The fact that they are able to live here is amazing. "The history alone is overwhelming," said Polly Figueroa. Several former Atlas sites have been converted into private homes by buyers interested in something different to live in. In 1965, the billion-dollar Atlas-F missile program was replaced by more dependable, less expensive Minuteman missiles. One of America’s deterrents were the Atlas missile sites in Nebraska. The Cuban nuclear crisis was averted when the Soviet Union backed down and dismantled its missile sites. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. Because you aren’t going to live after it.” "If I were you, if you heard there was warheads coming our way. "The launch crews did not know if we were going to have to go to war," Duffy said.ĭuffy called home to tell his family what to do if the Soviets launched nuclear missiles. military on high alert after learning Russia was building nuclear launch sites on Cuba. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and placed the U.S. "Most of the whole time I was here I was in a missile silo," Duffy said. The Atlas-F nuclear missile could be ready for launch in 15 minutes.Įighty-year-old Dan Duffy of Lincoln was a technician on one of the Air Force launch crews that manned the Atlas sites at the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The steel framework within the silo equals the height of an 18 story building and weighed about 1,500 tons. Through three more blast doors is the massive Atlas silo itself, now mostly filled with water. They have, really, I mean, all the basics that you would need." "So they've got hot and cold running water, and they've got an electric furnace as well as a wood burning stove. "They've got two wells to fill up four 500 gallon water tanks," Mike Figueroa said. The doors open into the two-story living area that used to be the missile site’s command and control center. At the thickest point it looks like it’s probably close to a foot.," Mike Figueroa said. Thirty-feet underground we pass through the first of five steel doors built to protect the Air Force launch team from nuclear attack. Some of the hottest times in the Cold War." "Lincoln had some of the first missile silos ever built in the United States. "Basically when Atlas missiles came along it was this brand new science that the Air Force really took and ran with to supplement their bomber force," Branting said.īranting says the former Lincoln Air Force Base commanded 12 Atlas Missile sites in Nebraska. “The same quality of condo in New York would have cost me the same, if not more per square foot,” one Survival Condo client wrote, “and you get peace of mind with this.Cold War historian Rob Branting, a native of Lincoln, is supervisor of North Dakota’s Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Historic Site. All the units have already sold, and he’s currently working on a second silo development. It features 12 private units ranging in price from $1.5 million to $4.5 million each. (Almost.)Īnd for the paranoiac looking for more of a turnkey experience: Developer and prepper Larry Hall converted a silo north of Wichita, Kansas, into a 15-story luxury “ Survival Condo” complex. “Cozy decor and soft lighting could make you almost forget you’re underground,” Insider notes. One couple renovated a silo into another kind of fortress - a castle. Atlas missile silos were con structed around the country in the late 1950s and early only to be decommissioned when the missile technology be came obsolete. (Its owners had moved on to a different converted missile silo.) There are minimalist bachelor-pad silos and luxury silos. In April, a missile silo in Abilene, Kansas, a couple-hour drive from Kansas City, sold for $380,000. It’s hard to say whether interest has increased as we hit the gas on our way to democratic collapse and climate disaster (ha ha!), but the market seems steady: Every year or so, you see a new story about someone living in one. Despite what you may think, the property is not unique, as silo-living has become a thing in the U.S.
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