The Hawkins lab and all the strange and mysterious events that happen there in Stranger Things might be fictional, created for the show’s fans, but the building itself is actually based on a real place.
The entire story of Stranger Things wouldn’t exist without the experiments on Eleven and the other kids in the Hawkins lab. After seeing the strange tests and challenges they went through, it’s reassuring to know that it’s all made up.
However, not everything in the show is completely fictional. This is where we learn about demogorgons.
Okay, maybe not, but Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) from Stranger Things has shared some real-life inspirations for the Hawkins lab. He told Wired: “It’s based on a place in Montauk, New York called Camp Hero. There were rumors about secret government experiments during the Cold War. It’s based on that one government lab.”
Camp Hero was once a military base and is now part of the wooded Camp Hero State Park.
These days, people mostly visit for cycling, walking, and horseback riding, but it was once rumored to have been the site of far darker activities like kidnapping, mind control, and even time travel.
The rumors and conspiracy theories about the place earned it the nickname of the “Montauk Project.”
Montauk Project
After hearing the strange stories, filmmaker Christopher Garetano made a movie about Camp Hero called Montauk Chronicles. He tells the story of men who claim they were forced into secret experiments at Camp Hero during the 1970s.
“Alfred Bielek, Stewart Swerdlow, and Preston Nichols all describe experiments that were done on almost 100,000 people over about ten years,” says Garetano’s website.
“Kidnappings, murder, torture, time travel, mind control, and contact with extraterrestrials are said to have happened at Camp Hero.”
Swerdlow claimed that in 1970, at the age of 13, he was taken for the Montauk Project because the people in charge thought his genetics and background made him suitable for advanced experiments.
One theory said officials used a Cold War-era SAGE radar tower to try to control people’s thoughts and influence their moods.
Garetano, who grew up nearby, talked about the history of the tower in an episode of the Dark Files. He explained: “Every 12 seconds, the radar tower would rotate, and animals would act strangely, people would get headaches and nightmares, and electronics would go crazy.”
Where is the real-life location of Hawkins Lab from Stranger Things? What is the “Montauk Project”?In addition to what happened above ground, there were rumors of darker events taking place in underground tunnels and bunkers—similar to the maze beneath the decaying pumpkin patch in Stranger Things.
While making his movie, Garetano brought in experts with special tools and found an “anomaly” in their readings, which pointed to a “reinforced concrete bunker” buried 20 feet below the ground.
The full story of what happened at the site remains unclear, but the Duffer Brothers clearly did a great job of turning the rumors about the Montauk Project into a story.
In 1984, the land around Camp Hero was given to the National Park Service, but the military buildings still remain in the state park today.
The real-world inspirations and conspiracy theories behind the lab
Though it’s fictional, Hawkins Lab is based on real conspiracy theories and historical projects. The creators of Stranger Things have said that the MK-Ultra project by the CIA was a big inspiration.
This was a real research program run by the CIA during the Cold War that focused on mind control using various controversial methods. These events provide a real historical context that helps make the story in Stranger Things feel more believable.
The show also takes inspiration from The Montauk Project, a supposed series of secret government experiments at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York. These experiments were rumored to include time travel, mind control, and contact with aliens.
Even though people still debate the truth of the Montauk Project and consider it part of old myths, its themes match closely with the fictional events in Hawkins Lab, which makes it hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.