Underground fallout shelter has fresh coat of paint, for sale under $1 million
C. Jayden Smith|Salina Journal
GYPSUM — Just a few miles east of Gypsum, a lone door pokes out of the sprawling prairie.
Below, there's an entire property for sale.
The North Star Missile Silowas used during the height of the Cold War in the early 1960sandis up for sale, with a price tag of $989,000.
Theentire property spans 18 acres, with the silo near the centerand protected bychain-linkfencing and security cameras.
TheNorth Star is one of 12 ATLAS sites built by the federal governmentaround the central area of Kansas, with $110 million poured into each space.
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Aselling point of the property is that there are numerous uses. Buyers can live in the two-story, former launch control center underground as a modernhome, or they could build a home atop with their safe house bunker easily accessible. It could also work as a survivor-themed hotel, training camp, corporate secure storage, and more.
Other silos have been used as condominiums, in whichthe silo that goes down nearly 180 feetisused like a 17-story building that can be rented out by each floor.
When Paul Novitzkehappened upon the North Star silo in June, he saw an opportunity to take on a “doable” project during the pandemic.
His normal occupation, as acaptain of a private yachtin Florida, shut down as people took fewer tripsand freed him to spend time working on the silo.
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Renovating a missile silo
He closed on the property in November, and then hired a crew of four others to help cleanand do other repairs for six weeks before winter set in.
The area was grown over with weedsto the point where the top of the silo couldn't be seen.
Inside, Novitzkeand his crew painted over the walls, doors, and handrails, some of which the owner did after he came back to the silo around a month ago.
“This was all gray. There was no paint on the walls whatsoever,” he said. “There was rust everywhere. It was humid. Therewas even some water in certain areas. It really wasn’t livable.”
The crew used over 160 gallons of paint.
They made it easier to breathe, cleaned out the water, installed lighting and a septic system, and scraped away the leeching and seepage that developed fromdecades without use.
Novitzkealso set up power and drinkable water.
He said the underground space weathered well overtime. The temperature helped, as the coldest it ever got was around 60degrees. In the summer, the highest temperature it reachesis72.
Novitzkealso emphasized their goal for the project was to get every part to be a blank slate and usable for whoever comes in next.
“The thing is, people here are going to build it the way they want,” he said. “Just like the electricity, we didn’t get too extensivebecause they’re not going to keep it this way.”
Living deep underground
The hallway leading to the underground area was built in a zigzag pattern so that in the event of an attack, the blast would force the front door into a wall insteadof hitting the people and technology inside.
Before the actual control center are two 7,000-pound doors that open to the steps leadinginto the launch control center. The doors protected the people inside the facility from blasts and any potential intruders.
The first level of the space housed the staff while they were on their shift, including bedrooms, bathrooms with a shower, a kitchen, and a recreational area, while the second floor heldallthe controls.
Each floor was built on a metal frameand held up by four giant shock absorbers to keep stableand not bouncein case of a blast.
“The toilets were built on springs, everything was set in case of a giantbomb or earthquake,” he said. “One of these (shocks) was leftin by the prior owneras a display, but the whole thing was all suspended. The rocket was built the same way.”
The control center goes down 40 feetbefore looking out into the area that held the missile.
Use during the Cold War
The government builtthe silo in about a yearin 1960, using enough concrete to build a 12-foot-wideroad from St. Louis to Chicago.The construction site resembled an open pit mine.
“It’s epoxy concreteand 600 tons of rebar,” he said. “It will be here for 2,000 years, probably.”
In 1962, the space was commissioned for use,wherefive men lived on the grounds in the silo and the nearby support centers, with one rotating inside the siloat a timefortheir48-hour shiftuntil the site’s closing in 1965.
Outside sits a VHFcommunicationantenna that was designed to withstand a nuclear blast within two miles, in addition to a secondary antenna,an air-intake ventilation system,a water treatment plan, an escape hatch,an alarm systemand thetop of thelaunch area that has twodoors weighing 70 tons each.
The owner explained why the governmentdecidedto build in Kansas, instead of protecting the most populated areas directly.
“They figured (the Soviet Union) would take New York,differentbig cities off the target list,” he said. “They figuredthe Soviets would have to target where the missiles are, so that they wouldn’t get blown upin the process.”
The rocket and other technology
Rockets at the time didn't rely on precise guiding systems, as they would be lobbed over a general area before exploding just above the ground.
The primary antenna was built to withstand a nearby blast and still communicate with the main command center in Salina, to receive launch codes or other necessary commands. The secondary antenna wasexplosive-charged, that would clear the area when launchedand provide another option for communication.
To launch their own rocket, a pneumatic piston lifted thedoors,andan elevator lifted themissileas part of a 15-minute process that included fueling therocket.
“The rocket weighed, empty, only about 14,000 pounds,” the owner said. “Filled, it was270,000 pounds. It’s basically a gas tank flying through the air.”
To guide the rocket, they calibrated it to the North Star using a tube that was built at an angleandreachesthe missile atthe bottomof the silo. The tube shined the light from the outside and throughtowhere the operators could confirm the guidance,thus earning the nickname "North Star"by the owner.
Looking back at six weeks of work
Novitzke grew fond of North Star, and he wants to see what will happenwith listing the silo.
His favorite part of the project was learning about and experiencing the history of the silo’s construction and usage.
“You start hearing the story of how close the world wastothe brink ofnuclear war at that pointand how these were a huge part of saving the world from going there,” he said.
The silos were the deterrents to the Soviets’initialambitions, and the owner said they represented the United States’ willingness to halt the proceedings regardless ofwhether the rockets truly worked.
“To do this in 1960?” Novitzkesaid. “It was crazy.”
