If home is where the heart is, what do you say about someone
who lives inside an abandoned missile silo? More importantly, what do they say
about themselves? For Edward and Dianna Peden, home is a refurbished Atlas-E
missile silo 25 miles west of Topeka,
Kansas. During the darkest days
of the Cold War, their underground home housed an intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM) with a 4-megaton warhead. Today, "Subterra", as their 34-acre
estate is known, provides what the Pedens call "a quiet, peaceful environment" which
"offers many features that many find uplifting and fun." As the couple explains
on their web site, "We of Subterra hold a vision of a healthy, healing,
community environment, nurturing Body, Mind, and Spirit."
A Cold War Fire Sale
During the 1960s, the United States Air Force (USAF)
abandoned scores of Atlas-E, Atlas-F and Titan-I missile silos as technological
advances made their weapons obsolete. For as little as a dollar apiece, the
USAF then sold these Cold War relics to farmers, salvage companies and rural
school districts. Today, 150 schoolchildren attend classes in a decommissioned
missile silo near Holton, Kansas. Edward Peden paid a far larger sum
($40,000) for what he calls his "twentieth-century castle", but his 1984
purchase was still a bargain. According to the New York Times, an Atlas-E missile silo cost the American taxpayer
a whopping $4 million in 1959. Abandoned six years later, the 120-foot
steel-ribbed tunnel flooded with rainwater and remained dark and dank until
nearly twenty years later, when Ed Peden explored the facility with a
flashlight and a canoe.
There's No Place Like Home
Pumped dry and well-lit, "Subterra" is now a split-level
home with four bedrooms and two baths. The 47-ton garage door that was once the
entrance to the missile bay can now be opened with a hand crank. The launch
control room where USAF technicians once readied a nuclear weapon during the Cuban
Missile Crisis now serves as a living room and boasts a cozy wood stove. During the 1990s, the
concrete bay that once held an Atlas-E missile contained wooden propellers,
fiberglass cockpits and aluminum wings for Ed Peden's ultralight planes, many
of which sold for more than $15,000.
Pssst. Wanna Buy a Missile Silo?
Ed Peden no longer sells flying machines, but he can sell you an abandoned missile silo. His business, 20th Century Castles, has provided over 40 of these derelict properties
to "excited owners that plan to refurbish and use them for various personal and
commercial purposes". So if you're thinking of buying a castle of your own, now
is the time to act. "Because the availability of these properties is limited",
Peden's web site explains, "these properties are selling fast."
Resources:
http://itotd.com/articles/282/missile-silo-homes/
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE4DC1639F932A35752C1A963958260
http://www.subterracastle.com/
http://www.atlasmissilesilo.com/images/web_atlas_silo1.jpg
Steve Melito - The Y Files
| 
Users who posted comments:
Andy Germany (1), cokelee (1), Guest (1), Kris (2), Moose (1), phoenix911 (1), PWSlack (1), vermin (1)