Overview
In 1960, under the cover story of building "Camp Century"—a scientific research station—the U.S. Army began constructing a secret network of tunnels deep within the Greenland ice sheet. The true goal, code-named Project Iceworm, was to station 600 nuclear missiles capable of striking the Soviet Union.
The "City Under the Ice"
Camp Century was a feat of engineering, powered by a portable nuclear reactor and housing up to 200 soldiers. It included a hospital, a theater, and a church. However, the project was kept secret even from the Danish government, who owned the territory.
Failure and Declassification
The project was abandoned in 1966 when engineers realized the ice sheet was shifting much faster than anticipated, threatening to crush the tunnels. The site was decommissioned and the radioactive waste was left buried in the ice. The Danish government only learned of the project's true nature in 1995 after a declassification of records.