Notice the remote-controlled video camera in the center. Several radio and satellite antennae, weather measurement devices, as well as a solar panel are located on the northern end of the facility. Notice the wind electric generators on the horizon, to the left.

Members of MINI5280 take an exclusive tour of the Zwonitzer's 40-year-old abandoned Atlas missile silo which they turned into their home on the high plains of Nebraska.

Gallery pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 > >>

< 6 of 100 >

ColoradoRick > This is an early 1960's era Atlas E ICBM missile launch facility, located in southwestern Nebraska, along I-80 near Kimball. Commonly referred to as a "silo" but it is not really a silo because the ICBM was stored horizontally in a garage-like enclosure -- "coffin" style. East-west Interstate 80 is in the background. For more Atlas E info, see http://www.siloworld.com/ICBM/ATLAS/ATE/ATLASE.HTM

ColoradoRick > Overall, the facility consists of several very large, concrete hardened, buried rooms connected by tunnels.

ColoradoRick > The only exposure to the surface is one large horizontal concrete and steel door (serving as a hardened roof) that was to be opened for launching the Atlas. The door, designed to survive a close but not direct blast, is permanently closed.

ColoradoRick > Exhaust vents are a couple of egress hatches are about the only recognizable objects on the roof.

ColoradoRick > Notice the remote-controlled video camera in the center. Several radio and satellite antennae, weather measurement devices, as well as a solar panel are located on the northern end of the facility. Notice the wind electric generators on the horizon, to the left.

ColoradoRick > The entrance to the missile (lying horizontally) storage bay is at the right.

ColoradoRick > Twenty MINI5280 members and their MINI Coopers (18 from Denver, 2 from Nebraska) parked outside the facility, near the missile bay door (vertical).

Notice the remote-controlled video camera in the center. Several radio and satellite antennae, weather measurement devices, as well as a solar panel are located on the northern end of the facility. Notice the wind electric generators on the horizon, to the left.