Today, most of the 18 silo sites are privately owned. “People who weren’t interested in what was underground bought them for the land.”
“They went for a fairly reasonable price,” Morris said. Then the government put the sites up for sale. When the aging Titans were decommissioned in 1984, demolition crews caved in the silos with explosives and back-filled the access shafts for the launch control centers with concrete and other debris, Morris said. to pretty much anywhere in the Soviet Union,” said Yvonne Morris, who commanded one of Tucson’s nuclear silo crews and now serves as director of the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita. “They could reach from pretty much anywhere in the U.S. Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star New life for Cold War relicįrom the early 1960s until the early 1980s, Tucson was ringed by 18 missile silos, each capable of launching a Titan II missile in as little as 30 minutes and wiping out a target more than 6,000 miles away with a nuclear warhead 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The asking price for the onetime Titan Missile complex is $395,000. Ladders lashed together are the only way to the former crew entrance nearly 100 feet underground on the site. Hampton said showings will only be given to serious buyers with proof of financing.Įllis joked that if they tried to hold an open house for potential buyers, “their surviving relatives might end up owning the place.” In a few places, there are openings in the metal floor above 20-foot drops.Īnyone who goes inside is required to sign a liability waiver. The underground space is dark and dirty, with stagnant water and the remains of dead rodents in several rooms. Being sold as isĪfter opening the metal doors covering the bunker’s vertical access portal, he led his visitors past a pack-rat nest and down a short flight of concrete stairs to the wobbly 40-foot extension ladder that provides the only way in or out of the facility.Īlong the way, he pointed out the spot where he confronted a 5-foot long rattlesnake and demonstrated the sound the 6,000-pound blast door makes when it slams shut at the entrance to the launch control center.
#MISSILE SILO PROFESSIONAL#
The silo’s current owner, Rick Ellis, led Hampton and a pair of professional photographers down into the bunker to get pictures and 3-D images for the listing.Įllis said he’s selling the property because he’s “bored” and has better things to do with his money, but it’s obvious he still enjoys showing the place off to people. “This is the coolest listing I’ve had to date,” said Realtor Grant Hampton during a visit to the site off Arizona 79 on Friday morning.
The decommissioned Titan II missile silo about 35 miles north of Tucson officially hit the market on Friday. There’s no annoying homeowners association to deal with, though there might be a few restrictions on the property left over from the Cold War. With an asking price of $395,000, this mid-century fixer-upper includes almost 13 acres of open desert and an elaborate, 4,000-square-foot basement built to withstand a nuclear strike. Southern Arizona’s hot real estate market is about to go nuclear with a new listing near Oracle Junction.
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