Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About

by Harry Helms

Here is the unseen America of government facilities and installations protected by a wall of secrecy, deception, and misinformation. It includes huge, isolated areas (some larger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island), along with innocuous office buildings located in the middle of major cities. This “other America” has an enormous impact on your life, but you probably have little idea of its extent, scope, and power. This book invites you to visit this top-secret America. Listings are by state, and each facility/site entry gives its history, discusses the activities carried on there, explores various rumors, and provides maps and directions to every location. Author Harry Helms visited and photographed a number of sites in this book. None of the intelligence here was taken from classified sources; everything was on the public record and obtained by patient digging. Since the 9/11 attacks, much of this information was removed from public dissemination. To those who think a book like this discloses vital government secrets, Helms “Get real. If I can find this stuff out, the Russians, Chinese, and various terrorist groups also found it out a long time before I did.” Adventurous travelers and truth-seekers will want to know how to navigate within top-secret America.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Military History, Science, Travel

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating guide if you're interested in the history of the atomic bomb or the cold war - everything from nuclear test sites you can visit to what's really supposed to be in the ultra-secret Mount Weather complex. It gets a little too "conspiracy theory" in some places for me - and some of the "top secret" places it covers are not very mysterious at all - but overall it's definitely an enjoyable read. A little short for the money, but it's a fun ride while you're reading it.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun guide to the U.S. government’s secret spots sprinkled all across the country. Author Harry Helms supplies not only driving directions to places we aren’t supposed to know about but also some idea of what’s going on at each location. To be sure, it’s somewhat under-inclusive. Even some obvious stuff – such as CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. – gets left off. Further, anyone trying to use this as an actual travel guide may find it of somewhat limited use; many of the sites included on the list can’t actually be visited, and in some cases it’s apparently illegal to even drive by them. Overall, however, this is an entertaining read as well as a solid introduction to the inner workings of America’s secret government.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fascinating little book. Not sure I'd ever travel to any of these places, but in some cases, where there is a museum, I might just stop by.
p.s. I have friends and family that have worked at a number of these facilities.

[Philip S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another non-fiction look at the top-secret world - I need to reread it ...

[Sharon Knightley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, this is on the older side and the information in the book has likely changed since this was written. I did find it interesting to read, though I admittedly chuckled at a few "Forget It"s from Harry Helms comments about whether or not you could visit a facility, it did get old after a while. Maybe because they're secured facilities the author couldn't have included more photos, but I did wish there were more of them.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit that I purchased this book based strictly on the title which I really try to avoid doing because I'm usually disappointed. Well, this time around I was..... disappointed. Instead of Top Secret Tourism a more fitting title should have been Conspiracy Tourism. While the book does provided some interesting tidbits about some of these places and in someways does make for a useful book if you ever wanted to visit any of these places, it goes overboard when it starts talking about FEMA. (Still trying to understand people who criticize the government for attempting to be prepared for disasters and emergencies but then criticize the government for building these facilities!) There is also a lengthy (by this book's standard) section about CIA, cover-ups and drug smuggling all based on conjecture. So, instead of writing up a little history book that people could use because many of these places are actually open to the public, most of the writing quickly devolves into conspiratorial ravings with little to no evidence to support his writings. Its a fun read but just remember to take everything with grain of salt and for a couple of them you will need a salt shaker.

[Monty Python · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, a cute travel book. The book gives a little bullet point after every entry about how you can see inside the particular facility. It's not really much of a spoiler to point out that over half of these locations have a tersely worded variant of "FAT CHANCE" after them.

The book strikes me as being somewhat redundant as a simple perusal of sites like Cryptome will present to you a detailed photographic dissection of each and every one of these locations. So much for "secret" places.

[Cherei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found that it was missing a few sites.. but.. for the average Joe on the street.. one that you'll enjoy! lol

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A state by state guide to secret military and civilian installations that deal with chemical, biological, and nuclear products or their storage. Also covers deep space monitoring programs.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

What you can't see at lots of places you can't visit.

[Tom Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this was pretty interesting and a good point about some of the places where things happened. Wish I had remembered more