in 1968 about six thousand sheep died
near this government facility they were
poisoned by a chemical weapon named VX
the US hasn't been known to actively use
VX in combat in fact it's begun
destroying its stockpile of chemical
munitions as part of a UN treaty but
it's just one of many strange and
secretive experiments that happen within
these walls experiments on sheep
mosquitoes and even civilians
[Music]
about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake
City is the US government's top-secret
bioweapons lab it's called the Dugway
proving ground the 77 year old facility
covers about 800,000 acres that's just a
little larger than the entire state of
Rhode Island and it tests some of the
deadliest chemical biological
radiological and explosive hazards on
earth less famous than area 51 Dugway
dates all the way back to 1942 right in
the middle of World War two David had
battled a war already begun the
government needed a large area to test
powerful weapons eventually settling on
this stretch of land in the Utah desert
back then the site was used to test
everything from chemical sprays and
flamethrowers to various antidotes and
protective equipment an even fire
bombing after world war ii Dugway mostly
shut down until the korean war began in
1950 that's when the proving ground
turned into what it is today a permanent
military base in doug ways first few
decades the base worked mostly on
offensive weaponry biological and
chemical munitions designed to directly
attack enemies sampling devices
positioned throughout the test area
valuable information to Chemical Co
researchers the 1950s for example saw
the launch of Operation big itch an
experiment that was testing weaponized
fleas the fleas weren't infected with
any type of disease or agent but
experimenters were working with
thousands of them and the fleas were
dropped in cluster bombs to gauge if
they would survive the fall from an
airplane and this was only part 1 Dugway
launched a second experiment called
Project bellwether in the 1960s only
this time
sceetos were injected with inert
diseases inert bacteria and inert
viruses but get this those mosquitoes
were released upon several groups of
human volunteers who were bitten again
and again during the trials and there
are records dating back to the late
1950s which described experiments that
used infected mosquitoes and those are
just two experiments known to the public
exactly what goes on at Dugway is well
pretty unclear and that's not by
accident the area is intensely guarded
everything that comes in and out is
carefully monitored guards are on
constant Patrol and actively armed and
the perimeter is lined with tall barbed
wire fencing there are even signs that
authorize deadly force when necessary
since the 1940s
officials say operations have shifted
from offensive to defensive tactics case
in point most of the current known work
prepares agents to defend against
potential biological and chemical
attacks for example a multitude of
training programs are held on-site for
the Armed Forces here's one in which
army reserve soldiers are tasked with
checking the radiation levels of
artillery rounds and here's another
where soldiers were tasked with
identifying substances in a simulated
chemical lab dug ways main operations
include the brach training facility
constructed from various shipping
containers it simulates underground
environments for military training
there are also various buildings and
rooms that serve specific purposes like
the decontamination testing chamber the
Windtunnel testing room and the material
test facility but perhaps the most
interesting room of all is this the
smart man laboratory facility which
houses the smart man dummy a model
that's used to simulate human contact
with chemical agents including the
infamous VX nerve agent specifically the
smart man helps the lab develop more
effective individual protection
respiratory equipment essentially gas
masks and the like a variety of chemists
chemical analysts and technicians work
on-site and the use of airtight chambers
and gas masks is not only common but
mandatory
despite all of this dangerous
experimentation the work done at Dugway
hasn't always been properly contained
remember that sheep incident that marked
the start of a worrisome track record it
happened when overhead Plays spewed out
the nerve agent into the wind
accidentally sending it into nearby
farmland in Skull Valley within the next
couple of days farmers found thousands
of sheep dead in their fields the army
compensated the farmers and lent them
bulldozers to bury the sheep but the
accident sparked a whole debate in the
use of chemical weapons and warfare
adding on to these questionable
practices a 1994 Senate hearing on
veteran's health focused specifically on
Dugway veterans and civilians a report
found that people at Dugway were exposed
to biological and chemical simulants
believed to be safe at the time but that
the army had later stopped using many of
them because they realized they were not
as safe as previously believed one
veteran who was accidentally sprayed in
the face with the chemical DM MP in 1984
found himself wheezing and coughing the
next day symptoms that ended up lasting
several weeks despite this he was given
only cough medicine and antibiotics by
the Dugway Army Hospital the Dugway
Safety Office assured him that the
chemical was safe but by 1988 officials
at Dugway had reevaluated the simulants
danger and were concerned it could cause
cancer and kidney damage in 2011 the
facility slipped up again it went on
lockdown after workers lost a vial
containing the VX nerve agent
nobody was permitted to enter or exit
the facility not even the employees and
in 2016 the CDC and the Department of
Defense launched a major investigation
when a review team found that Dugway had
been operating dangerously for several
years without the government's knowledge
USA Today reported egregious failures by
the facility's leadership and staff the
report singled out the head colonel in
command at Dugway Brigadier General
William King the Army's accountability
investigation recognized King as
unqualified lacking the education and
training to effectively oversee BIOS
safety procedures crucial to Doug ways
operation the report admonished him
saying he repeatedly deflected blame and
minimized the severity of incidents it
even says King fails to recognize how
serious the incidents truly were and how
serious were the incidents exactly well
under king's command the facility
mistakenly shipped live anthrax to other
labs and not just once but in multiple
times for over a decade
that same report revealed that workers
had been regularly and deliberately
manipulating data and important records
records meant to verify that pathogens
being transported elsewhere were killed
and safe for researchers to handle
without protective gear still the
facility shady past secretive operations
and intense surveillance have captured
the attention and skepticism of some
closer observers including several
conspiracy theorists groups there are
suggestions that the facility is the new
area 51 and the local community has
raised their own questions about the
facilities operations Dugway was even
featured in an episode of the History
Channel's UFO hunters in which local
residents and UFO Watchers were
interviewed and footage from the area
was examined it's hard not to wonder
when you live in close proximity to such
a restricted landscape despite these
theories Dugway has expressed a desire
to be more transparent and
representatives have said the facility
wants to be more a part of the local
community by better informing citizens
about what exactly goes on there so far
they've delivered some on that
the facility has its own events page
which lists several events open to the
general public and the local Utah
community this year they're hosting a
trail race on the facility grounds
certainly today's Dugway is a far cry
from the 1940s Dugway which was entirely
closed off to the public but despite the
shift in the level of secrecy much of
doug ways testing remains classified
preserving the skepticism and
mysteriousness surrounding the facility