Denver International Airport Is Full of Conspiracy Theories: Here’s What I Think

From mysterious underground bunkers housing secret government operations to alleged hidden symbols in its artwork, Denver International Airport is a place chock-full of wild conspiracy theories.

But what exactly are these conspiracy theories and how did they come about? And more importantly, is there any evidence to support any of these theories?

In this article, we will take a look at the conspiracy theory surrounding Denver International Airport.

In the first half of the article, I’ll hit on lots of the common conspiracies associated with the airport. But towards the end of the article I’ll get into what I think could be a more legitimate conspiracy theory and offer some evidence to support it.

The beginning of these conspiracy theories

The genesis of these conspiracy theories begins at the time of construction of the Denver airport.

Conception for the design began in the late 1980s and construction began in the early 1990s but it was anything but smooth.

There was disagreement about the location which was 25 miles from Downtown Denver (which was much farther than the previous airport) and the monstrous size of the airport had people asking lots of questions.

Indeed, Denver International Airport is still the largest airport in the US and it’s almost twice as big as the number two airport, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW).

Once construction began it was a mess for some time. The project was subject to several delays, opening up around 16 months late and it went significantly over budget in the amount of billions of dollars.

Once it did finally open in February 1995, there were several issues with the facilities and an extensive baggage transfer system that was plagued by malfunctions and technical issues to the point that it was ultimately abandoned.

People wondered why this airport needed to be so big, why construction took so long and had so many issues, and why was the project so far over budget.

Related: Denver International Airport’s (DEN) Cell Phone Waiting Lot “Final Approach” Is Insane

Enter the conspiracy theories

One of the main conspiracy theories is that there is an extensive system of tunnels or even multi-level bunkers up to six stories in height below the airport.

Former workers reportedly claimed that there were several multi-story buildings being built below Denver International Airport and other reports talk about contractors only being hired for small portions of the project, presumably to keep them in the dark about the entire scope of the project.

Current airport employees claim that these tunnels and basement layers were all part of the baggage system and needed for the trains that run through the airport although some believe that there is more to the story.

Some suspect that these tunnels and potential bunkers could be used for some type of post-apocalyptic shelter.

They believe that the shelter would be used for high-ranking government officials, the ultra elite, or even members of the New World Order (NWO), a secretive and powerful global organization that allegedly seeks to control world events and impose a totalitarian regime.

One of the most talked about clues that ties Denver International Airport to the New World Order theory is that the dedication capstone for the airport features the Masonic Square and Compasses, which are well-known symbols of Freemasonry.

For those unaware, the Freemasons are the oldest fraternal organization in the world, perhaps starting during the Middle Ages. They are not a secret society per se but more of a “society of secrets.”

They have a presence in Denver including an active temple in the mountainous ghost town of Nevadaville, west of the city.

Freemasons, which were involved heavily in the formation of our country and design of our capital, are often the subject of conspiracy theories that link them to secretive global organizations like the New World Order.

To make this even more intriguing to conspiracy theorists, the capstone also mentions “New World Airport Commission” right underneath the icon.

Some theorists view the mention of “New World Airport Commission” as cryptic reference to the NWO, as they suggest that such a commission doesn’t exist and never did.

During my own research, I came across some proof of their existence but nothing very concrete.

Now let’s zoom out for a second, literally.

If you were to look at the runway layout of Denver’s airport from the sky you could connect the dots in such a way that you see a resemblance to a swastika.

It’s definitely not a perfect alignment so you have to use some level of pattern hunting but at a quick glance it’s hard not to see some resemblance.

Some theorists claim that the swastika is a symbol of the NWO, suggesting that the same shadowy forces behind the Nazi regime are also working towards establishing a new totalitarian world order.

It doesn’t help that some of the artwork has links to the Nazis.

Leo Tanguma’s three-paneled mural titled “Children of the World Dream of Peace” featured in the airport has a terrifying Nazi-looking soldier with a gun terrorizing people. And there’s also a quote from a child who died at Auschwitz nearby.

The multi wall mural is said to tell a story of humanity “moving past its aggressive tendencies, and defeating the ecological challenges we face.” While that version focuses on hope for the future, others have interpreted it as symbolic of an impending cataclysmic event or NWO takeover.

The sinister artwork continues when you step outside of the airport and see the infamous Mustang sculpture that has earned the nickname “Blucifer,” after being erected in 2008.

It’s a 32-foot-tall blue horse statue with glowing red eyes that have been interpreted by some conspiracy theorists as representing a demonic or sinister force, which some believe is an expression of the occult practices that groups like the illuminati are allegedly involved in (there’s no proof of this, of course).

Some have even linked Blucifer to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, further fueling apocalyptic conspiracy narratives.

At this point, the conspiracy theory begins to expand into a realm that gets into the supernatural.

The artist of the statue, Luis Jiménez, was killed while working on the horse after a piece of the sculpture fell on him and severed an artery.

People interpreted this to show that the sculpture was cursed and potentially the entire grounds as some reported that the airport was built on ancient Native American burial grounds (although that doesn’t seem to have been substantiated at all like many other claims).

There are even more claims about things like the airport being home to a FEMA concentration camp, the airport’s design resembling KKK hats, and a host of other theories that continue to get more ridiculous the further you go.

But for the sake of not letting this article get too ridiculous, I’ll avoid going too deep into every theory.

So what does the airport have to say about all of this?

Denver International Airport has happily embraced the conspiracy accusations and harnessed all of its marketing power.

Stroll through the airport today and you’ll see several innocuous references to the tunnels and the New World Order.

But they have made some official responses to some of the accusations.

They have answers for pretty much everything which isn’t that difficult considering the nonexistent level of evidence for most of these claims.

The tunnels are for the trains and baggage system, the “swastika-ish” runway layout was the best way to safely design multiple runways, and the artwork is just artwork. As for the aliens and lizard people, I think they just leave those alone.

Some of the answers have not been fully satisfactory such as what does it mean that the freemason symbol is prominently featured on the capstone and what exactly was the New World Airport Commission?

But put the New World order stuff in the back of your mind for a second and consider some of the military history of Denver and how that could relate to all of this, as I think it makes a far more compelling conspiracy theory.

The real conspiracy: a new government headquarters

There is talk that if something were to happen to Washington, DC, Denver would serve as a logical inland replacement. Indeed, something similar was reportedly introduced to Congress by former US Representative Tom Tancredo.

Why would Denver make sense?

First, you have the fact that Denver is located far away from both coasts offering more protection from maritime threats.

There’s also the Denver Federal Center, which is a massive center encompassing an area of about 670 acres. It houses 90 buildings, including one with “a fallout protection factor of 1000… designed to withstand the worst nuclear attack.”

With over 4,000,000 square feet of office, warehouse, lab and special use space and 28 different federal agencies on-site, it is the largest concentration of federal agencies outside of Washington, DC.

Then there’s the fact that not too far away in Colorado Springs, you have NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), which is responsible for the aerospace warning and defense of the airspace over North America.

And this is just one of the five major military installments in the area that support “many of the most important defense and intelligence missions in the world including missile warning, space control and missile defense, and operation of the worldwide global positioning system (GPS) network.”

But there are even key military sites very close to the airport where cutting-edge military aviation technology has been going on for a while.

If you know a lot about Denver’s history in the military you also know that it was home to one of the leading military surveillance schools and bases in the world in the first half of the 20th century.

It was called the Lowry Air Force Base and over the decades the base played a major role in the defense of the United States.

From training for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress (which dropped the type of atomic bomb tested at the Trinity Site) to photographic intelligence courses, it housed many of the Air Force’s most important training programs. (You can learn more about these at the Aurora History Museum).

The base officially closed on 30 September 1994, just a few months before Denver International Airport opened. Interesting timing….

Nowadays, Buckley Space Force Base is active and is located only about 10 miles south of the airport.

It’s home to a number of important things, including the highly secure Aerospace Data Facility-Colorado, which is a major data center for the United States government. It’s where we collect, process, and disseminate intelligence information from space for national security purposes.

So, if the US had to pick a location as an emergency replacement for Washington DC, wouldn’t it make sense to go with:

• 1) a current capital city (lots of existing government infrastructure)
• 2) a city the highest concentration of federal government agency sites outside DC;
• 3) a city very close to some of the most important defense headquarters and away from coastal threats
• 4) a city with apparently numerous fall out shelters
• 5) a city home to the largest airport in the country

When you start to think about the high concentration of federal headquarters and the talk about it being a second capital to Washington DC, it does start to make you wonder if certain provisions were taken so that this giant airport could be utilized as some type of hub in the event of a rapid change in political headquarters.

There’s also the curious basement of the Denver Mint. It’s said that the Mint sits on an enormous amount of gold although trying to get an accurate estimate based on publicly available information seems to be pretty difficult.

If there is this unbelievable amount of gold underneath the Denver Mint then could there be other things of great value and what type of security could be down there?

Could there be any link between the Denver Mint with the airport? Perhaps it’s protecting valuable resources that could be used in such a harrowing time?

Another curious thing is that just next door to the Denver Mint near Civic Center Park there is a government building with a sign outside the indicates yet another fallout shelter.

Could that be a bunker that is linked to the Denver Mint and perhaps to other sites?

So what do I really think?

Personally, I’m not really big on conspiracy theories in general. I mean, they can be fun to talk about but as far as devoting serious mental energy into them that’s usually not a direction I choose to go.

I tend to be intrigued by a select few conspiracy theories that evoke a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” situation in my mind. For example, I do not believe for a second that we know all there is to know about the JFK assassination. There’s simply too much “smoke.”

In the case of the Denver airport, it does feel like there could be something more to this site and its surroundings but again my theory would be more along the lines of it being outfitted to help facilitate some sort of quick relocation of government headquarters.

There is a lot of top-secret military action in the area (related to practically all of the country’s most crucial defenses) and with lots of the government facilities concentrated in Denver it’s not hard to think that there could be some type of contingency plan in place in the event of a catastrophe at our national headquarters on the East Coast.

Perhaps Denver’s airport, the largest in the country by far, would play a key role in this type of disaster scenario and it’s been equipped for such a day?

Maybe beneath the airport there are facilities like war rooms, lodging quarters, and communications rooms that would be used in the event of some type of disaster scenario.

Remember the Denver Federal Center with the fallout protection mentioned above?

It also stores water in a 5,000 gallon water tank (with back-up from an underground well), has food and lodging facilities, a communications center in a “metal box” room shielding sensitive equipment from electromagnetic pulses, and houses below-ground antennae.

Would it be that far-fetched to think some of those same things could exist under the airport?

To be clear, I don’t buy into any of the lizard people, aliens, or any of the super far-fetched things which I would also lump the New World Order under.

The obvious and undeniable connection to the Freemason society is interesting, though.

Given the reported legacy they have with building and utilizing clandestine underground tunnels and structures, perhaps they were somehow involved in planning out the ultimate subterranean structure were it to be needed in dire times.

If the talk about Denver becoming a secondary capital is true then it would certainly makes sense that the Freemasons, who were a huge part in the design of the country’s capital, would be involved on some level.

Kind of makes you think.