FSBO, Unique Fixxer-Upper Opportunity

| August 8, 2020


This Fairdale, North Dakota, missile silo and bunker is up for auction in August. (Pifer)

Category: None

24 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mason

It doesn’t come with the missile?

Dave, can you get the Soviet to translate “OROCHENKO”? It’s painted on the top of one of the surface structures. I assume that’s for the purpose of the START Treaty and telling the Russkies it’s decommissioned?

Ex Coelis

Mason – looks like the owners name(minus the ‘V’)

26Limabeans

Are there any lost wrenches at the bottom of the silo?

Hondo

It was a different type of missile. Don’t sweat it. (smile)

Ex Coelis

Probably not… The site for sale is a Sprint missile site(anti-ballistic missile) –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(missile).
Think you might be thinking of the 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion(Titan II Inter Continental Ballistic Missile) –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion ☢️

Ex-PH2

You mean…. we don’t got no NORAD and no more missiles in them there hills any more?

Aww, nuts! What’s the point to ending the Cold War, then?

Ex Coelis

Here’s the link and I’ve got to admit, this site looks exceedingly cool – https://www.pifers.com/listing/4948-acre-missile-site-walsh-county-nd

Ex-PH2

Weird. I have something coming up later about a missile attack on Kansas.

David

Note how the yearly taxes are a whole $326 a year. However also note there is no power or water.

Mason

Looking at the pictures it seems there’s plenty of water. 😉

ninja

Here is the link covering AW1Ed’s Story:

“This Cold War-Era Missile Silo Is The Ultimate Fixer-Upper”

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2020/08/07/this-cold-war-era-missile-silo-is-the-ultimate-fixer-upper/

“Want to buy a Cold War-era command center and missile silo? Well, you’re in luck. One in Fairdale, North Dakota, is now available for auction, and it’s got everything … except the ordnance.”

“Located just south the Canadian border, the site, which was commissioned in the 1970s, was defunded before it was ever put to use, according to property manager David Keller.”

“The whole site was commissioned and ready to go … but had already been defunded when it became active,” Keller told Military Times.”

“The defunct site, one of many built to protect the United States from Soviet attacks over the Arctic, was armed with defensive missiles intended to shoot down any indirect fire.”

“This particular site was part of the Sprint Missile Defense System,” Keller said. “This was a defensive system, it was designed to shoot down any incoming missiles.”

“Sprint was an ICBM interceptor missile from the 1960s that was considered the final line of defense, a last-ditch option in the event of a Soviet missile-launch.”

“Currently the place is owned by a private buyer who originally intended to refurbish the property and return it to its former glory.”

“Leslie Volochenko bought it and had plans to restore it, but it never came to be,” Keller noted.”

As Ex Coelis noted in the above comment, the auction for this particular plot, which encompasses roughly 50 acres, is set for August 11.

Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman

Be interesting to follow this auction. Fifty acres of raw land, with buildings, but no utilities (power, water, sewage). And colder than a polar bears behind for who knows how long each year.
Any trees to burn in a wood burning stove?

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

The Niky base in Point Lookout Long Island NY was put up as part of the DEW line but is now vacant and flooded. Don’t know if anyone bought the property.

Ex-PH2

When was that base shut down? 1990s?

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Ex;

The Point Lookout/Lido Niky base was shut down in the mid 1960’s and the Long Beach School District uses some of the buildings according to my friend Whom I called before typing this out.

5th/77th FA

Lot’s of Cold War former targets out there for sale. The Dakotas, KS, and NE are full of them. In addition to the “fixer up” status, they most probably still have the “target” status. Despite the spapos seagull’s accusations that many of us are still stuck in a Cold War Era mentality, most of us know and understand that what was a target 50 years ago is still a viable target today. There were 4 Nike sites perched around Middle Georgia to help protect Robins. It was known when they were built that it was just whistling in the dark.

Being assigned to the Missile Silos, ICBM or Nike, was not exactly fun duty. Just as it was in the tactical nuke game where we just hoped we’d have time to launch the birds. Had a good friend that spent a good portion of his AF Air Police Career in the Missile Fields. He made mention once that part of his mission was to insure that the launch officer turned his key at the appointed time. No matter what it took.

Maybe we should bid on it and turn the place into a Summer Camp for TAH ‘weeds and ‘weedettes?

26Limabeans

I would like to have one of the old AT&T long lines sites
with the giant free standing tower and bunker.
You could talk to God from there.

Stewart C Waymon (PARANAH)

When I was stationed at White Sands (67-68) I got the chance to witness a Sprint missile launch, if you blinked you missed it. Absolutely unbelievably FAST, more like a controlled explosion.

Sapper3307

Looks like a commercial for mesothelioma litigation.

11B-Mailclerk

Now -that- is “the back of beyond”.

Martinjmpr

Looks like a commercial for mesothelioma litigation.

Big time. There are easier and cheaper ways to be miserable than trying to renovate an old silo.

These things were built in a rush in the 60’s and have 50+ years of neglect to boot. “Underground” facilities need lots of maintenance as water and critters tend to come in from the most unlikely places.

I was talking to someone online years ago who assured me that it would only take a little work for those “deactivated” silos to become active. I laughed and pointed out to him that it would be easier and cheaper for the military to buy a vacant piece of land and build a brand new silo from scratch than it would be to try to reactivate one of these old, decrepit facilities.

Martinjmpr

With regard to the Sprint/Spartan missiles and Micklesen Safeguard Complex itself, even in an era of mind-boggling military spending the Safeguard program stood out. From the Wikipedia:

The site achieved initial operating capability on 1 April 1975, and full operational capability on 1 October 1975 costing over $2 Billion adjusted for inflation. The House of Representatives voted to decommission the project on 2 October 1975 after they deemed it ineffective. The complex was deactivated on 10 February 1976, after less than a year of operation and 24 hours of full operational capacity.

$2 billion to build and it was active for just 3 months. that works out to approximately $22 million per day of operation.

On the flip side, maybe it was worth it if it got the Soviets to the negotiating table?

As a student of history, it saddens me to see things like this get forgotten – seems like we’ll revere a historic site that is 100 years old or associated with “the Good War (WWII) but relics of the Cold War tend to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Eastern Colorado is dotted with the hulks of 6 enormous underground missile bases that were built in the early 60’s (Titan 1.) They were only active for about 4 years before they were replaced and largely forgotten. Most were sold off to private owners.

Regardless of one’s politics, these bases were a significant and important part of recent American history and it’s a shame that there’s not much public interest in preserving at least one of them.