Dulce Base is an alleged joint human and alien underground facility under Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado-New Mexico border near the town of Dulce, New Mexico, in the United States. Claims of alien activity there first arose from Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz.
Starting in 1979, Bennewitz became convinced he was intercepting electronic communications from alien spacecraft and installations outside of Albuquerque. By the 1980s he believed he had discovered an underground base near Dulce. The story spread rapidly within the UFO community and by 1990, UFOlogist John Lear claimed he had independent confirmations of the base's existence. Political scientist Michael Barkun writes that Cold War underground missile installations in the area gave superficial plausibility to the rumors, making the Dulce base story an "attractive legend" within UFOlogy. According to Barkun, claims about experiments on abductees and firefights between aliens and the Delta Force place the Dulce legend "well outside even the most far-fetched reports of secret underground bases."
In popular culture
Dulce base was the subject of an episode of the History Channel program UFO Hunters.
It was also featured in an episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.
Ancient Aliens Season 2, Episode 4 had a short segment talking about the brief history of the alleged Dulce Base and its impact on the Jicarilla Native American Culture.
Dulce base is also featured repeatedly on the series Unsealed: Alien Files and Unsealed: Conspiracy Files "Secret Alien Attack" Season 1 Episode 18.
Dulce base is referenced in the song "The Dulce Incident" by American Deathcore band Oceano.
Dulce base is also mentioned in "The Rise Of Nine"
Dulce base is also featured on the Podcast The ParaPod season 3, episode 5 Conspiracies.
In fiction
In the alternate history anthology Alternate Presidents, Michael Dukakis is revealed to be an alien upon being taken to Dulce Base, which causes the Base's personnel to rewrite history to allow George H. W. Bush to be elected President instead.
Dulce Base is key in the Area 51 novels.
Dulce Base appeared in the comic series The Invisibles, where it housed a secret AIDS vaccine.
Dulce Base and Archuleta Mesa played a major role in the early run of the Outlanders series of novels from Gold Eagle.
In the 2012 video game Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, one of the main protagonists mentions Dulce as containing something that would surprise the Russian government.
Dulce Base is described as "the real Area 51" where the US government in collaboration with an evil alien race keeps locked their enemies in the book I Am Number Four: The Rise of Nine, a science fiction novel for young adults. A major battle between aliens takes place later in that scenario.
