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Tex Row
location:
The Great State of Texas
Gender: Male
 |  | Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
< on 12/13/2009 10:36 AM >
|  | | | A few months back, me and some buddies took a trip out to New Mexico to check out some Atlas F missile silos. They were part of the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron based out of Walker AFB in Roswell. We did our research before hand and found a couple of maps of their locations along with some really cool documents about their layout and designs.
On our way to our camp site at Bottomless Lakes State Park (20 min east of Roswell) we passed two sites. The first one we could not see because it was off the road. The fence prevented us from driving out to it, and there was no place to park within miles. The parking issue was one our our biggest problems. We found some nearby oil field roads and drove right up to the second. To our surprise it looked as though someone might have converted it to a house. It had two solid fences, a flag pole flying a nice flag, and a satellite dish connected to the small trailer near the entrance. We decided to write down the phone number on the No Trespassing sign for later reference.
That night we drove for hours looking at the different possible sites, only to find most we had no where to park except on the side of a fairly busy highway. Seeing as it would draw suspicion and I didn't want to tempt any thieves we passed by 3 more. Finally on the north side we found one which the original road took use right up to the gates, which were open. We went up to the door to find it had been sealed such with concrete. After about thirty min of trying to get in through every method we could think of, we moved on. We went to one more which was the furthest one on the north side. After walking about two miles through cow fields in the dark (we planned for no moon) we got to the entrance, and to our excitement found that somebody had already torched a hole through the outer door.
To get to the living/control center we had to go down about 20 ft, through some twist and turns, and through two more blast doors (one torched the other open). The control center and living quarters are all located in the same place. It is a two story round room. As one of the pictures shows, the whole thing is separated from the wall by about 6 inches and suspended by springs. Near the middle there is an escape hatch that at one time was filled with four tons of sand. Then, about half a story below the bottom floor is a tunnel that leads to the silo. Through two more blast doors. The silo was really cool. We did not have enough light to get a good snap shot of the silo, so all the pictures are just of the edge and blackness. I don't know why we didn't take a long exposure. The silo is (I think) about 55ft across and 85 or something deep. When in operation there would have been platforms all the way around going down, but this one had been striped. The only thing left was the mounting brackets for the bay door hydraulics. The place was amazing.
The next day we were going to check out the airplane grave yard that is the old Walker AFB, but never made it due to a hike that took MUCH longer than expected/prepared for.
Finally as we were about to head back we decided to call the number off the no trespassing sign to see if we could get permission to go in. The guy was amazing and not only said we could but said he'd give us a tour. The gentleman was a retired army officer and is one of the leading experts on US missile silos. He had been renovating that particular one. We spent two hours down with siloman, as he calls himself, before we had to get on the road. That silo was one of only three Atlas F silos with the platforms still in the silo part. We could not go down due to the time constraints, but were given and invitation to comeback. http://www.siloworld.com is siloman's website. The pictures of the renovated one are the daytime pictures. I wish that I had taken more, but the guy was a walking encyclopedia and it just slipped my mind.
So three days, two missile silos, one horrific hike later we looked back on a great weekend. Looking forward to going back to check out the airplane grave yard, old mines, and the bottom of those silos.
Dare To Know. |
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Tex Row
location:
The Great State of Texas
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 1 on 12/13/2009 10:39 AM >
| | | | I just realized that because I live in Texas does not mean Roswell does. I probably should have posted this in the Four Corners Section. Maybe an admin will move it... I was close. Sorry.
[last edit 12/13/2009 10:40 AM by Tex Row - edited 2 times]
Dare To Know. |
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IMPLAUS1BLE
   
location:
Houston
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 2 on 12/13/2009 3:09 PM >
| | | | Wow! I'm glad you posted this here, what an amazing story.
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towermonkey
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 3 on 12/14/2009 2:47 AM >
| | | | Great pics. There is another guy in Texas that converted an Atlas F silo. I took a tour of it a few years back. He was more than happy to show the place. Might be worth a call if you want to see another one. Shortly after our visit, he got the hydraulics to open the silo doors working. I would have loved to see that.
http://www.roadsid...ica.com/story/7244
Look around for a file named "silo.kmz". This is a GE file with all of the US missile silo locations identified. If you can't find it, I can send it to you. Hard to believe this kind of info is out there, but it is.
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Barry Kooda
  
location:
The Cliff
Gender: Male
Trees
| |  | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 4 on 12/14/2009 4:04 AM >
| | | | Excellent road trip!
I'm a blatant waste of time and resources. |
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Tex Row
location:
The Great State of Texas
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 5 on 12/14/2009 6:10 AM >
| | | | Yes, I have the Google Earth File. The ones near Abilene were an option, but many of them are being used/renovated. We were looking more for original/unchanged silos. The renovated silo was just a bonus feature. However the Abilene sites have come up in discussion about future outings and I hope I get a chance to look at some.
Dare To Know. |
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RevSM
 
location:
South Central Texas
| | | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 6 on 12/14/2009 5:10 PM >
| | | | Posted by towermonkey
Great pics. There is another guy in Texas that converted an Atlas F silo. I took a tour of it a few years back. He was more than happy to show the place. Might be worth a call if you want to see another one. Shortly after our visit, he got the hydraulics to open the silo doors working. I would have loved to see that.
http://www.roadsid...ica.com/story/7244
Look around for a file named "silo.kmz". This is a GE file with all of the US missile silo locations identified. If you can't find it, I can send it to you. Hard to believe this kind of info is out there, but it is.
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Been there, got to see him close the silo door. Totally awesome.
Tetanus for Breakfast!
http://www.shatteredshutter.com |
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insanedArk
 
location:
GTA
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 7 on 12/14/2009 5:35 PM >
| | | | Wow, great shots! You were lucky to get such a nice person to give you a tour!
Stay tuned for Exploring the World with Insane Dick! |
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Cossette
location:
F/RoX
Gender: Female
If u smacked a kid in the face w/a bottle of Johnson's NoMore Tears would it create beautiful irony
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 8 on 12/14/2009 7:41 PM >
| | | | great place id really like to see a silo/anything underground really (i hear there is one my me) thanks for sharing your story too
as for the guys who made one his home
fukin rad. and if i did something that bad ass id prob be nice enough to show those who were interested in my home. could u imagine living underground,very unique ....i could rock that lol, love it
"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe
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Tex Row
location:
The Great State of Texas
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 9 on 12/14/2009 10:21 PM >
| | | | Post by RevSM
Posted by towermonkey
Great pics. There is another guy in Texas that converted an Atlas F silo. I took a tour of it a few years back. He was more than happy to show the place. Might be worth a call if you want to see another one. Shortly after our visit, he got the hydraulics to open the silo doors working. I would have loved to see that.
http://www.roadsid...ica.com/story/7244
Look around for a file named "silo.kmz". This is a GE file with all of the US missile silo locations identified. If you can't find it, I can send it to you. Hard to believe this kind of info is out there, but it is.
Been there, got to see him close the silo door. Totally awesome.
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That is bad ass. It looks like that silo still had the different levels in the silo itself. Did y'all get a chance to go down and take a look? I believe there should be like a spiral stair case or something. Also, the guy who gave me a tour told us that for some unknown reason many of the actual launch control consols were lowered into the bottom of the silos. Do you know if that one still had the launch controls? I'd love to get some pictures of one of those.
Edited For Grammar
[last edit 12/14/2009 10:23 PM by Tex Row - edited 1 times]
Dare To Know. |
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backslider26
location:
Jonestown
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 10 on 12/15/2009 3:59 AM >
| | | | Holy shit you suck and I hate you!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn In am envious.........
Might have to take a looong trip for this.
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Novemberico
Baby murder
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 11 on 12/15/2009 6:21 AM >
| | | | I've always thought the guy who ran siloworld was an ultracool robot from another dimension - sweet story! I will definitely lobby to meet the man on our next trip to the white sands missile range.
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RevSM
location:
South Central Texas
| | | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 12 on 12/15/2009 3:32 PM >
| | | | The silo I went to near Abilene is owned by another guy who made the command center into his home. He didn't have any of the launch controls left behind but he sure had it nicely converted into a place to live.
He let us walk around in the silo and told us that it was the most intact of all the Atlas silos. All of the others had the metal removed. The bottom of the silo used to be full of water and much of the structure lower down was rather unsafe. He was very accommodating but only let me go down a level or two. I would have gone down to the very bottom if he allowed me to but I understood that he did not want to be responsible.
The view was breathtaking - like looking into a nightmare pit of hell all rusty and dirty and dark. 
Tetanus for Breakfast!
http://www.shatteredshutter.com |
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malcolmc
location:
Snyder, Texas
Gender: Male
| | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 14 on 12/15/2009 9:38 PM >
| | | | I visited a lot of the Abilene TX silos back in the 70's and some were falling apart then from the rust and water. The one the guy lives in is really sweet. You need to pay him a visit--he loves to give tours.
malcolmc |
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Wilk
location:
NYC
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Atlas F Missle Silos Roswell, NM
<Reply # 15 on 12/15/2009 10:24 PM >
| | | | Thanks A lot for sharing your trip Tex. I've explored quite a few Titan II's in Arizona and have been looking for info on the Atlas F silo's in NM.
I've emailed Siloman a few times, he does seem like a pretty cool guy. I might just have to make a trip out to Roswell sometime.
Ready for liftoff
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