The Secret City: Abandoned and Re-exposed, 2025 - 2026

All told, the military left behind about 10,000 tons of physical waste in the ice sheet at Camp Century alone.…No one gave much thought to what would happen when the waste got to the glacier’s bed – nor did anyone seriously consider climate change and the possibility that the ice sheet might melt away, daylighting all of the waste.” - Paul Bierman, When the Ice is Gone

Camp Century was constructed under the Greenland Ice Sheet by the US military in 1959 to better understand living and working conditions in the Arctic during the Cold War. The most significant achievement occurred after six years of failure: scientists drilled the world’s first deep ice core (4650’), reaching the permacrete in 1966.

It was powered by a nuclear reactor which was removed before the camp was abandoned in 1967 and decommissioned at the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory. Snow reburied what the media dubbed as “The Secret City,” and each year it has been shifting 14’ to the southwest. In April 2024, NASA rediscovered it by radar and it was seen for the first time since it disappeared in 1969. Scientists estimate that its iced-crushed remains will emerge in 65 years, and along with it, nuclear waste, sewage, and graywater. This is quickly becoming the present’s environmental problem.

I sourced found objects from the 1960s, reinterpreting items that will appear when the ice recedes. They reflect the daily life of the 200 men living in the camp’s 25 different rooms including the library, infirmary, bar, chapel, hobby shop, darkroom, and kitchen. Additionally, I made screen captures from declassified video footage depicting nuclear activity, signage, and the boring and destruction of ice cores. All are suspended in ice and documented in various stages of thaw. [Sixteen of the thirty-four images are seen below.]

The US has a history of depleting land of its resources and burying the issues of the past for future generations to resolve. Current politicians treat Greenland as a territory available for purchase where unlimited minerals can be extracted. Its location along the Northwest Passage makes it desirable for trade routes as global warming lengthens the months in which it stays ice-free. This series explores how secrets rarely remain invisible. It draws our attention to reconciling the actions of the past, rather than creating new ecological and political problems.