It’s only the fourth day of the New Year, and already I want to get away. Holidays with the family will do that, you know? But where to? Well, a decommissioned nuclear missile base and bunker 4,000 miles away sounds appealing. And for less than a million bucks, I’d have more acreage, garage space, and personal peace than a cramped studio in Honolulu going for the same price.
Tucked away in rural Kansas is a 23-acre lot that features a 4,000 sq. ft. home, a 1,250-foot-long airstrip, and a missile silo. And according to Zillow, it can be mine (or yours) for just $749,000. Ready for move-in, the above-ground living quarters are courtesy of a Quonset hut. This dome-style flat-front structure was initially developed as housing barracks during World War II. The post-war surplus was sold to the public and repurposed into restaurants, churches, farms, and, in this case, a home.
The listing says nothing about the hut house but images show what looks like a newly finished interior with a full kitchen, living room, small dining area, and a 3/4 bath. There is one bedroom, which is located in the adjacent tower. It’s also the only room of the topside home with natural light. Of course, yes, the underground missile base is the hidden paradise. The Atlas missile was the U.S. Air Force’s first operational Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and developed versions A through F.
The listing only states that the facility is an Atlas E missile silo, but The Military Standard filled in the blanks.
The 548th Strategic Missile Squadron operating out of Forbes Air Force Base was responsible for this and eight other Atlas E sites in Kansas. This particular location operated from 1960 through 1965. The Atlas E was unique because it was deployed horizontally via underground “coffins,” giving it the nickname of “coffin bird.” Throwing dirt on the missile added to the effect but also mitigated against overpressures by 25 psi.
You can imagine how much room and protection was needed to safely store a nuclear missile underground. The missile itself was 82.5 feet long with a 10-foot diameter and had a range of 11,000 miles. I couldn’t find its weight, but the previous version, Atlas D, was beyond big at 262,000 pounds, so give or take that much for the E. Including the underground base, the entire compound has more than 15,000 sq. ft. of doing-whatever-you-want space. Covered in what’s probably an excessive amount of reinforced concrete, the silo offers protection from overpressures of up to 100 psi.
The underground facilities look like a work in progress, but what is being done? No clue. The listing pretty much leaves everything to the imagination—to us, it looks like prime parking for an immense amount of vehicles. In photos, a room of some kind is in the early build stages in one area, but the rest of the decommissioned base looks swept clean of anything related to the Cold War-era military operations. Maybe you’ll find a DOD paperclip in some rubble but with limited hiding spaces—the whole thing is concrete—I don’t think a cache of secret documents in a hidden compartment. The feds already fessed up about aliens, anyway.
It’s really a whole lot of empty with minimal supporting pillars in the way. I really wish there was more info on the interior dimensions or how many rooms. Given what we do know, a stackable garage would easily fit in one corner with a detailing bay nearby. One room looks large enough for an autocross course. Just avoid that big hole in the ground. Or fill it. It’s a clean slate silo that’s all yours. Not every underground bunker has to be designed for a doomsday prepper. Sometimes, you just want to escape everyday stressors and read a book in your car. Parked in your underground missile silo.
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