Running Head: DENVER AIRPORT CONSPIRACY THEORY

The Denver Airport Conspiracy Theory

Emma Gotsch
University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Gotsch 1

Running Head: Denver Airport Conspiracy Theory

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The Occasion
The event that this paper will be covering is the conspiracies that follow the Denver
International Airport (DIA). The airport in Denver was released publicly in February of 1995 in
the end of the month. This airport was like no other that had been built in the past years and now
looking back, in the years after. It is the largest airport in the United States with the longest
runway. This airport wasnt just unusually huge; a ton of money was purged into the making of
this building. To be specific, the airport was recorded to have spent two billion more than what
the original plan called for.

This international airport covers the grounds of the old airport, Stapleton International
Airport, which was said to have various problems resulting in the demolition of the building. The
Stapleton airport lacked the space the state felt they needed, which is why they created the new
Denver airport.
Needing more space for an airport is completely understandable; after all it will be
holding thousands of people on a daily basis taking them to and from various places. The amount
of money and time spent on this new airport was needed and seemed fitting for the state.
However, some have thought of other reasons they needed to start over with a new airport; the
many conspiracies unveil.

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Since this paper will not just be covering one, but two conspiracies, there is no one
speaker for them. However, there is significance to each of the conspiracies, which will be
discussed later.
Throughout this paper there will be one conspiracy which hold the main focus, but will
be touching on another just to understand how wild this airport really is. The conspiracy that
struck to be the most interesting was the tunnels and underground bunkers that are said to be
underneath the Denver airport. The conspiracy says that there are tunnels, a tram running through
the open spaces and to the failed automated baggage system, which is also something strange to
look out for, and bunkers.
The main question running through believers heads is why on earth would there be
money sunk into such a high tech device, for it to just sit there and not work? They are thinking
that there must be some other function it is being used for. The baggage system was tested once
and failed, but never was given the time to be fixed. The pathways leading to the system were
soon after deserted and no longer used. This created even more conspiracy ideas- there is
something someone, or multiple people, are hiding by having this system not active or being
fixed, like the tunnels that were built.
The tunnels are said to lead to the underground bunker. People believe the Denver airport
is in reality a cover up for the headquarters of something big, and has been planned to be placed
there all along, waiting for something to happen. Most people have strong beliefs that the
underground bunkers will be used by the New World Order or the American government. The
real question to ask these conspiracy believers is why in the world would they think these things
and what reasons can back their strange ideas up?

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Usually in most cases when a building wasnt designed the way it was planned, or it
wasnt safe for the public, etc. they will demolish the remains of the building completely, you
would imagine right? Not in this case of the Denver airport conspiracy. There were five buildings
that were built, and for whatever reason they were not built correctly or by the desired standards.
Instead of demolishing, as stated previously, the buildings were buried underground. Wrapping
your head around this in itself is creepy. Who had the last say in why the buildings needed to be
torn down? This question cannot be answered due to the fact that when researched for the one
responsible for the final say, there is no information on the original document.
The murals covering the walls of the airport are also a creepy addition to the tunnel and
bunker conspiracy. Throughout the airport there are paintings with disturbing images painted on
them. These are said to be connected to the foundation or the conclusion of the underground
bunkers placed beneath the new buildings. It is hypothesized that whatever is portrayed by the
murals will eventually happen to the world and since it is said the bunkers were made for the
American government or The New World Order, no others will be allowed into these safe
underground passageways.
Though it is easy to just shrug this conspiracy off and go along with the skeptics, the
conspiracy holds hard evidence to back up the stories, making them more and more believable
for some.
The Five Canons
InventionEthos [1]: The article titled Secret Alex Christopher photos from beneath Denver
International Airport backs up the conspiracy the most effectively. The article is specifically

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printed on The DIA Conspiracy Files, written by Alex Christopher in 2009 (Christopher, A.
2009).
Rationale [1]: The site itself is credible because it completely focuses on the conspiracy
that follows the Denver Airport. Another factor that increases credibility for this conspiracy is the
fact that the author of the article, Alex Christopher, and his acquaintance, Phil Schneider were
able to visit the underground tunnels before the airport officially opened its doors in 1994
(Christopher, A. 2009). I believe this site is credible since it only talks about the bunker
conspiracy and goes into depth about explaining why they believe so heavily in these
underground bunkers.
Ethos [2]: Phil Schneider, the acquaintance, is an engineer and worked in construction for
years and worked under the Industrial Defense Complex building Deep Underground Bases.
However, a way that this article had a decrease in credibility, in my opinion was when the author
told a story in which it seemed far-fetched and off topic.
Rationale [2]: Since Schneider has worked for years building massive bases underground,
he knows exactly what to look for and knows there are underground bunkers beneath the Denver
airport. In the early 80s Schneider was chosen to be head engineer for the underground base of
the DIA (Christopher, A. 2009). This also shows that he is reliable to be believed by all because
he has been behind the scenes of the specificities of underground base construction. More people
are unaware of construction of underground bases than those who are aware, so therefore he
owns credibility.
The author, to me, decreased her credibility when she explained a story told to her by
Schneider. She states that he told her one day when he was working in the bunkers, him and a
couple of workers accidentally broke into a nest; this nest was said to be filled with large grays

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aliens (Christopher, A. 2009). If she would have left this part out of her article the theory would
have been much more believable and credible at most. This was completely off topic of what the
conspiracy is trying to convey, which leads to making the skeptics even more skeptic now.
Pathos [1]: The site doesnt necessarily use a number of emotional appeals in its article.
Though various emotions can still be derived and thought up on ones own. The language the
article uses creates an avenue for emotion to appear- specifically the words or placement of
them.
Rationale [1]: The emotions that can be pulled from this particular article are; fear, anger,
confusion, disappointment, and maybe even relief for some. When I stated that the article used
its language in a way that gives the reader a place for an emotion, I had a specific sentence in
mind. In the article Christopher says, I hope you can sleep well knowing this information, as for
myself, I sleep very little at the very end of the article (Christopher, A. 2009). That small
sentence leaves the audience second guessing their disbelief or reconfirming their belief in this
conspiracy. By placing it at the end of the article, being the last sentence by itself, also creates
emotion for the reader.
The author also specifically states that this airport underground puts out a set of
feelings which is important to note because it deliberately justifies that there are feelings in
which can be evoked through not only the underground tunnels she experienced, but from the
article (Christopher, A. 2009).
Pathos [2]: As stated in the first example of pathos, the language is a huge part of how
this article drags emotions out from the audience. But in this example we focus on the pictures as
language. The article has twenty-one pictures placed strategically throughout the piece

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(Christopher, A. 2009). Each image is different and taken of a different location of the
underground tunnels.
Rationale [2]: Pictures are also an outlet for language and the pictures that the article
chose to place within also set emotions in readers. The emotion that I took, and Im sure others
as well, from each picture was fear; the black and white were far more spooky than the color
pictures I have viewed before on other sites. The images on the website being black and white
and having an old rustic look to them generate a history vibe to them (Christopher, A. 2009). In
using a picture that dates back to 1994, which is twenty-one years ago, is more staggeringly
monumental than if the author was to use a photograph from 2010 (Christopher, A. 2009).
In todays world technology has changed the way our eyes see everything. When we look
at a photograph today, we catch ourselves squinting to see if there are any edits that were made
to enhance the photo. It is hard to believe people take pictures and then do absolutely nothing to
them, no lighting enhancements, blurring, sharpening, cropping or distorting the object in the
picture, etc.
For this article to use authentic looking photographs, they are generating number one,
credibility and number two an emotion in which can be described as shock. Shock because its
unraveling to actually wrap your mind around the fact that these are tunnels underneath the new
Denver airport. Which brings us back to the biggest concern of these conspiracy theorists- what
could be going on down in these tunnels, why are they still there, and why was there a building
built on top of it? The picture below is taken from the website where the article is written
(Christopher, A. 2009).

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Logos [1]: The claim that there are underground bunkers or tunnels beneath the rebuilt
Denver airport is supported through large amounts of research thereafter this article was
published in 1995.
Rationale [1]:
Logos [2]: The conspiracys claim is also backed up because there are videos posted
within the website to confirm the conspiracy. There are seven tabs near the top of the web page
and one of the tabs is titled Underground Bases; when you click on that tab there are endless
amount of information used as evidence to support this conspiracy theory (Christopher, A. 2009).
I chose to highlight a blurb from the tab titled, Video: Secret Construction at DIA which holds
two videos and a brief description and thoughts on both (Christopher, A. 2009).
Rationale [2]: These videos
Inartistic Proof [1]: The article uses numbers in various places- numbers that describe the
distance or length of something and numbers that describe a year or amount of time
Rationale [1]: There are quite a few places in which numbers are used in various
paragraphs to describe the distance or length of something. For instance, near the beginning of
the reading the author tells us about how it is told that a worker knows of five secret underground

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buildings and each go down as deep as 75-120 feet, they have connecting tunnels that are 2.503.00 miles long and 16 feet wide (Christopher, A. 2009). This worker also told Christopher that
the tunnel was forty feet in diameter (Christopher, A. 2009). Here again, she has been told of
this information and did not witness this length herself (Christopher, A. 2009).
Each of these numbers described throughout Christophers work can be questioned as a
matter of whether or not they are legit or not. Anyone can be skeptical about how wide or deep
the tunnels actually are. Where did they get this information from? Did they physically measure
these distances out themselves or are they taking somebody elses word for it and going with it?
The next set of numbers talked about are used to describe time are more realistic and
leave little room for skepticism and questions. In the first two sentences of the article a year is
thrown out; in 1994, Alex Christopher and Phil Schneider gained access and isnt objective
because the doors to the Denver airport opened in 1995, which makes Christopher and Schneider
correct when saying they accessed the building beforehand (Christopher, A. 2009).
Another date thrown out right away in the article is when Christopher published her work
onto the website. She posted her work in 1995, the year after her and Schneider attended the
underground facilities, and when the doors of the airport were open to the public (Christopher, A.
2009). This is certainly understandable to believe because it only makes sense that she would
post this type of information after the Denver airport had been open. She waited a year to gather
information and get her ducks in a row to be sure her theory was on point, in her defense that
was a very smart idea. If she had posted it beforehand then the airport might have gotten a hold
of it before it reached public numbers, and by posting it after, more people knew about the old
airport not being demolished so it puts her in a more credible light.

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Inartistic Proof [2]: Another set of numbers that is used in the reading are the amount of
floors or levels that the underground airport has and amounts of money that was invested into the
Denver airport.
Rationale [2]: Within the article there are numbers to be questioned, subject to be
questioned, or there is a possibility that they could be true. The first example I read that
integrated the amount of levels which were in the underground tunnels was when Christopher
talked about the size of the panels. Schneider stated that the panels must point out that there are
at least eight levels underneath the level they were currently standing on (Christopher, A. 2009).
This evidence could be completely accurate and no questions could be asked further about it; or
there could be several concerns on how exactly Schneider would know this information for sure
and if there was a chance he was using his background as a construction worker to his storytelling advantage.
The next example is more believable and causes fewer questions regarding them.
According to a source who worked for a company who aided in building the airport, called
Bechtel Corp, the runways costed fifty million dollars to put them in, since they were top notch
in the technology department (Christopher, A. 2009). This excerpt is more believable and less
questionable because she hears it from a reliable source, which boosts these numbers credibility
and accuracy.
Organization
The way the website is put together is a little spastic and unorganized. The way the
pictures look like they are just thrown onto the page are not professional and doesnt flow well
while reading the article. I would have typed out all my information and then placed pictures at
the end of the article, unless a picture was needed to describe a piece of information. I do like the

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images she chose to put on the page, and I liked reading about the information. The order of
information did flow well and it made sense to me as a reader. Only near the end where I felt she
got off topic on some things is where I would have to say it wasnt needed and wouldve been
better off without.
Style
As I mentioned earlier in the Pathos section of this paper, there are many examples of
how this article uses its language to compel a reader to feel a certain way. I believe Christopher
used a lot of choice words, whether she intended to or not, it gave me the sense that they were
effective on her audience.
I did mention before in the Pathos section that the author used images as its own set of
language, which I think is more powerful in some cases than using words. When you use pictures
it allows the readers minds to wonder and make their own stories about what they are viewing.
So in this particular articles case, the images are allowing the reader to make their own
assumptions about what they are seeing, and whether or not they want to believe what they are
seeing. I think also that the words further enhance the images and this theory needed to have
them in order to make a valuable and believable claim. It is as the saying goes- the picture is
worth ten thousand words (Shapiro, F. 2011).
The various words that the author chose to use, regardless if they were intentional or not,
gave off a certain tone for the article for the readers to interpret. A good amount of Christophers
words are negative sounding or make you envision something dark; dead baggage, chain-link
fences, bases/prison camps, and flat empty to name a few that stuck out to me (Christopher,
A. 2009). All of these words had to have been chosen to create an emotion for the reader to
connect to. It is obvious she wanted her readers to grasp how dark and twisted these tunnels were

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and I think she achieved that. While I was reading and these few words stuck out to me, it made
me feel as if I were walking alongside her through these tunnels she speaks of. That I feel is the
most rewarding experience-when your reader gets what you wanted them to feel.
Delivery
The delivery of the claims in this particular conspiracy theory on this website were
thought out, but not to the full extent; there could have been more done to enhance its deliver,
especially since the author had a whole year to finalize the document.
The claims that the author made were very straight forward and easy to follow. She
expressed her feelings towards each opinion or stance she gave and you didnt have to read all
the way to the end to figure out what side she was on; whether she believed in the theory or not.
Using this example again, at the very end of the article Christopher expresses how after
knowing this information on the Denver airport, she has not been able to sleep very well due to
her anxiousness of the information shes seen or heard (Christopher, A. 2009). This is a perfect
example of how she delivered her view on the whole topic. She stated her argument and opinions
early on in the reading and then made her claim in the last few bits and also in that quote.
Memory
The author did show mastery of the material she used. I believe some things could have
been left out, as Ive stated before, because this would have then created a stronger argument,
however, overall I believe the author did a nice job of convincing her audience.
Because of how strong the author was with her opinion and the words she chose to use
set a tone for the article, she made an impression on me as a reader. Another thing the author
succeeded in was being able to write about how she first hand experienced the buildings and by
using outside personal sources, she was able to gain enough credit for her argument.

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Some issues I found with the article in how she attempted to show mastery of the material
was the fact that some sources didnt come from who she had spoken to, but from people who
had spoken to her acquaintance, Schneider. This lowered her mastery score for me because
anybody can hear something from another persons mouth and interpret it in a completely obtuse
way, which is why I feel her mastery skill level would be a 3 out of 5 if we were to scale it.
Assessment
1.] Did the speaker accomplish their goal?
The speaker accomplished their goal because of the fact that their entire site was based on
the conspiracy itself. By doing this they established their credibility as stated earlier in the paper.
They also used hands on, personal experiences to back themselves and their ideas up. This
helped their case tremendously because it is seldom you come across people who are actually
allowed under the ground to view these bunkers. The last tactic that was dealt by the speaker is
the fact that they used images to convey their messages. The images looked eerie and old; which
plants wonder in the minds of the readers and a story behind the words written.
2.] How did it affect you?
This article and the conspiracy itself made waves in my own imagination. When I first
started hearing about this conspiracy I found it far-fetched; but after hearing more and more
about it- hearing people around me talk about the theory without actually seeing articles and
evidence on the case, it was kind of simple to just believe hear-say. This article did a good job at
trying to convince me, as a reader, that this conspiracy is real and true. However, I have a
confused mind on whether or not this conspiracy lies to be true. I still find it hard to believe that
there are actually buildings being saved for when some drastic end to the world is going to
happen and everyone not permitted in those bunkers will suffer. But on the other hand, with

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every change that has been made in todays agenda, it doesnt look so far-fetched anymore, and
the big question I still am still stuck with concerns the purpose of not demolishing or burning
down the old airport, keeping it in tact underground, while building a completely new one over
it.
3.] Why did it affect you the way that it did?
The article and conspiracy affected me the way that it did because it gave me a new
outlook on the topic. It showed, from what I can believe or want to, actual pictures of the
bunkers, and two men who personally visited the bunkers and have seen first-hand what went on
down under. The article did a nice job of having someone who knows so much about
constructing underground bases. This created an avenue in my mind that, hey, this might actually
be believable. Obviously these men have seen more than I have or have heard of anyone else
seeing, so that right there creates believable matter, and again the article just made me question
more about why there is a building over a building and why they kept the first one- seems there
must be some standard reason for the decision; yet why hasnt there been a clear answer about it.
4.] What are the implications of this CT if in fact any of part of it is true? If it is not true?
If the stories of this conspiracy theory were actually to come out to be true, then I think
the airport would generate a lot of publicity and endless talk would result. This publicity could be
good for the airport; people would travel around just to witness the airport. There could also be
bad outcomes for this to be true; there will be a number of angry people at our American
government at how they could take precaution for just themselves and not include their nation.
If the conspiracy theory turned out to be false, then there will still be talk about how
someone got it wrong and some will still believe that it is true. Although if there was hard
evidence and everyone could believe it, the talk would diminish and people would finally move

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on to making conspiracies about something else. If this theory turned out to be false, there would
be more of a sense of relief with trusting our government; we would then know that they werent
being as selfish as those who came up with this theory. These sorts of things could always flip
flop both ways and go back and forth; until you are able to use your five senses in the matter, the
talk doesnt matter.

Bibliography
Christopher, A. (2009, October 30). Secret Alex Christopher photos from beneath Denver
International Airport. Retrieved October 26, 2015, from
http://diaconspiracyfiles.com/2009/10/30/secret-alex-christopher-photos-from-beneathdenver-international-airport/
Erbland, K. (2015, February 28). 5 Weird Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Denver
International Airport. Retrieved October 18, 2015, from
http://mentalfloss.com/article/61740/5-weird-conspiracy-theories-surrounding-denverinternational-airport
Shapiro, F. (2011, July 14). A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words. Retrieved October 30, 2015,
from http://freakonomics.com/2011/07/14/a-pictures-worth-a -thousand-words/