Headed out into Kansas on a bike, I did not know what to expect. In all my wildest imaginations, though, I never would have dreamt up this.
I arrive mid-afternoon in the heat of the day, riding the last bits on gravel. An airstrip, some apple trees, and castle towers surround me. A limestone sign announces I am in the right place.
I pull up to a structure with a doorbell and ring it. I wait sometime, and begin to wonder if anyone will really show up. Staying in a missile silo did sound a bit implausible. Finally, though, a tall thin man with long graying hair and wire glasses answers the door. It did not look like the person I had expected so I announce that I am Jenny, and I had booked a place on AirBnB. He replies, ‘Oh, yes, you are the AirBnB person. Come on in.’
This apparently is a new venture for the missile silo—it’s latest in many strange reincarnations. By far the strangest transformation, though, was in the late 1980s when Ed, the man who opened the door, bought it. In the 1950s, as part of preparedness for a possible nuclear strike by Russia, the U.S. government constructed 9 Atlas missile silos outside of Topeka, Kansas. This was #6. A 4 megaton hydrogen bomb attached to a missile designed to travel as far as 6000 miles away lay here four feet under earth in a massive steel and concrete “coffin” from 1960 to 1964.
Footage of a truck driving an Atlas missile to one of the Kansas coffin sites
Matthew, my host for the evening, stumbled upon it when he was ten. He was exploring, as he often did, the fields around his home in the Flint Hills. Usually the big find would be a pond to fish in. This time it was a whole other world. I entered the missile silo Saturday afternoon the way that Matthew had many years ago: through the tunnel entrance at the right of this massive 4 ton metal door.
He reported walking in the tunnel in the dark and promptly running back out again.
He returned the next day with a flashlight. This is when he met Ed, the creator of this amazing home. They have been friends ever since.
Matthew graciously gave me the complete tour. He explained that when Ed arrived, the place had been abandoned for two decades. A salvage company bought the site from the U.S. military, scrapped the metal, and then left the rest to the elements to do with them what they would. By the time Ed first saw the site, the subterranean spaces had filled with 8 feet of water. Ed constructed a rope and put a flashlight in a plastic bag and swam around to see what lay underneath the water. Whatever he saw led him to be convinced—he would purchase the place.
Thus ensued a decade long labor of love attempting to turn a place of powerful ‘bad’ energy into a place for shamans and rebirth. It was hard, hard work. After the water was drained, wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of silt and debris had to be removed. New beautiful spaces were built in their place. Where the generators used to be (quite a few were required to move megaton doors and blast off a missile) now there is a Great Room filled with drums and other musical instruments.
In the control room, there is an altar to many different religions’ professions of peace and love.
Stain glassed window from a church in Kansas Ed’s wife used to attend
There is a kitchen with a dining table which seats at least 20 people where many a feast has been enjoyed. Ed is passionate about cultivating human togetherness and peaceful living. Anti-nuclear signs fill the place.
Matthew also has visions for the place. In the large cavernous space where the missile used to reside he is constructing a climbing and workout space.
And I was pleased to see that there was a space for bikes.
Much of the non-nuclear technology remains, including this old control panel that used to include the launch button.
Apparently it was stolen, but many of the original control buttons remained.
Not only does Ed and his wife Dianna live in this former missile silo, attempting to cultivate collective peaceful and sustainable modes of life, they also run a missile silo conversion business, 20th century Castles LLC. This LLC has closed 60 different missile silos sales around the country. And why would you want to buy one of these? So the 20th Century website explains:
Bringing new meaning to the word “shelter,” missile bases and bunkers are built to stand the test of time. They will offer privacy, security and functionality for generations to come. We consider these underground fortresses the 20th Century’s counterpart of the fortified castles of Europe, hence our business name, 20th Century Castles, LLC.
If you are seeking a worthy investment, these highly sought after “hard assets,” certainly continue to appreciate in value. They are rare, collectable real estate and represent a multimillion dollar head-start on any retrofit project. Particularly given the current economic, geopolitical, and environmental conditions, investing your money into such a structure can create long-term value.
An asset and home for these times of violent weather and volatile politics? Rather than buying an island, why not a missile silo?
There was much talk over a lovely dinner prepared by Leigh Ann (friend of Ed’s and partner of Matthew) of the North Korea threat and hurricanes. All of this, they told me, created a greater needed for people to learn ‘continuity’ planning and preparedness. The government estimates that within a year of an electromagnetic pulse of a large enough size 70% of the world’s population would die from starvation and ‘societal collapse.’ One former continuity planner for the U.S. government bought one of the missile silos with the help of Ed and Diane’s company, and has created his own company: Survival Condos. This missile silo was not horizontal, but vertical, extending 15 stories underground. Now these stories are being converted into luxury condos with climbing walls, swimming pools, dog parks and even aquaponic farming. No need to go outside ever again! Or at least for five years.
Artist’s rendition of a survival condo unit
If we fail at caring for the prairies, perhaps we will do what the grasses do, and put most of our life’s fortunes underground.
But tomorrow, back to the life over ground. I bike out in the morning to a 7,000 acre ranch deep in the Flint Hills.