What’s Buried Underneath The Desert In This Part Of New Mexico May Surprise You

New Mexico is a bit of an oddball state. You’ll find towns with strange names, weird museums, and some unusual roadside attractions, not to mention all the stories about aliens and haunted places. However, there is one place in the state where something truly unexpected was discovered. Some folks even claimed that, due to its strangeness, it might be one of those infamously haunted New Mexico places we just mentioned. Is it? Maybe. Check it out:

This is Alamogordo, home to the Trinity test site, the world’s largest pistachio, and a secret burial that only recently came to light.

Actually, it’s located in the city’s landfill. Or, it was.

What is it? Well, we're glad you asked.

It was an absolute motherlode of 1980s Atari systems, cartridges, and more!

In 1983, after the video game company faced some tough times, Atari’s El Paso plant dumped truckloads of critically panned games (such as the infamous E.T. game that was considered one of the worst video games in history) and other unsuccessful equipment into the Alamogordo landfill. Speculations quickly grew about which games could be found there and some assumed the numbers were in the millions. Eventually, a layer of concrete was added to prevent looting - and urban legends began circulating.

For years, people could only speculate about what was buried in the landfill.

Rumors swirled that it was the site of a burial ground for humans. Maybe it was cursed! Oh, and did you hear that my cousin's friend saw a ghost there? Ideas about its spooky, legendary potential flooded in until 2014, when an official excavation was undertaken for a documentary called Atari: Game Over.

During this excavation, a fraction of the loot was indeed uncovered.

Around 1,300 cartridges, featuring games such as E.T, Pac-Man, Star Invaders, and more were discovered in the landfill.

While rumors claimed millions of games (and other things) were buried here, excavators estimated that number was closer to 700,000 (and nobody ever found any bodies).

The remaining games are still buried in the landfill. The city granted the excavation rights as a one-time event for the documentary and it is not expected to do so again.

Following the excavation, some of the items were given to the city’s New Mexico Museum of Space History and to the Smithsonian. Others were sold at auction.

Was this something you were aware of? What other strange things do you think may be buried in the New Mexico desert? Did you ever hear any bizarre rumors claiming this site to be among the most haunted places in New Mexico? It's haunted, alright - haunted by the ghosts of all those games that were unceremoniously laid to rest here.

There are so many haunted New Mexico destinations, aren't there? What did you think of the above destination? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below -- we would love to hear from you! Want to check out some other weird things you’ll find in New Mexico? Read about some head-scratchers when you check out our list of one-of-a-kind museums in New Mexico.