Fort Leavenworth- strange facility questions

hey guys. sorry if i'm doing anything wrong, but it's my first few seconds on ATS. just wanted to see if anyone could help me or provide me with some insight on something that i've been curious about since i was 11 years old. my father is in the military, and serves with various special operations units, mostly combat, and when I was 11, i was living in fort leavenworth, kansas. directly behind my house was either the oregon or santa fe trail (can't remember which), but uphill from it was a small, concrete path that led to a small field with rusted car parts. in the middle of the field was an enormous missile-silo shaped structure with an empty middle, and beside that was a house-sized building with broken windows, rusted thick metal doors and one huge, 3 to 4 foot thick door with a round-shaped lever to close it with, much like a submarine. I never built up the courage to go into it, or even climb the missile-shaped silo. i can't seem to find it on google maps, but if anyone could help find it or give me some info on it, i'd be very grateful. thanks

Hi and welcome to ATS

Thanks for an interesting topic too.

A quick trip around google indicates Fort Leavenworth was once a base for the Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missile, an ancestor of the Patriot missile. It seems to have operated from underground shelters, much like the one you describe.

I can only assume the building you describe housed the centre from which the missiles were operated, although that's guesswork, it's difficult really to say without a picture.

If you go onto google maps, check out the satellite image of Fort Leavenworth. You're kinda lucky because it's got fairly good resolution for a military establishment (many such bases are censored) ... and you're right ... in the woodland area beside the Santa Fe trail there are roads which lead into the woodland and which look like they may once have serviced a missile battery.

I used google maps, entered Fort Leavenworth in the search box and zoomed in on the satellite pictures.

Does it look familiar ? If so, nice find !

reply to post by Niall197


Awesome info, man! Thanks!

Doesnt sound like Nike or Hercules site to me. They were underground and not in Silos.

When I was A kid I lived near an abandoned Nike site in Massachusetts. The doors that would open up from the underground and perch the nikes up on the sleds wre damn near rotted through, which I didnt notice, and proceded to walk on them. I fell right through but my jacket got caught on the jagged metal so I didnt plunge to my death.

But anyway, doesnt sound like nike or hercules to me. Can you post google earth pics or coordinates so I can check out the site.

Thanks


[edit on 11-12-2007 by METACOMET]

The place you are talking about was indeed a Nike missile site. I too lived at Fort Leavenworth and hiked down the old Oregon trail to the site on many occasions.

I hate to drag this topic back from the dead, but Mister is correct. I lived there too back in 1978-79 and the complex on that hill is indeed the fire and control center for the Nike missle launch site, which is located about a mile away.

Lat: 39.3445119 Lon: -94.9471200

In the center of the map is the command and control complex - or what is left of it and if you scroll north you will see what looks like a parking lot with a ton of RV's parked there. That is the actual launch site. When I was in the Boy Scouts we used to camp in the woods right near it. Cool place.

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