Near Topsfield, Massachusetts, there are ruins of old an old Nike Missile base. Accessing the ruins is easy. People technically aren't supposed to go to the location, but it isn't really enforced. You have to squeeze through a chained gate, but once you're passed that, it's pretty much impossible to be spotted. The ruins aren't the most interesting spot in the world, but I had a lot of fun exploring them. The location has been heavily vandalized, and there are no original artifacts left. Additionally, some spot have fallen victim to scrappers. There is broken glass absolutely everywhere, so it's best to wear long pants and thick boots when exposing the ruins. The area consists of several buildings. The largest one is very easy to access. You just need to walk on a short, ten foot long trail to reach it. There are two other smaller buildings off in the woods. They're pretty hard to reach because there are no trails that lead to them. The woods are full of thorns, poison ivy, and mud during the warmer months, but the trip is worth it. The buildings in the woods are still badly vandalized, but are somewhat better preserved. There is one more building opposite the largest structure. The only door collapsed, so you have to crawl through a three foot tall gap to enter. This building is by far the most interesting in my opinion. It's not underground, but the lack of windows and single door make it feel like it. It's pitch black, and you need a flashlight to explore it. There is a large heating/cooling system in one of the rooms that looks like it's leaking asbestos. It's probably safe as long as you don't disturb it, but I wore a respirator.

I've attached photos of the location.

click to view

click to view

click to view

Sorry about the image quality. I had to really compress these to get them to fit the file size limit.

Looks like a graffiti tornado came through

Looks like the photos are of a barrack, missile or warhead assembly building, and then what looks to be an Admin building.

Keep in-mind that each Nike location had at-least two, sometimes three facilities:
And Admin Area with offices, housing, recreational facilities, the Integrated Fire Control area (usually on high ground) where search, tracking & control RADAR antennas were and the missiles were controlled from, and then the Battery Area, where the missiles and launch crews were located.

Sometimes each of the above is separated from the other by a mile or-so. For technical reasons, the IFC & Launch Battery had to be at least a half mile apart but in a few cases they could be several miles apart, but with visual line of sight between the two. Often, the Admin area was located immediately adjacent to the IFC or Launch Battery. It often depended on geography & how much land parcels the Government Services Administration was able to buy from local owners back in the 1950s.

So *maybe* you explored everything, but maybe not. This is where doing advance research, especially looking at your target via Google Earth, pays off.


http://www.ed-thelen.org/


/-/ooligan

Posted by DudeManDeuce Looks like a graffiti tornado came through

Pretty much.

Oh yeah this is a cool spot, I've been here! Though I never saw the room in the second picture? I must have missed it

Posted by nickaalex Oh yeah this is a cool spot, I've been here! Though I never saw the room in the second picture? I must have missed it

It's a separate building way off the trail. You have to go through a ton of mud and thorns to reach it.