Old nuclear missile bases make good homes!?!?!

[u-noob-tu]

i found a game called penguin command in the software center and, feeling nostalgic for the original missile command, i googled it to find that you can actually play it for free online. however, i have google instant enabled, and after i typed in the word "missile" i looked up to see two things: i misspelled "missile" as missle" and a search suggestion for "missile silos for sale". so i clicked on it and to my astonishment, i saw a website listing an old base in Creta, Oklahoma. Heres the short website except from google result for "www.missilebases.com":
Abandoned missile bases make safe and unique homes. We offer underground missile site properties for sale, including photos, descriptions, and prices.. several things popped in my mind: why would anyone want to live in a place that had the capacity to wipe out mankind, and couldnt the government do something better with the place than sell it?

[3Miro]

several things popped in my mind: why would anyone want to live in a place that had the capacity to wipe out mankind, and couldnt the government do something better with the place than sell it?

I don't see how objections to Nuclear weapons relate to the possibility of living in an abandoned site. The missiles are gone. Unlike a nuclear war, many atrocities did happen in history, would you say that people shouldn't live on the sites where those happened?

The government could have made it into a museum, which might be more useful, but the government sells surplus things all the time. Why would a missile silo be any different from all other equipment. I can think of a few Hollywood studios that I am sure could use the site to film war movies.

I would think that the silo isn't exactly made for living, I am not sure how they will do on the plumbing. I might be worried about left-over radiation as well as the site still being on the hit list of potential targets for foreign attacks, but other than that, I don't see a problem of living in an abandoned site.

[Tibuda]

why would anyone want to live in a place that had the capacity to wipe out mankind,
Who would not want to live there? :popcorn:


and couldnt the government do something better with the place than sell it?
Yes, but it would meean more maintenance expenses.

[PapaGary]

Here in Kansas we have one missile site that now has a school built on top of it. The under ground rooms are used for storage.

Another site was sold to a family and they have lived it it for several years. The big problem living underground is water leakage (flooding rooms and constant humidity). The site made into a home has been for sale for some time.

[jmore9]

If you are looking at properties like that then you should look at old nike-hercules sites . They would be easier to convert into living areas , in my opion.

[Frogs Hair]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4RbLyqMbQ&feature=related

[SoFl W]

I remember seeing tv shows YEARS ago showing how people live in these things. It is underground and it has a constant temperature of about 65 degrees. It had plenty of room because of the need for equipment and personal. The only sad part is, being underground not a lot of sunlight. However some of the homes in the TV show put in skylights in the silo, and made that room the living room.

I always thought it would be a cool place to live. The only problem I saw was the long set of stairs you had to climb to get in/out of the house.


I would think that the silo isn't exactly made for living, I am not sure how they will do on the plumbing.
It had plumbing, and facilities. It was a manned silo. Had rooms for sleeping, and the off hours.

I might be worried about left-over radiation
What radiation?


as well as the site still being on the hit list of potential targets for foreign attacks, but other than that, I don't see a problem of living in an abandoned site.
Do you honestly think it would make a difference if some other country bombed your country and your home was a target or not a target? They were originally designed with the possibility of launching after an attack. So they were built strong for the weapons of the time. The bombs eventually got bigger.

[madhi19]

I so use it to build a Vault-Tec home design! :)

[1clue]

I talked to a guy who said he bought one. It was adjacent to his property and the price was right, he said it cost him more in taxes than purchase price.

I can't imagine living in a hole that deep, especially one with such a grim purpose, but the one that guy got came with an old but first rate and extremely well-maintained machine shop. The government felt that the equipment was old enough that it wasn't worth pulling the stuff out of the hole.

All that said, while I had driven down the highway this thing was on I have never been inside it or even slowed down near it. That, and I don't recall ever having heard of another one coming with a machine shop.

One thing I know from when the silos in South Dakota got decommissioned all at the same time, there was no measurable difference in the radiation inside one of those silos than there was in a well you would drill anywhere else in the area. That, and heating was amazingly simple and humidity control was a bear.

[drawkcab]

maximum security, a survivalist's dream home

[1clue]

So where would you put the panic room in a place like that anyway?

[u-noob-tu]

maximum security, a survivalist's dream home

The only kind of person I can see buying one is an eccentric millionaire who either wants to live there to be unique or has some kind of paranoia of an immenent nuclear war.

[1clue]

Why millionaire? Some of them went for a dollar.

[Paqman]

Why millionaire? Some of them went for a dollar.

They'd take a fair bit of work to convert into a comfortable home, but I have seen a couple of plans. Some are in nice remote locations with their own airstrips, so make interesting holiday homes. Others have been converted into secure data centres, as they're set up to have their own power and HVAC anyway.

[Bandit]

why would anyone want to live in a place that had the capacity to wipe out mankind,

Hmm.. Earth??

Why would anyone want to live on Earth...:confused:

[SoFl W]

Hmm.. Earth??
Why would anyone want to live on Earth...:confused:
;) I guess some people worry too much. Ohhhh I don't use knives, they can be used to kill someone! I never use water because water causes so many problems (http://www.dhmo.org/), Ohh the horror, ohh the problems, woe is me!

[walt.smith1960]

...........
Do you honestly think it would make a difference if some other country bombed your country and your home was a target or not a target? They were originally designed with the possibility of launching after an attack. So they were built strong for the weapons of the time. The bombs eventually got bigger.

Actually, the bombs got smaller. More accurate though. The highest yield weapons were produced in the late '50s-early 60's. When you only confident of being about to get your weapon within a couple miles, it had to be big enough to do a LOT of damage 2 miles away. Today, they're much more accurate so they can be smaller and still obliterate the target. Such is progress, huh? I for one am glad the theories have not (to date) been tested.

[HermanAB]

Eventually the weapons got so accurate, that nuclear bombs have become obsolete.

[b2zeldafreak]

I saw your link to the water problem. I thought I knew where it would go. I was not disappointed. :P

[Paqman]

Eventually the weapons got so accurate, that nuclear bombs have become obsolete.

Would that that were true. Precision guided munitions have now got some overlap with tactical nukes, but the strategic weapons do still fill a niche that conventional weapons can't.

[1clue]

They'd take a fair bit of work to convert into a comfortable home, but I have seen a couple of plans. Some are in nice remote locations with their own airstrips, so make interesting holiday homes. Others have been converted into secure data centres, as they're set up to have their own power and HVAC anyway.

That kind of depends on which one you got, and what your definition of comfortable is. IMO the people who have too specific a definition won't be moving into the thing unless they are still afraid of a nuclear war in spite of the missiles being gone.

On the other hand, you're looking at furnishing a living space. You need to take care of the usually-present humidity problem, but chances are the equipment for that is still in it even if it might be in need of repair. Some of them came full of water, in which case you probably won't sleep real well there anyway, or I wouldn't.

The one I saw reasonably close didn't have an airstrip. It was on prairie so I suspect a helicopter pad might have been there hidden by grass, but I didn't see it.

[scouser73]

I've seen a programme about this, it was very interesting to see how people had made a home out of a former bunker.