7 Conspiracy Theories In Wyoming That Will Make You Question The Truth

To paraphrase Joseph Heller, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean the government isn’t conspiring with aliens to implant us all with microchips and put everyone in concentration camps.

The fun but disturbing thing about conspiracy theories is that they tend to be outrageous scenarios with the tiniest hint of possibility to make them almost believable. What’s more, like equally enjoyable and troubling urban legends, practically every state and many towns have stories about covert government plans and downright insane cover-ups. Wyoming wasn’t absent the day paranoia-based plots were handed out. If you agree with the author of Catch-22, these 7 conspiracy theories involving Wyoming will make you question the truth.

Paul Hughes/Wikipedia

In 2013, a satirical website published a report revealing that over 800 residents of Hanna, Wyoming had been chosen to take part in a Department of Health and Human Resources experiment. The test would involve implanting the subjects with microchips. Several other sites shared the story, believing it was complete fact.

Aitor Aguirregabiria/Flickr

The Department of Homeland Security posted aerial shots of an alleged FEMA concentration camp on their website in 2014. The pictures were real and identified to be in northeastern part of the state, filled with prisoners. It was later discovered that the pictures were actually of a North Korean labor camp. The images were removed from the website, but not before the story sparked public outrage.

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Grant Groathouse/Flickr

There is supposedly a network of underground military bases across the country, and one of them is said to be around the Riverton area. As the story goes, the ones in the Wyoming/Utah/Colorado region are linked to the Denver International Airport - which is supposed to be a CIA command post - by subterranean tunnels.

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Richard Elzey/Flickr

Recently, a Facebook page claimed that a massive network of roots had been discovered under the Devil's Tower. Reportedly, the Wyoming State Parks Department was saying that the find suggested that the monument, which had previously been identified as a monolithic rock formation, was actually the remains of a gargantuan tree. The page even displayed a drawing of the roots - which were said to run 7 miles wide and 4 miles deep - directly below a picture of the tower, giving the visual effect that the report could be true.

Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

Though Buffalo Bill Cody loved Wyoming, sadly, he did not die here. He was in Colorado in 1917 when he passed away and, preservation methods and transportation options of the time being what they were, his widow had him buried west of Denver on Lookout Mountain. A story soon circulated that the citizens of Wyoming were not happy with the choice for their hero's final resting place and that they banded together to rob his grave and bring him "home." Some versions of the story say they succeeded and others say it was thwarted by Colorado authorities. Whatever the truth is, there is a memorial to him overlooking Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

Jeff Gunn/Flickr

There's a massive volcano beneath Wyoming that is responsible for some of our coolest natural attractions, but there's a theory that it could be on the brink of erupting again. Word on the street is that the government has already secretly planned a massive evacuation, at least for the citizens in Wyoming and the closest states. Just in the nick of time, everyone is supposedly going to be whisked away to Argentina, Australia, or Brazil.

Bernd Thaller/Flickr

There are enough conspiracy theories about the recent total eclipse to focus an entire article on them. The moon eclipsing the sun this past summer was supposed to set off all sorts of significant events such as substantial altering of human DNA, mass suicides, alien activity, and lizard people emerging during totality. One theory was that the eclipse would set off the Yellowstone caldera, bringing on the dreaded eruption, but we should have known that one wasn't true because we weren't all relocated to the southern hemisphere. Naturally, yet another theory claimed that the eclipse was concocted by the government to divert the public's collective attention from what's "really" going on.

What over the top conspiracy theories have you heard about Wyoming?