June 15, 2005

Tour an abandoned missile silo. When the weather's hot, it's nice to cool off underground.
posted by kinnakeet 19 years ago
  • Based on all of the graffiti in the pictures, it seems as if this silo is a hang-out for the local teens. In a thousand years, archeologists will have to sort it out from the original architecture.
  • Ha! Looks familiar. Where I grew up, there was an abandoned Nike site that we would hop the fence into and drink, schmoke up, make out, the usual. The cool part was that the fences were locked and chained and the cops couldn't come in because it was federal territory or something, so we could have fun pretty much unimpeded. The short side of that was, the cops would be waiting for you at your car, if they sussed you were in there. BIG downer.
  • There's a really cool article about the old Nike sites around the country during the cold war in this month's 'Air and Space' magazine. East of Seattle there's one up near Cougar Mountain. Nothing much left except the launcher silos and a maintenance shed. I hear they've pretty much restored an old one near Los Angeles to near-pristine condition though. They even have a Nike missle they can bring up on the launcher to show off. Non-functional, of course (damn!)
  • God, that was a cool post. It has been a while since I was effectively spooked out, but this place does it for me. I think the water is the most horrifying part. Imagine, if you will, the panic as you fell down the launch silo into that acrid, filmy stew that is the black blood of that place. And the frenzied fingernail-ripping scrabble to find just a small handhold, any handhold. That is, if you didn't skewer yourself on whatever rusted, jagged machinery or pipes lay just under the water. Or possibly, getting impaled, but still being alive!! Omg, I just pissed myself.
  • Trig - The sides are slimy with growths, there is no handhold. Your shouts echo, but no answer comes. The spot of light above you slowly dims as night approaches. Still, you tread water, trying to keep your head above the surface. Etc.
  • If you liked that trig, you are going to just love going on your own silo diving expedition! :D http://www.northwestdiver.com/features/2003/0120-1.php I shuddered several times reading that.
  • Still, you tread water, trying to keep your head above the surface. As I recall, this is the point when you suddenly start pulling up from the water clump after clump of long, black hair.