Are There Really Decommissioned Nuclear Missile Silos in the Midwest?

Yes. They were a constant part of our reality (and part of the myths and legends we lived by) growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. The original ones were mothballed beginning in the 1990s.

Myths and legends about those silos included accidental underground explosions and fires; mysterious gravel roads leading, seemingly, nowhere; subterranean cities; tunnels connecting all of the silos to each other, even running beneath I-70 all the way to the Rocky Mountains (800 miles to the west) where there was, reputedly, the primary deep holding area for the top 100 families in America should the country be wiped out in nuclear armageddon.

When new kids showed up at school, we would occasionally wonder if their father was part of the Minuteman operation. The closest silo site was about 30 miles away from us across the Missouri River. That site and more than 100 more were controlled by Whiteman Air Force Base near Sedalia, some 90 miles from Columbia. We never had the gumption as rebellious teens to drive all the way to Whiteman and nose around.

I stumbled upon Nate Hofer in my research for Sound Effect Infinity, a photographer and musician, who has occasionally recorded absolutely astounding ethereal ambient pedal-steel guitar music in an Atlas missile silo in Kansas. Nate's work is a treat to listen to and I will report here later in more detail on some of the lessons in sound that he learned during his recording experiments.

Also, and maybe closer to the world of Sound Effect Infinity, I tripped over a remarkable story about a group of major psychedelic drug manufacturers in the Midwest who operated out of secret labs located in a decommissioned Minuteman missile silo known as the "Subterranean LSD Palace." I will report more on that story as well in a later edition of Deep-Fried America Dispatches.

To learn more about ICBM missile system installations in the rural Midwest and West, start with: Rural Missile Sites or New START Milestone.