What an adventure!

[Doc]

Our very own Markbvt invited me to go with him to this but I couldn't make it. I hope to next year.

Check it out!
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...hlight=markbvt

[The Snowman]

Wow, too bad you missed out. Scary to think of how many of these things are in the US. (and around the world, for that matter)

[KillBill]

Was this location used for a horror film?
I think this was in Saw 4

[FTMS]

That looks like a wild place to go to.

[markbvt]

It's the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I really wish I could afford to buy a silo myself.

--mark

[GixerJockey]

So how does Alex come to own a missile silo? The fact that the government sold him the property at all, let alone with a silo still installed, seems odd.

[Wanderer]

It's the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I really wish I could afford to buy a silo myself.

--mark

Minor hijack - this is something I've been meaning to do for a while - find old launch sites. There *used* to be a google earth file avalible of prettymuch all the disused/old ones - but its been pulled of the site. Dont suppose you have a copy?

Awesome ride report

[Ryno]

There are a few for sale. I found an add for one already made into a luxury home

[markbvt]

So how does Alex come to own a missile silo? The fact that the government sold him the property at all, let alone with a silo still installed, seems odd.

Not odd at all. These are first-generation missile silos. They were built and rushed into service in 1960-62 and decommissioned in 1965 because they were already obsolete. They housed an Atlas rocket (also used by NASA to launch Mercury astronauts into space), which was liquid-fueled, so in order to launch the missile it had to be raised out of the silo on its launch platform -- basically a giant elevator -- then fueled on the surface. But since the walls of the missile were very thin, it had to be stored pressurized with nitrogen or it would collapse under its own weight. The launch sequence (raising and fueling the missile) took 30 minutes or so -- obviously a long time if you've got Soviet missiles bearing down on you. The Atlas rocket was soon replaced with the Titan II and then Minuteman rockets, which could be fired from inside the silo in a much shorter period of time.

The Atlas-F missile silo sites were decommissioned by the Air Force in the mid-'60s; they stripped out most of the equipment, and the property mostly reverted to the towns in which they were located. Of the 12 silos surrounding Plattsburgh Air Force Base, several are now town garages, and the rest were sold to private individuals or companies. Only three of them are doing anything with the subsurface structures though. Alex bought his silo in 1996; I don't know who owned it previously.

There are lots of other missile silos around the US that are privately owned as well.

Minor hijack - this is something I've been meaning to do for a while - find old launch sites. There *used* to be a google earth file avalible of prettymuch all the disused/old ones - but its been pulled of the site. Dont suppose you have a copy?

I don't, but www.siloworld.com has tons of information. But as far as finding the precise locations of the silos goes, it generally takes a little detective work. I found the exact locations of all 12 around Plattsburgh by carefully going over Google Maps and Yahoo Maps, in conjunction with info I found on SiloWorld and similar sites.

--mark

[Billy]

Very cool. There's a bunch of Nike Missile sites in Mass. There's two that I know of, one we're going to try to explore soon.

[Pigman]

Very cool. There's a bunch of Nike Missile sites in Mass. There's two that I know of, one we're going to try to explore soon.

There is one in Burlington right off the highway....

[Doc]

There is one in Burlington right off the highway....

Where!?

[BLACK SQUIRREL]

Where!?

MA ,the other Less cool Burlington

[Punjistick]

I'm pretty sure there is an old Nike missile site on Turkey Hill in Hingham, MA

[markbvt]

Difference is, Nikes were surface-to-air missiles, not ICBMs, and weren't housed in silos. Still cool though.

--mark

[Wanderer]

I don't, but www.siloworld.com has tons of information. But as far as finding the precise locations of the silos goes, it generally takes a little detective work. I found the exact locations of all 12 around Plattsburgh by carefully going over Google Maps and Yahoo Maps, in conjunction with info I found on SiloWorld and similar sites.

--mark

Cheers - thats exactly the info I was looking for - specifically the Nike/Nike Ajax/Zeus sites.

[Pigman]

MA ,the other Less cool Burlington

Awwww.....come on, we got the Mall and stuff...

[OreoGaborio]

There is one in Burlington right off the highway....

There's an old launch battery about 3 miles from my house.

check THIS shit out...

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ge...943848&t=h&z=8

[akira700]

wow, amazing photos.
Like something out of Blade Runner or Brazil!

[Mustang]

That's fucking amazing...eerie, but amazing. Whenever I see old rusty things like that, especially buildings, I try to imagine what it must've been like to build something like that, and to be the first ones in it. Those people must've thought it was hot shit back then, and now it's just all rusting... But damn, that's cool...

There was a Nike missile bunker/site/whatever at my school - Roger Williams, in Bristol, RI - that was converted into a dorm.