Military use The site known as Camp Hero, or the Montauk Air Force Station, was initially commissioned by the U.S. Army in 1942. Camp Hero was initially a coastal defense station disguised as a fishing village, and its location was chosen to prevent a potential invasion of New York from the sea. Camp Hero was named after Major General
Andrew Hero, Jr., the Army's commander of coastal artillery, who died in 1942. Three gun batteries were built at Camp Hero, replacing most of the other heavy guns in the
Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound, which also included
Fort H. G. Wright,
Fort Michie, and
Fort Terry. Two batteries of two
16-inch guns each were built, Batteries 112 and 113 (officially named Battery Dunn). Another battery of two
6-inch guns was also built, Battery 216. All three batteries consisted mainly of a large concrete bunker covered with earth, containing ammunition magazines and
fire control equipment. The 16-inch guns were protected by large
casemates, and the 6-inch guns by shields. In 1992, Preston Nichols and Peter Moon wrote
The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time, in which they alleged that
secret experiments were carried out at the Camp Hero site. The book was popular with
conspiracy theorists and spawned several sequels.
Post-military use In 1984, the
General Services Administration attempted to sell the entire facility to real estate developers. Local
environmental activists protested, claiming that the site had many unique
ecosystems and animal habitats. The remaining portions of the military reservation at Montauk were decommissioned. Most of the facility, including Camp Hero, was donated to the
National Park Service, which then turned it over to the
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Portions not deemed environmentally sensitive were sold off. Camp Hero remained largely undeveloped through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1996, a feasibility study was undertaken to develop the site into a golf course. However, environmentalists were concerned that the golf course would impact rare species of plants and endangered wildlife such as the
blue-spotted salamander and
eastern tiger salamander, and that irrigation would deplete limited sources of groundwater on the peninsula. Although there was a demand to create new golf courses on Long Island, particularly on the East End, the idea of creating a new golf course in Montauk in addition to
Montauk Downs State Park was dropped in 1999. Camp Hero State Park was opened on September 18, 2002. There are plans to create a museum and an interpretive center that will focus on
World War II and
Cold War history inside the radar tower. Some parts of the camp remained closed off and guarded, especially the areas near the old radar installations. ==Park description==