Sure, it might seem like a crazy, daunting task, but Flaningam isn’t the only one with underground dreams. He also rappelled into the silo, which is half-full of water, to fix some of his equipment.
He has hauled out truckloads of mud and scrap – one wheelbarrow at a time – and there is still tons more to remove.įor these few weeks in August, he and friend Dale Schramm worked on a new door sure to keep out the curious. So, for the past four or five years, Flaningam travels from his Wisconsin home to the location near Lyons, spending two weeks at a time cleaning and repairing his property. Perhaps someday it will become luxury condominiums. He wants to “try to showcase the potential of the place,” he said. Graffiti lines the walls of the former command center and living quarters, along with mold and rust from the lack of maintenance.įlaningam, however, sees past the dilapidated state. Then, for years, the silo sat abandoned, becoming a place for teen parties and other mischief. The government took out the missile and sold the site to a salvage company, which scrapped out all the metal before selling it off to someone else. 6 was outdated and decommissioned, along with the rest of the nation’s Atlas sites. He notes that back then, with the push of a button, it would take 40-some minutes for the missile to hit the former Soviet Union.īut by 1965, site No. “This was an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Flaningam said as he wandered through the old underground local control center, the institutional green paint chipping from the musty walls. Staffed 24-7, crews were prepared, if necessary, to fire up a nuclear warhead. 6, which overlooks rolling pastures, was one of 12 Atlas F nuclear missile sites across central Kansas once operated by Schilling Air Force Base in the 1960s. This, after all, is a bizarre souvenir from the U.S. It doesn’t surprise him that such a site draws a bit of attention.
On occasion, Jeff Flaningam says, a few partyers searching for his site that sits 174 feet deep below the prairie have come down the road too fast – ramming through his locked iron gate.
It only stretches about a mile across this remote area of Rice County, laid more than 50 years ago for military vehicles.
Domestic abandoned missile silo numbers full#
The paved road that leads to the Cold War relic is full of potholes.
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