Bruce knows all the local silos he points at a map and rattles off status: "This one is owned by the school district, and it's filled with water.this one has been completely stripped. An arrangement of photos and artifacts in display cases sit on the first level. Everything echoes down here, footsteps boom ominously, thick metal doors clank into thick metal latches. We head down into the control center, descending a steep flight of stairs. It could keep me busy the rest of my life." "There's always something that needs work. And the local community pitched in to help him get the place back into shape. Most of the work has not required any sort of building permits, something a big city guy had to get used to. The site is in better shape than most, more stable, and in a pleasant setting of slight hills and woods. "I moved down here from Chicago just to do this." Though he knew nothing of savvy silo shopping at the time, his turned out to be a fortuitous selection. In 1997, Bruce found his dream silo in Texas. I always remembered the missile base and thought it would be a great challenge as I got older." "I had modeled a lot of houses, and kind of got bored with it. You can buy your own missile base.' And that just sort of stuck in my head." Over time, the notion grew. "I saw a fellow (Ed Peden) on Johnny Carson, in about 1985, and he talked about owning a missile silo. "The Feds took it."īruce was a home remodeler in Chicago when he first pondered the virtues of bunker living. A crane provided by local volunteers eased the giant metal and concrete slab open, allowing him to install a "ram" - similar in principle to the hydraulic lifters that used to muscle the hatch open for missile drills and maintenance. We head over to the open silo door, which Bruce considers his greatest accomplishment to date on the site. still no answer.įifteen minutes later, we are detected by the surveillance system, and Bruce appears. We open the door and shout "HELLO" down the stairs. Then we spot a small concrete blockhouse with a door, perhaps leading down to the bunker. We peer down into the Atlas missile silo - we'd heard Bruce managed to open one of the multi-ton, 3-ft.thick blast doors in 2002 for the first time in decades. For some reason, when we roll in security is lax, and we go unnoticed. From his entertainment console deep underground in the Command and Control Center, Bruce can watch visitors via video cameras as the enter the front gate. Arrangements for a visit must be made in advance, and the hardened nature of the bunker discourages just dropping in.Ī straight, dusty drive off FM 604 leads to the Oplin site. ![]() ![]() Bruce Townsley, private owner of a decommissioned site in Oplin, conducts an Atlas Missile Bunker Tour.
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