Constructed by the United States during the Cold War, Camp Century was built so the Soviets never had any hope of finding it.
Buried beneath the frozen wonderland of Greenland’s vast ice sheet is a long-lost remnant of the Cold War. It’s not the wreckage of an airplane or a top-secret weapon — it’s an abandoned military base known as Camp Century.
Public DomainCamp Century was located beneath the ice in northern Greenland.
Built in 1959, Camp Century was a tiny but full-fledged city located just 800 miles from the North Pole. Its buildings sat in deep ice trenches, where U.S. Army soldiers slept, ate, worked, and even attended church services. And it was all powered by a nuclear reactor.
To the general public, the site was a “remote research community” where scientists studied the Earth’s climate and the northern ice cap. This was true — but much more was happening behind the scenes. The base was actually part of the classified Project Iceworm, the U.S. government’s plan to install a vast network of nuclear missiles and launch sites beneath Greenland’s ice sheet.
The project never panned out, as it became clear that the ice wasn’t stable enough to support the planned construction. Camp Century closed in 1967, but its story doesn’t end there. Today, the nuclear waste that was left behind when the base was abandoned is threatening to contaminate Greenland’s icy landscape and fragile Arctic ecosystem.
The Origin Of Camp Century
In 1951, the United States and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Agreement, a treaty meant to “negotiate arrangements under which armed forces of the parties of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may make use of facilities in Greenland in defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area.”
That same year, the U.S. military began building Thule Air Base on Greenland’s west coast. It served as a Strategic Air Command site to deter potential nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But the U.S. government wanted more than defense installations on Greenland — they wanted to put their own nuclear weapons on the island.
Public DomainAfter the trenches were dug, metal arches were placed on top and subsequently covered with snow and ice for camouflage.
Thus, Project Iceworm was born. The top-secret operation aimed to build a network of missile launch sites beneath the ice of Greenland, and Camp Century was the first step in the process. It would serve as both the project’s base and an experiment to determine if the tunnels needed to hold the missiles were even feasible.
Of course, since Project Iceworm was classified, the U.S. military needed a cover story for Camp Century, so the base was touted as a “remote research community” where scientists studied the climate and the ice cap. The U.S. Army even released a video documenting the construction of the base and the work that took place there:
The people stationed at Camp Century were indeed studying Greenland’s ice cap — but their reasons were far more nefarious than climate research.
The Construction Of The ‘City Under The Ice’
Camp Century was located roughly 120 miles inland from Thule Air Base. Construction started in June 1959, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began by digging a series of trenches in the ice. Pre-fabricated wooden structures were then placed inside that held modern bathrooms, dormitories, a kitchen and cafeteria, laundry facilities, a recreation hall, a communication center, a chapel, and even a barbershop.
Public DomainCamp Century had numerous facilities, including a barbershop.
The longest of these trenches, known as “Main Street,” stretched 1,100 feet with a height and depth of 26 feet, but the camp comprised 21 tunnels totaling 9,800 feet in length. Around 200 soldiers could live in these underground facilities, which were powered by a nuclear reactor.
Conditions at Camp Century were often harsh, and temperatures could drop as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit. But despite the frigid cold above the ground, the trenches had to be monitored constantly for melting ice that could deform the tunnels.
Public DomainThe sign for the barbershop at Camp Century.
All the while, the construction of the military base was serving as a test to see if the ice cap could support the tunnels that would hold Project Iceworm’s nuclear missiles. At its full extent, the operation would house 600 missiles inside a network of tunnels that stretched across an area three times the size of Denmark. Around 11,000 soldiers would be stationed in Greenland full-time to maintain and operate the weapons and infrastructure.
Deep under the ice and snow, the missiles would ideally be able to survive a first strike from the Soviet Union and immediately retaliate. However, Project Iceworm quickly fell apart — and Camp Century soon followed.
What Happened To Camp Century?
Within just a few years, the military realized that the program wasn’t feasible. The ice sheet wasn’t stable enough to hold the tunnels, it wasn’t clear if the weapons would work optimally in such cold conditions, and bureaucratic issues arose: Denmark had never granted the U.S. explicit permission to put nuclear weapons on Greenland.
Public DomainPre-fabricated wooden structures erected inside the trenches at Camp Century held offices, dormitories, and more.
By 1963, Project Iceworm had been abandoned. And four years later, in 1967, Camp Century closed for good.
Today, the trenches have collapsed, and the base is unreachable. Snow and ice have accumulated atop the structures over the decades, and Camp Century is now hidden 100 feet beneath the surface of Greenland.
The wooden buildings aren’t the only thing that’s hidden, though. Nuclear waste, diesel fuel, and untreated sewage were also left behind. Engineers assumed that the ice and snow would eternally trap the hazardous material underground — but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
According to a 2017 report by NASA, climate models show that Greenland may begin losing ice within the next century. And if the ice sheet thins enough, the nuclear waste could start to leak out into the environment.
Public DomainA Catholic church service takes place at Camp Century in 1959.
In addition to the radioactive material, the 50,000 gallons of fuel and 6,000,000 gallons of human waste buried at Camp Century would be released, too, polluting the groundwater in the immediate region and in areas downhill from the base. Scientists identified this hazard in a 2016 study in which they emphasized the dangers of a warming climate.
As the study’s lead author, William Colgan, put it, “This is just one in a very long list of reasons to say: how do we try and mitigate climate change now?”
As such, Camp Century’s story is more than that of an abandoned military base deep in the Arctic. From its origins as a cover for a top-secret nuclear project to its unique appearance, the site continues to serve as both a fascinating example of human ingenuity and a warning about the future of planet Earth.
After reading about the fascinating history of Camp Century, go inside Operation Highjump, the U.S. military’s expedition into Antarctica. Then, learn about Erik the Red, the Viking who first settled Greenland.
