Breaking Bad was being produced.
IMO, it would make a great Cannabis grow building, excellent for the dark period.
Being covered with dirt would make good insulation for Summer or Winter.
you dont get out much
My son used to live near Sunset. ❤
He's way closer to his mama now! ❤
looks like it could be out of the fallout series
Just found your channel I subscribed my brother. .!! Stay safe and God Bless 🙏 alb NM
Thanks for sharing. I had no idea.
Hello im from belen & have been in the bomb shelter many times! there used to be an entrance from the outside that would get you into the basement that had 2 generators & who knows what other stuff that was left in it that they couldn't get out!? Then the law enforcement cover up all the entrances to keep people out after a rape & a dead body was found in it.😢 but someone dug out the top one. It definitely has a creepy feeling.
Wow! Thanks for the info
That's awesome
Go get some footage of Dulce New Mexico! Interview some locals maybe?
@@jamesclark9347 Dulce, New Mexico? What is there?
@@AlexMarentes UFO sightings bigfoot sightings. Supposed to be an underground hidden base. Apache population has detailed , believable stories!
Aliens , UFO @@AlexMarentes
@AlexMarente Dulce New Mexico
@@AlexMarentes Underground hidden base? UFO sightings bigfoot sightings. Strange occurrences! Apache population has detailed believable stories!
Hope you have a great safe weekend, especially in albuquerque😂
You too!
There’s a rumor that there’s 3 or 4 levels under the bunker but they filled it in with dirt. Idk how true it is but My parents live in Belen.
@KOAnonymously yup, I believe they filled them up with concrete. That is where the radio rooms were located.
Lots of rattlesnakes up there.
Where is this place? Any GPS coordinates?
go visit the Manzano Mountains...ask people around tome they will tell you the stories.
I know where im going when the world ends lmaoo😂
The area around Sandia Labs/Kirtland AFB is probably not a smart place to flee-to, if the threat is large-scale nuclear war...
There were many more around New Mexico but most were taking apart/ destroyed... when the Athena Missile Program ( and others) was introduced. Most are becoming unclassified. You never know what's in your backyard and is told it's something else not to scare the public.
Please name the other locations. Be as specific as you can. Athena testing was associated with White Sands Missile Ranch & it's couple annexes, such as Green River, Utah. I don't think Belen was associated with the program.
Thank you ! I like videos.....
Hey Lizard Hunter are you watching?
Do i need any kind of special permission to go here?
No it's always open
No, just go up. It`s easy to find and its south from the Airport.
@@WebmastersPost imma go next time i travel from Bent to Rio Rancho
Have you found any bunkers in Roswell New Mexico?
@firefighter575. yes, and a couple of nuclear silos. I have videos on my UA-cam channel. But I know there are bunkers there too. I am yet to explore them.
CONGRESS ARIZONA YAVAPIA COUNTY . 85332. Uncorporated .
Belen used to be the party capital of the world. Remember jackoffs
Get off my property.
Old jail lol
Im soo sick of these ads I'm sick of seeing TEMU we can barely afford to live paycheck to paycheck I don't wanna buy anything I'm broke but yet you still shove it in our faces it's pathetic
Its definitely an explosive storage igloo and not a bomb shelter/bunker. It has very little soil over the top but heavy sides to channel an explosion up into the air.
Ugh, it's obvious soil from the top has eroded over the decades from wind & rain -- thanks to gravity, it falls...TO THE SIDES! Designs to channel an explosion upward exist at sites that have numerous munitions storage/maintenance facilities, so an explosion at one doesn't cause sympathetic detonation at another, but actually, those facilities also tend to have a lot of material on the top, so that some of material post-blast hopefully falls straight-down back into the facility & extinguishes any fire & attenuates secondary explosions.
Decoy.. Our government was never even remotely concerned about communists bombing US cities with nuclear weapons. Our cities are as full of communists as are theirs. For all intents and purposes, their bombing of a US city would be the same as bombing themselves. We had to pretend as though there were a threat, but It was all smoke and mirrors. Government had tax money to embezzle er I mean a need to pay out premium prices on CHEAP yet Substantial looking projects, and this is where the action happened. Some senator's brother-in-law who happened to own a Military contracted construction company went home with $3 of every $4 that were spent on this fine Tornado shelter. I say tornado shelter because that thing is about as bomb proof as a cardboard box. It just had to look the part long enough for people to forget that they spent money on it. They said that they filled that basement in with concrete :'D BS! There never was a basement. I guarantee you. The hole in the ground in that second room has been just like that since the day they built this thing. Pit/cellar for a generator and fuel to run it. That overhead "escape hatch" at The very back end may have been the exhaust route... but It served as a chimney for drafting out stale air and pulling fresh air into and throughout The facility.
What are you smoking?