You should pin your location on Google Earth so that people can go on there and look at some of the places you are going. Possibly show it at the end of the video. Just a suggestion. Thanks for the cool content. Always enjoy
@@eightdsbaby4003 That's exactly what urban explorers vehemently frown upon. They purposely do NOT put locations because numerous idiots then arrive and destroy everything, steal, get injured, etc.
I was in the Maryland Army National Guard in the '60's. We had a bunch of batteries around the Baltimore area. I served in the Headquarters battery in the motor section. I would visit each battery site during a month. I was discharged in January of 1970. The unit was disbanded several years later.
That track was the base for a big geodesic dome that covered the actual radar dish. That pipe sticking up is what the dish was mounted on(looked like a big TV dish that you see now). Each of those platforms would have a dish that covered a specific area of sky, usually out to 240 or 360 miles, up to 60,000ft.
I didn't think you were going to get in the water.. thanks for doing that for us! Awesome video man. My grandpa worked at a Nike missile site outside San Francisco.
My Dad worked at Niagara Falls Air Force Base right next door to Bell AiroSpace and dad had to go to Aberdeen Proving Grounds to learn how to pack and ship out Nuclear War Heads from that Base in 1969 He worked there from 1955-1970 in 1964 for my ninth birthday dad brought me to work with him and I met the pilot of an F-101 Voodoo Fighter Jet 🛩 and he took me for a ride in that Jet over Niagara Falls best birthday present 🎁 I ever had
✔️ Yes, Nike was the product of an earlier generation, from a different era. Since then, we've evolved onward, through the Adidas & New Balance period, to the Sketchers era of today. 🙂
The missiles took off so fast the radars had to be placed at a distance because they couldn’t track the missile when too close. The missile basically moved faster than the electric motors could turn the radar when too close. One radar looked for targets and the other was a beam that had to be pointed at the missile. A drawback was only one missile could be in the air at a time from the magazine bunkers that raised the missiles to a launch position. They could be elevated for launch and go one after the other. This one is in good condition. Never seen intact dog kennels. The dogs were set loose in a no man’s land between fences.
The radar was separated by the launch area by a mile... the batteries had hot and cold status... red status rotated every 3 weeks... the launcher had three sections a b and c... the crew members was rotated every 3 days... some missile sites were topside, the missiles were hidden behind Berms... the missiles were covered by inflatable pop open tents like the one in Abilene Texas... I also use missiles hangers like the one in mildenberg Germany.
Stop saying tagged, and start saying vandalized. If you mark someone else's property it is vandalism. Idiots that do that stuff call it tagging to make it sound less destructive.
I have to agree I can’t even read what they put on the train cars anymore. If you want to show your “talent “ paint a picture. I’m glad that we’re talking about natural decay. Instead of some historical documentary about 22:36 how it was before the war. Nikey missiles would have been a Army installation if I’m right. Those dogs would have been the older trained “Sentry Dogs” . Basically the more versatile “Patrol Dogs “ That they have now but without a “ safety switch “ You physically had to choke them off a intruder. Sometimes known as. Bite anybody anyplace anytime! Yes that may include you. You’ll see some pictures of the full burlap suit. For training purposes back then. We just used the one sleeve to sort of “catch” them before they got to you for training. Back in the 70’s Yes it was as fun as it sounds. Some of the dogs were retained from their old positions. Into a more controllable dog around people. But you never really knew.
We got chased by an MP from the NIKE base on Clausland Mountain as kids.. thinking back, that 6’9” MP with the M1A probably had a good laugh! The ‘60s were great...
Our towns Police Dept. is in an old NIKE base. My friend lives about a !/4 mile away on the property where the silos are located. His father bought the land from the Gov. early 70s. Has that same big room. A common sump-pump keeps it dry. Rigged a Chevy 350 to operate hydraulics for steel doors and elevator. Elevator is tractor trailer+ size, lol. Lancaster NY
My father was an MP in the late '60s, one of his jobs was escorting the nuclear Hercules missiles between the Nike sites and the maintenance depots. The trucks that transported the missiles were generic looking civilian tractor trailers, and the escorts drove civilian sedans and station wagons, so they all blended in with regular traffic.
These installations stretched from Boston to Key West, FL. I was stationed with the 35th Artillery Brigade (AD) at Ft. Meade, MD in '69-'70. It covered Washington and Baltimore, along with Norfolk. Nice video.
Whiteman AFB, just some miles from me, was another, Minuteman missile base back in the 60s until 1997. Some silos were along the state highways near me, all just capped now. I think there were about 165 missile silos scattered around the central part of Missouri.
Whiteman AFB was a Minuteman II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) base. It was not a Nike site. You are correct regarding the silos, but they were for the Minuteman. I was part of the convoy during removal of one of the Minuteman missiles as I was stationed there from 90-94. Whiteman is now home to the B-2. The Nike sites were meant to protect major cities from Soviet bomber aircraft. This is why Nike batteries were positioned near major metropolitan areas. Around the Kansas City area there were 4 Nike sites, 2 in Kansas and 2 in Missouri. Pleasant Hill, MO Lawson, MO Gardner, KS Fort Leavenworth, KS
I live about 2 miles from a Titan II missile site in southern Arizona. They are all over this area. These were much more massive in size compared to the Nike sites. They are sealed off now, but one was purchased not far from me that a person built into a home. There is also one preserved as a museum in Green Valley about 40 miles away.
We had a Nike Base in our town but it wasn’t as big as this. We moved to Holmdel in 1970 & the part that was donated to Holmdel Park was already deactivated. Small outbuildings & lots of concrete. The other part was up on Telegraph Hill. There were houses for officers. Small ranches. It’s now Phillips Park. Homes are gone. Always heard rumors from kids whose parents worked at Bell Labs that there were missiles w/nukes on there property.
I lived on Turkey Hill in Hingham Ma. in the 70's and there was a Nike base at the end of the street. I think it was a command center because I never saw missile silos. I think the missiles were in Cohasset a few miles away. You could sneak through the gate and wander the area. It was spooky.
So cool, thanks for the tour! The place is definitely "returning to the earth" as it were, but it's amazing how intact it still is 70 years on. And it's great that there's remarkably little graffiti around. I personally hate it when old, historical sites are polluted by distracting, garish graffiti. I tried to visit a couple of old Nike bases on the west coast, but both were deeply inside monitored private property and in any case, from the aerial maps I saw, all the buildings were long gone anyway. But what a fascinating cold war relic. Someday, I hope to get over to visit one of the preserved sites like C-44 or SF-88.
My parents told me about one close to their old school in Croom, Maryland, outside of DC. The last I read, nothing much left now. Evidently part of life in the 1950's. Too bad they didn't preserve a few of them for history.
They became obsolete 10 years after being built and were not decommissioned until the 70s. The closest one near where I grew up was in Dillsboro Indiana, and the last troops left in 1974 or '75. Some guy bought the whole installation for next to nothing in the 80s and turned the whole bunker complex into an underground mansion.
I use to live on Telegraph Hill in Holmdel, NJ. Where a park stands today use to be military housing and another launching system. Very cool to see this one.
We also had a Nike base in my town Riverview,Michigan..you can Google it..they have one of the last missiles standing on the grounds as a remembrance. The area now is a Library and the Old Barracks is now the Senior Recreation Hall and a huge Soccer Field...there used to be those below ground bunker like things,but have since been buried.Thanks for taking us along to see this Site.
Those are radar domes on the towers. Looks like a golf ball surrounding the top. Used to have domes on Palos Verdes Ca. Nike base was a few miles down sloop in San Pedro Ca. Bunkers still there. I grew up near it. They where in operation until Vietnam was over as I recall. Fort MacArthur was there also. Catalina Island had a small base as well in WW11 but not involved with the Nike base.
You did an excellent job showing us a fantastic piece of military history. I have to say, when you climb up dangerous situations, it scares the heck out of me. I have a fear of heights. Thanks again!
Same. I thought military spec meant that it was tough, rugged, and a higher spec than regular civilian specs. The day after I enlisted I learned that military soec meant the exact opposite lol
Very interesting. I remember when there were many of these. Once, I would have gone up those ladders as you did. Now, I am staying on the ground with Jay! Thanks for being our eyes!!
Great relics you found on that one. I grew up in the San Francisco bay area and these things were everywhere. Made for some great exploring back in the 80's. Thanks for the tour!
@@sharon94503 Yep. And all of the north bay around the Marin Headlands, Angel Island, and the hills around Pacifica down south. There are several in the east bay area as well closer to Alameda air station.
We had these in Cleveland, OH. One site in a very common and populated area is contaminated. The base itself has been remediated and mainly closed off but there was a workhouse for the jails and an active VA hospital on on. The Garfield Bis Garage sits atop another former site. The Great Lakes was a major industrial area and there was a while lot of covert goodness happening well into the late 50s/early 60s. But thanks for bringing light to this real deal! What a time capsule! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the tour. As a kid, saw [from the fence line] one being raised to firing position near the Mahwah scout camp. Wondered if I was seeing my last sights. Cuban crisis and all. Thanks for leaving the place as you found it also.
Fun visit. Out her by Ellsworth AFB, the Nike sites are all in private hands but you can see where the housing has been turned into housing for non military use, while buildings like the command structures have businesses using the sites. Do have to check on ownership though, folks take private property very seriously.
There's remnants of Nike Missile silos in Davidsonville, Maryland, not too far from where I live. They are nothing but shells of their former selves. The Anne Arundel County Police Training Academy currently occupied old Nike Missile silos and Barracks.
There's a radar air control station near my hometown and an old radar tower in the middle of town. The station itself is still pretty much intact, along with around a 200+ ft radar and air control tower still on site, it looks almost new, but it's from the 50's-60's. The radar tower in town is about the same height as the ones here.
What a surprise! I worked for AT&T for many years, Bell Systems had a huge facility in NJ....after divestiture 1984, that was all history. AT&T was all over NJ !
The Bell Labs building in Holmdel (Designed by Saarinen) still stands and is now used as a public open working space as well as corporate offices for a couple of companies. It's called Bell Works now, I did some communications wiring for a company moving into the space and it was one of the coolest places I've ever gotten to explore
There were a few of these bases in South Florida back in the Cold War era. Most are now gone and new homes and shopping centers are now overtaking the land where those bases were in western Miami Dade and Broward counties in South Florida.
I lived across from one of four left from the 24 that surrounded Philly (refineries) and it took me a decade but I finnally gave myself a tour. I originally thought the washdown and isolation rooms were for fallout. Then I noticed the well head every 100 feet or so. It was and is all about the hydrozene, probably would explain all the leaks in the plumbing I had across the street.
Instead of tearing it all down, and scrapping all the materials, we just leave stuff like this to rot in the environment. We do this with shopping malls, schools, factories etc. We are so wasteful as a spieces it's incredible. Thanks for the tour!
That's why according to the book Sapiens, we are going to end up destroying ourselves and the planet will go through another ice age within 100 years. We seem to be hellbent on accelerating that. We are pathetic.
I have a Nike base a mile outside my town (Texas). It’s actually pretty intact and privately owned. The road it’s on is still referred to as “Nike Base Road” A guy I know was stationed there. He told me they thought they were going to have to shoot down a plane once after it came into Texas from the Gulf of Mexico. Claimed the sonic boom from the missiles would have blown out all the windows in town.
Grew up a few miles from one that was a joint use facility (radar was used by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the FAA. ) and considered a Missile Master Facility. Always fascinated me as a kid.
Thanks again Chris and Jay. Fascinating to see again. I was born in the fifties. Along with an eerie feeling of nostalgia, I’m disappointed and sad that we don’t account for the true cost of what we leave behind. A responsible culture would provide for the dismantling of everything that was built. We won. Deterrence prevailed. We should clean up the mess we made. That’s what I was taught back then. I guess we don’t really care about what we leave behind.
@@jebronlames7789 It’s not just this administration (Biden, I presume?), but all of them and the Congresses of these decades. [Please refrain from short-term political jabs. We don’t need your knee jerk, rightist anger at every turn. Geez 🙄]
@@SeekerGoOn2013 nope this crap of today would never happen under President Trump, the country was never stronger or feared. Now I know joey is obumers mouth piece and patsy during his 3rd term but you can't deny the facts!!!!!
Thinking this is the base not too far from where I live. The only reason I have not ventured in there is because there is shit tons of poison ivy all over that place. I don't need that hassle. Thanks for taking one for the team. 👍
First off, you made me super nervous when you were climbing that. Whew! 😬 Secondly, I never knew we had those. What a great video and teaching me something new.
Amarillo Tx is known as Bomb City, home of PANTEX. They dismantle bombs. Top secret, gated facility. I had not heard of the Nike Missile Base. Appreciate the time, research you do to put together your video's.
Another great trek into history. I remember visiting an active Nike site as a Cub Scout, I think somewhere in CT. The Sgt. got them to raise them from a prone position to a firing one. Was pretty cool to us kids. I even had a plastic model kit I put together with the whole launch system and the cool looking white missile. Think of the money they spent on these things! Wow! Edit: for spelling
When I was a kid, I'd lookout classroom windows, and watch the radar rotate, at the Riverview Mich Nike Base. Later when it was abandoned by late 60s, we'd explore!
Love the cold war topic. Thanks for the video and staying out of the asbestos. I could tell it was NJ just from the overgrowth and trees. I've visited some Loring AFB buildings and a ATT Longlines site in Maine. "The uncensored guide to Maine" shows similar guard dogs and cold war activities.
There is one in Newport News, VA. Backs up to Newport News -Williamsburg International Airport formerly called Patrick Henry Airport. Large wooded area that also contained what was once Camp Patrick Henry and at one time up to 10,000 German Prisoners were held there during World War 2. There are only 3 of the umbrella looking pads and a few buildings left and those have graffiti all over them. There are roads and roads with weeds growing up in the cracks and old fire hydrants that have 1945 on them.
Very interesting. I grew up in Oakland New Jersey and the next town, Wayne/mountion View had a missile base. One year ,if I remeber right, they allowedthe public in. We were allowed to see some of it. May have been pryer to it closing. My parents brought me. There was an access road with a gard shack. Was probably around 12 years old. Don't remember much about it. I do remember that for years later you could see a tower. The one thing that does stick out to me was they had radar. Later when I was old enough to drive and houses were around the area, I would look towards it and wonder what it looked like. Another thing I remember was, at school we had drills and would go down to the lowest room in school. Also the ower of a house next door had a bomb fallout shelter built in his front yard. I remember watching them build it. You could always see a vent that came up in the bushes. As far as I know, that fallout bunker still exists, more then 60 years now.
We used to have one of those missile bases not too far from where I grew up. We used to ride our bicycles over there and climb up inside the towers.. no missiles on it. I don't even know what year they finally got around to tearing the powers down. What is southeast Michigan I think we had like three or four different locations within Southeast Michigan that had those missile launch sites
@@cooldog60 I forgot what website I saw a long time ago when I was reading up on those missile sites but if you can remember the name of the missile and do a Google search of that and Michigan locations or something it'll come up with a map and show you where they were all located
My friend and I checked out an abandoned nike missile base in Lake County Indiana. It was pretty cool. The actual missile bunker was flooded to the top of the stairs so we couldn’t go down. The rest of the place was pretty cool though. There were actually two locations a few miles apart. One was the command and launch control plus barracks and the other was the actual missile base. The command center has since been turned into a day camp.
I think I know which ones your talking about was one of the ones I was considering going and checking out. Course now with winter just around the corner going to have to wait until late spring now.Meanwhile I did get to explore a couple of old "Long Lines" microwave tower sites
There was a Nike site above the old Dixmont Insane Asylum outside of Pittsburgh. They tore it all down to build a Walmart and then the whole hill slide fell out on the roadway. There were no towers, at least not in the early 2000s. There was a very similar underground structure as in the video.
cool video guys ! When I was a kid we lived in a suburb od Dallas,Tx. (Duncanville) The control center of the Nike base was located there. About 15 yrs ago my friend and I discovered another similar base in a small town south of Dallas (Venus,Tx) I did some research about these military installations and discovered the "rings of steel" program. In the D/FW area of Texas, the Duncanville site was the control base. The missile bases were located in Venus (south)Denton (north) Terrell (east) and Weatherford (west) My friend and I did a self guided tour of the Venus location. At that time 15yrs ago,all of the buildings were standin,the underground missile bunkers were open to enter and NOT flooded. It was immensely interesting. Thanks again for the video !
We had so many of these bases in South Florida during the Cuban missile crisis. I remember my buddies and I would go to the abandoned base off of Miami Gardens drive which is now a Naval Reserve center behind the post office. We would prank our other friends at night while pissing down from top of the silos. 😂
I watched a video about the underground room. That you went down into . With all the water. It was from somewhere up around that area. He built a home out of one. He even had a lift to park his trucks an cars down below. It was so cool.
There's a NIKE missle base in Hamburg, NY. The town of Hamburg now owns the site(s), as there is a radar facility, and down the road, the missle batteries, which rose up from underground to launch. Very interesting!
In addition; the radar site in Hamburg NY has been re-purposed as the Towns Building and Grounds office, and the missle site, is the town Highway Dept. There are photos on the the net of them when they were functional missle sites. Its nice to see them in their original form as shown in this video, though!
Spent a huge chunk of my childhood on those grounds. Ice skating, launching rockets, playing hockey, flying remote control planes, and mostly playing soccer. One time during a practice a small plane trying to land at the nearby small airstrip went down in some woods next to the field and our entire team ran out to try and find them and help. Pretty sure the area near the towers was used as an old school bmx track some point too. Not sure if it still is. Always take my dogs to play there whenever I’m back visiting.
There’s a former Nike missile base outside River Falls, WI that has been turned into a storage facility. I used to store my furniture there over the summer while I was at UWRF.
I was just about to comment this before I checked the comments myself. I am from the area, I thought it was just outside of/north of Roberts? I always wondered if that's indeed what it was when I used to drive by all the time.
2nd grade, Brimble Hill Nike Site in Beverly MA. We went to the gate once, told them we were "lost". One solider went and got s each a "hoodsie cup". As kids we never knew what was behind the big fences with the "keep out" signs. We thought there were tigers and lions in there.
Very interesting video! Yes some old pictures of the place in its heyday would be interesting. Those towers were neat , to bad they couldn't preserve them , for zip-lines, or climbing, if they weren't to broken down. Like someone else on here said why can't they go in and recycle the scrap iron. And if so broken ,doze in the old building. Clean up the place ,just saying.
I lived a couple of towns away from a Nike base years ago. I no longer live around there, but the last I knew nothing was ever done with the property after it closed.
Cold war relics are at the top of my interest list for their historic implications! With how things are developing these days, we're likely going to revisit them again... Nike/Hercules is particularly fascinating for its bizarre concept of fighting worse with bad - as you shoot down a bunch of nuclear bombers with your nuclear missile, you may prevent them from dropping the bad news on you, but you still get a heck of a lot radioactive fallout raining down on you in exchange, rendering large areas uninhabitable. But at least you're not getting toasted in the nuclear inferno... holy cow, what a mad world! 🤪
I live just over a mile away from a decommissioned Nike Hercules launch facility. The buildings (repurposed by local government) and launch silos are still there although I believe the silos were permanently sealed shut. It’s pretty cool to see it knowing it’s Cold War relevance.
That was a totally awesome explorer! Thanks for going down in the magazine area I so want to go check one of these out myself I used to have a group that would Urban explore places but they don't want to go out anymore they'd rather play Xbox and while that's fine I think this Urban exploring is a lot cooler 🙂
I grew up in a small town in Colorado, where they still have a Nike rocket on display in the town park. As kids, we always used to marvel at it, but it wasn't until I was much older that I even learned what it was xD.
There was a nike base in Eriel/Sicklerville next to a sand quarter! We would lug beer up the 1 tower on 4th of July and watch the fire works from like 6 or 8 towns! We could see them as far aa gloucester city! There was also one around cape may courthouse and one in gibsboro! All knocked down now unfortunately! Exept for 1 radar tower they saved and is now a functional radar station again! With the big golf ball on top! Next to Triboro sand quary!
Gotta check out Jay's video too - th-cam.com/video/qrIJ4IW4DIo/w-d-xo.html
You should pin your location on Google Earth so that people can go on there and look at some of the places you are going. Possibly show it at the end of the video. Just a suggestion. Thanks for the cool content. Always enjoy
@@eightdsbaby4003 That's exactly what urban explorers vehemently frown upon. They purposely do NOT put locations because numerous idiots then arrive and destroy everything, steal, get injured, etc.
@@inherentmirth5180 I definitely didn't consider that. Valid point
I believe it’s in Swedesboro NJ at PH-58.
"Nucular", really?🤔
WOW! That brings back some memories for this 77 year old. I served in the Nike Hercules system for 4 years, 1967-1970. Chicago, Germany and Milwaukee.
I was in the Maryland Army National Guard in the '60's. We had a bunch of batteries around the Baltimore area. I served in the Headquarters battery in the motor section. I would visit each battery site during a month. I was discharged in January of 1970. The unit was disbanded several years later.
That track was the base for a big geodesic dome that covered the actual radar dish. That pipe sticking up is what the dish was mounted on(looked like a big TV dish that you see now). Each of those platforms would have a dish that covered a specific area of sky, usually out to 240 or 360 miles, up to 60,000ft.
I didn't think you were going to get in the water.. thanks for doing that for us! Awesome video man. My grandpa worked at a Nike missile site outside San Francisco.
My Dad worked at Niagara Falls Air Force Base right next door to Bell AiroSpace and dad had to go to Aberdeen Proving Grounds to learn how to pack and ship out Nuclear War Heads from that Base in 1969
He worked there from 1955-1970 in 1964 for my ninth birthday dad brought me to work with him and I met the pilot of an F-101 Voodoo Fighter Jet 🛩 and he took me for a ride in that Jet over Niagara Falls best birthday present 🎁 I ever had
My Father worked at the same site in the mid 60s
✔️ Yes, Nike was the product of an earlier generation, from a different era. Since then, we've evolved onward, through the Adidas & New Balance period, to the Sketchers era of today. 🙂
That Nike site is fully restored and you can get tours.
The missiles took off so fast the radars had to be placed at a distance because they couldn’t track the missile when too close. The missile basically moved faster than the electric motors could turn the radar when too close. One radar looked for targets and the other was a beam that had to be pointed at the missile. A drawback was only one missile could be in the air at a time from the magazine bunkers that raised the missiles to a launch position. They could be elevated for launch and go one after the other. This one is in good condition. Never seen intact dog kennels. The dogs were set loose in a no man’s land between fences.
Great info!
@@MobileInstinct thanks for the video about a subject I’m interested in. Much appreciated. Have a good one.
They were at Mach 2 at about 10 feet off the ground if I remember correctly. Ungodly speed.
@@theGoblinStopperNo doubt, I've watched the test firing videos and was amazed at how fast they could climb.
The radar was separated by the launch area by a mile... the batteries had hot and cold status... red status rotated every 3 weeks... the launcher had three sections a b and c... the crew members was rotated every 3 days... some missile sites were topside, the missiles were hidden behind Berms... the missiles were covered by inflatable pop open tents like the one in Abilene Texas... I also use missiles hangers like the one in mildenberg Germany.
Nice to see that the place isn't tagged up and has only natural decay. Very interesting video, Chris. Great explore and very informative.
Stop saying tagged, and start saying vandalized. If you mark someone else's property it is vandalism. Idiots that do that stuff call it tagging to make it sound less destructive.
@@eriklarson9137 You are totally right, Erik. We also like to use the term hooligans!
Lol I thought the same thing
@@allen480 🤣
I have to agree I can’t even read what they put on the train cars anymore. If you want to show your “talent “ paint a picture. I’m glad that we’re talking about natural decay. Instead of some historical documentary about 22:36 how it was before the war. Nikey missiles would have been a Army installation if I’m right. Those dogs would have been the older trained “Sentry Dogs” . Basically the more versatile “Patrol Dogs “ That they have now but without a “ safety switch “ You physically had to choke them off a intruder. Sometimes known as. Bite anybody anyplace anytime! Yes that may include you. You’ll see some pictures of the full burlap suit. For training purposes back then. We just used the one sleeve to sort of “catch” them before they got to you for training. Back in the 70’s Yes it was as fun as it sounds. Some of the dogs were retained from their old positions. Into a more controllable dog around people. But you never really knew.
We got chased by an MP from the NIKE base on Clausland Mountain as kids.. thinking back, that 6’9” MP with the M1A probably had a good laugh! The ‘60s were great...
Our towns Police Dept. is in an old NIKE base. My friend lives about a !/4 mile away on the property where the silos are located. His father bought the land from the Gov. early 70s. Has that same big room. A common sump-pump keeps it dry. Rigged a Chevy 350 to operate hydraulics for steel doors and elevator. Elevator is tractor trailer+ size, lol. Lancaster NY
My father was an MP in the late '60s, one of his jobs was escorting the nuclear Hercules missiles between the Nike sites and the maintenance depots. The trucks that transported the missiles were generic looking civilian tractor trailers, and the escorts drove civilian sedans and station wagons, so they all blended in with regular traffic.
These installations stretched from Boston to Key West, FL. I was stationed with the 35th Artillery Brigade (AD) at Ft. Meade, MD in '69-'70. It covered Washington and Baltimore, along with Norfolk. Nice video.
We had a Nike display right off a major road. They were much closer to the ground and 200' off the road.
I was in 35th Artillery Brigade only after it was reactivated and now called 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.
Whiteman AFB, just some miles from me, was another, Minuteman missile base back in the 60s until 1997. Some silos were along the state highways near me, all just capped now. I think there were about 165 missile silos scattered around the central part of Missouri.
Cool, I’m from MO and didn’t know that.
I'm from Missouri too, and didn't know that. Thank you for the information.
The balloon that flew over Missouri a few weeks ago. Flew a path just about in line of these old missle silos across Missouri
@@Jesus-uo4it probably checking out their real estate purchases that the gooberment gave them for a steal.
Whiteman AFB was a Minuteman II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) base. It was not a Nike site. You are correct regarding the silos, but they were for the Minuteman. I was part of the convoy during removal of one of the Minuteman missiles as I was stationed there from 90-94. Whiteman is now home to the B-2. The Nike sites were meant to protect major cities from Soviet bomber aircraft. This is why Nike batteries were positioned near major metropolitan areas. Around the Kansas City area there were 4 Nike sites, 2 in Kansas and 2 in Missouri.
Pleasant Hill, MO
Lawson, MO
Gardner, KS
Fort Leavenworth, KS
I live about 2 miles from a Titan II missile site in southern Arizona. They are all over this area. These were much more massive in size compared to the Nike sites. They are sealed off now, but one was purchased not far from me that a person built into a home. There is also one preserved as a museum in Green Valley about 40 miles away.
Odeon Point in Rye, NH has one like this. It was used in WWII and still kind of stands. Some places you can't get in.
Yeah been there. I think it was only artillery
I was born in 1950. I remember the silos and the gray bunkers. Some schools are close to these former silos. I also remember other things as well.
We had a Nike Base in our town but it wasn’t as big as this. We moved to Holmdel in 1970 & the part that was donated to Holmdel Park was already deactivated. Small outbuildings & lots of concrete. The other part was up on Telegraph Hill. There were houses for officers. Small ranches. It’s now Phillips Park. Homes are gone. Always heard rumors from kids whose parents worked at Bell Labs that there were missiles w/nukes on there property.
I lived on Turkey Hill in Hingham Ma. in the 70's and there was a Nike base at the end of the street. I think it was a command center because I never saw missile silos. I think the missiles were in Cohasset a few miles away. You could sneak through the gate and wander the area. It was spooky.
So cool, thanks for the tour! The place is definitely "returning to the earth" as it were, but it's amazing how intact it still is 70 years on. And it's great that there's remarkably little graffiti around. I personally hate it when old, historical sites are polluted by distracting, garish graffiti. I tried to visit a couple of old Nike bases on the west coast, but both were deeply inside monitored private property and in any case, from the aerial maps I saw, all the buildings were long gone anyway. But what a fascinating cold war relic. Someday, I hope to get over to visit one of the preserved sites like C-44 or SF-88.
This was extremely cool! Thank you! When America was America!
My parents told me about one close to their old school in Croom, Maryland, outside of DC. The last I read, nothing much left now. Evidently part of life in the 1950's. Too bad they didn't preserve a few of them for history.
They became obsolete 10 years after being built and were not decommissioned until the 70s.
The closest one near where I grew up was in Dillsboro Indiana, and the last troops left in 1974 or '75.
Some guy bought the whole installation for next to nothing in the 80s and turned the whole bunker complex into an underground mansion.
There are quite a few by Loring Air Force Base in Maine,underground bunkers for missles
I use to live on Telegraph Hill in Holmdel, NJ. Where a park stands today use to be military housing and another launching system. Very cool to see this one.
We also had a Nike base in my town Riverview,Michigan..you can Google it..they have one of the last missiles standing on the grounds as a remembrance.
The area now is a Library and the Old Barracks is now the Senior Recreation Hall and a huge Soccer Field...there used to be those below ground bunker like things,but have since been buried.Thanks for taking us along to see this Site.
Those are radar domes on the towers. Looks like a golf ball surrounding the top. Used to have domes on Palos Verdes Ca. Nike base was a few miles down sloop in San Pedro Ca. Bunkers still there. I grew up near it. They where in operation until Vietnam was over as I recall. Fort MacArthur was there also. Catalina Island had a small base as well in WW11 but not involved with the Nike base.
You did an excellent job showing us a fantastic piece of military history. I have to say, when you climb up dangerous situations, it scares the heck out of me. I have a fear of heights. Thanks again!
Would love to see pics of what that site looked like back in the day. Very awesome video.
Pretty decayed, but lots of interesting features left. Always gets me to see such decay and something as fragile as a light bulb survives ( 6:12 ).
The rail you talked about on the radar was to connect a dome to cover the radar, the whole Nike Battery was designed so we could go mobile if needed.
The fact you climbed that tower shows you have more faith in military construction than I have or ever had after serving 🤣
The Army Corps of Engineers in the 50's were different.
It would be amazing to put a house on top of that tower, maybe a second floor below the top platform.
I was thinking the same lol
Same. I thought military spec meant that it was tough, rugged, and a higher spec than regular civilian specs. The day after I enlisted I learned that military soec meant the exact opposite lol
@@genericwhitemale1114 I'm just on my way to the beach!
It would be really cool to see what that place looked like new and in working.
Great video! We still had fallout shelter signs in my grade school when I first started there in the late 60's.
Very interesting. I remember when there were many of these. Once, I would have gone up those ladders as you did. Now, I am staying on the ground with Jay! Thanks for being our eyes!!
Great relics you found on that one. I grew up in the San Francisco bay area and these things were everywhere. Made for some great exploring back in the 80's. Thanks for the tour!
Sausalito perhaps?
@@sharon94503 Yep. And all of the north bay around the Marin Headlands, Angel Island, and the hills around Pacifica down south. There are several in the east bay area as well closer to Alameda air station.
There was a Nike base off of Route 10 in Jersey. I'd explored it over 20 years ago, and all that was left was one street of abandoned housing.
We had these in Cleveland, OH. One site in a very common and populated area is contaminated. The base itself has been remediated and mainly closed off but there was a workhouse for the jails and an active VA hospital on on. The Garfield Bis Garage sits atop another former site. The Great Lakes was a major industrial area and there was a while lot of covert goodness happening well into the late 50s/early 60s. But thanks for bringing light to this real deal! What a time capsule! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the tour. As a kid, saw [from the fence line] one being raised to firing position near the Mahwah scout camp. Wondered if I was seeing my last sights. Cuban crisis and all. Thanks for leaving the place as you found it also.
Fun visit. Out her by Ellsworth AFB, the Nike sites are all in private hands but you can see where the housing has been turned into housing for non military use, while buildings like the command structures have businesses using the sites. Do have to check on ownership though, folks take private property very seriously.
There's remnants of Nike Missile silos in Davidsonville, Maryland, not too far from where I live. They are nothing but shells of their former selves. The Anne Arundel County Police Training Academy currently occupied old Nike Missile silos and Barracks.
I haven't seen that pool since 88'. Cool that it's still there. Nice video!
*I served there from 86-88 and performed X duties. Here are some interesting facts about that place that the average person wouldn't know.*
Which location is this? What town
@@eriklarson9137 doy?
Launch site SF-88 in the Marin headlands just across the golden gate bridge from San Francisco has been restored and is open to tour.
There's a radar air control station near my hometown and an old radar tower in the middle of town. The station itself is still pretty much intact, along with around a 200+ ft radar and air control tower still on site, it looks almost new, but it's from the 50's-60's. The radar tower in town is about the same height as the ones here.
Seeing the inside of the underground missile housing still freshly white and perfectly clean was insane. Very very cool
What a surprise! I worked for AT&T for many years, Bell Systems had a huge facility in NJ....after divestiture 1984, that was all history. AT&T was all over NJ !
The Bell Labs building in Holmdel (Designed by Saarinen) still stands and is now used as a public open working space as well as corporate offices for a couple of companies. It's called Bell Works now, I did some communications wiring for a company moving into the space and it was one of the coolest places I've ever gotten to explore
@@tpdabomb3 I have to take a drive to this facility! Thank you for your reply!
There were a few of these bases in South Florida back in the Cold War era. Most are now gone and new homes and shopping centers are now overtaking the land where those bases were in western Miami Dade and Broward counties in South Florida.
People go there to cstch snakes now
I wish they were still operational in the times we are living in now.
why would you want to defend such gross corruption ?
I wish none of them were.
Why
I lived across from one of four left from the 24 that surrounded Philly (refineries) and it took me a decade but I finnally gave myself a tour. I originally thought the washdown and isolation rooms were for fallout. Then I noticed the well head every 100 feet or so. It was and is all about the hydrozene, probably would explain all the leaks in the plumbing I had across the street.
This was very interesting. It is amazing how there is so much left of all the buildings. Thanks for doing this video.
This was great, I love anything cold war era related. And this one still has so much stuff left behind, awesome find.
Instead of tearing it all down, and scrapping all the materials, we just leave stuff like this to rot in the environment. We do this with shopping malls, schools, factories etc. We are so wasteful as a spieces it's incredible. Thanks for the tour!
The military has a long list of property to remediate. It comes from the defense budget so they are in no hurry to do it.
That's why according to the book Sapiens, we are going to end up destroying ourselves and the planet will go through another ice age within 100 years. We seem to be hellbent on accelerating that. We are pathetic.
I have a Nike base a mile outside my town (Texas).
It’s actually pretty intact and privately owned. The road it’s on is still referred to as “Nike Base Road”
A guy I know was stationed there. He told me they thought they were going to have to shoot down a plane once after it came into Texas from the Gulf of Mexico.
Claimed the sonic boom from the missiles would have blown out all the windows in town.
Grew up a few miles from one that was a joint use facility (radar was used by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the FAA. ) and considered a Missile Master Facility. Always fascinated me as a kid.
Thanks again Chris and Jay. Fascinating to see again. I was born in the fifties.
Along with an eerie feeling of nostalgia, I’m disappointed and sad that we don’t account for the true cost of what we leave behind. A responsible culture would provide for the dismantling of everything that was built. We won. Deterrence prevailed. We should clean up the mess we made. That’s what I was taught back then. I guess we don’t really care about what we leave behind.
This current vegetable garden of an administration is leaving America as a whole behind. Hows it feel to serve in vain, all for nothing
@@jebronlames7789 It’s not just this administration (Biden, I presume?), but all of them and the Congresses of these decades.
[Please refrain from short-term political jabs. We don’t need your knee jerk, rightist anger at every turn. Geez 🙄]
@@SeekerGoOn2013 nope this crap of today would never happen under President Trump, the country was never stronger or feared. Now I know joey is obumers mouth piece and patsy during his 3rd term but you can't deny the facts!!!!!
only our government doesnt care about cleaning anything up .
We had a NIKE site about 2 miles from my house on top of a ridge in Encino, CA back in the 1960s. My Cub Scout Troop took a tour of it in 1963!
That would be LA-96. The missile site itself was on the SE corner of Victory and Woodley. There are volunteers working now to restore it.
@@michaelmartin4552 Thanks for the info! I had no idea that was the arrangement!
It's good to know while I was hiding under my desk the military was at the ready. Thanks Chris
Thinking this is the base not too far from where I live. The only reason I have not ventured in there is because there is shit tons of poison ivy all over that place. I don't need that hassle. Thanks for taking one for the team. 👍
First off, you made me super nervous when you were climbing that. Whew! 😬 Secondly, I never knew we had those. What a great video and teaching me something new.
No one does it like you. Definitely one-of-a-kind videos
Amarillo Tx is known as Bomb City, home of PANTEX. They dismantle bombs. Top secret, gated facility. I had not heard of the Nike Missile Base. Appreciate the time, research you do to put together your video's.
Pantex also regenerates warheads and bombs.
Another great trek into history. I remember visiting an active Nike site as a Cub Scout, I think somewhere in CT. The Sgt. got them to raise them from a prone position to a firing one. Was pretty cool to us kids. I even had a plastic model kit I put together with the whole launch system and the cool looking white missile. Think of the money they spent on these things! Wow! Edit: for spelling
Awesome video! Can't get enough of your subject matter and production of your videos! Keep going!!!!
dedication going into the room underwater. Thanks for what you do.
Such an amazing channel!!!! Keep the phenomenal content coming and wish you nothing but success in the future.
I think that is really cool that the guard dogs names are still on the kennels and those kennels are in really good shape
We had these base all over Southern Illinois I remember exploring them sent a chill in my bones thinking what they for great video
Yes very interesting so thanks for sharing Hello Jay!
When I was a kid, I'd lookout classroom windows, and watch the radar rotate, at the Riverview Mich Nike Base. Later when it was abandoned by late 60s, we'd explore!
Love the cold war topic. Thanks for the video and staying out of the asbestos. I could tell it was NJ just from the overgrowth and trees. I've visited some Loring AFB buildings and a ATT Longlines site in Maine. "The uncensored guide to Maine" shows similar guard dogs and cold war activities.
There is one in Newport News, VA. Backs up to Newport News -Williamsburg International Airport formerly called Patrick Henry Airport. Large wooded area that also contained what was once Camp Patrick Henry and at one time up to 10,000 German Prisoners were held there during World War 2. There are only 3 of the umbrella looking pads and a few buildings left and those have graffiti all over them. There are roads and roads with weeds growing up in the cracks and old fire hydrants that have 1945 on them.
This is fascinating to watch. Keep up the good work.
Very interesting. I grew up in Oakland New Jersey and the next town, Wayne/mountion View had a missile base. One year ,if I remeber right, they allowedthe public in. We were allowed to see some of it. May have been pryer to it closing. My parents brought me. There was an access road with a gard shack. Was probably around 12 years old. Don't remember much about it. I do remember that for years later you could see a tower. The one thing that does stick out to me was they had radar. Later when I was old enough to drive and houses were around the area, I would look towards it and wonder what it looked like. Another thing I remember was, at school we had drills and would go down to the lowest room in school. Also the ower of a house next door had a bomb fallout shelter built in his front yard. I remember watching them build it. You could always see a vent that came up in the bushes. As far as I know, that fallout bunker still exists, more then 60 years now.
We used to have one of those missile bases not too far from where I grew up. We used to ride our bicycles over there and climb up inside the towers.. no missiles on it. I don't even know what year they finally got around to tearing the powers down. What is southeast Michigan I think we had like three or four different locations within Southeast Michigan that had those missile launch sites
I live in Southgate were they near there?
There used to be one in Newport but it's a Ford Distribution Center now. ☹️
@@cooldog60 I forgot what website I saw a long time ago when I was reading up on those missile sites but if you can remember the name of the missile and do a Google search of that and Michigan locations or something it'll come up with a map and show you where they were all located
The towers were for the RADAR, not the missiles.
@@michaelmartin4552 Could be. There were no Radars or missiles there when I was a kid just the Towers, about five or six of them.
Great video Chris and very entertaining. Thanks for sharing 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Good to see you Jay out and about. Hey Jay…Go Birds!!
My friend and I checked out an abandoned nike missile base in Lake County Indiana. It was pretty cool. The actual missile bunker was flooded to the top of the stairs so we couldn’t go down. The rest of the place was pretty cool though. There were actually two locations a few miles apart. One was the command and launch control plus barracks and the other was the actual missile base. The command center has since been turned into a day camp.
I think I know which ones your talking about was one of the ones I was considering going and checking out. Course now with winter just around the corner going to have to wait until late spring now.Meanwhile I did get to explore a couple of old "Long Lines" microwave tower sites
There was a Nike site above the old Dixmont Insane Asylum outside of Pittsburgh.
They tore it all down to build a Walmart and then the whole hill slide fell out on the roadway.
There were no towers, at least not in the early 2000s.
There was a very similar underground structure as in the video.
cool video guys !
When I was a kid we lived in a suburb od Dallas,Tx. (Duncanville)
The control center of the Nike base was located there.
About 15 yrs ago my friend and I discovered another similar base in a small town south of Dallas (Venus,Tx)
I did some research about these military installations and discovered the "rings of steel" program.
In the D/FW area of Texas, the Duncanville site was the control base.
The missile bases were located in Venus (south)Denton (north) Terrell (east) and Weatherford (west)
My friend and I did a self guided tour of the Venus location.
At that time 15yrs ago,all of the buildings were standin,the underground missile bunkers were open to enter and NOT flooded. It was immensely interesting.
Thanks again for the video !
Several of the Nike sites surrounded Bellevue, NE as well, Offutt Air Force Base.
Long Island Air Power museum has Nike missles on display. With what is going on right now, I'm wishing these bases were still operational.
Kind of ironic statement considering your TH-cam name. These bases would be pretty useless against ICBMs etc
But still useful to hit a Soviet era Bomber , as the Russian Federation still use them
A base was not far from my home in Rocky Point. They had a Nike base in Shoreham into the 70's
@@garycorbin2789 Their usefulness ended 50 years ago. Hence why the sites are abandoned today.
Why? They are outdated that's why they shut them down. Money pit's.
We had so many of these bases in South Florida during the Cuban missile crisis. I remember my buddies and I would go to the abandoned base off of Miami Gardens drive which is now a Naval Reserve center behind the post office. We would prank our other friends at night while pissing down from top of the silos. 😂
I watched a video about the underground room. That you went down into . With all the water. It was from somewhere up around that area. He built a home out of one. He even had a lift to park his trucks an cars down below. It was so cool.
There's a NIKE missle base in Hamburg, NY. The town of Hamburg now owns the site(s), as there is a radar facility, and down the road, the missle batteries, which rose up from underground to launch. Very interesting!
In addition; the radar site in Hamburg NY has been re-purposed as the Towns Building and Grounds office, and the missle site, is the town Highway Dept. There are photos on the the net of them when they were functional missle sites. Its nice to see them in their original form as shown in this video, though!
I mentioned this to my father and he recalled that he and his friend installed the chain link fence around that site when it was first installed.
@@furrysharker Interesting! Do you know what year this was?
@@BLAXMAJIK Would have been 1959 or 1960 or so.
Spent a huge chunk of my childhood on those grounds. Ice skating, launching rockets, playing hockey, flying remote control planes, and mostly playing soccer. One time during a practice a small plane trying to land at the nearby small airstrip went down in some woods next to the field and our entire team ran out to try and find them and help. Pretty sure the area near the towers was used as an old school bmx track some point too. Not sure if it still is. Always take my dogs to play there whenever I’m back visiting.
There’s a former Nike missile base outside River Falls, WI that has been turned into a storage facility. I used to store my furniture there over the summer while I was at UWRF.
I was just about to comment this before I checked the comments myself. I am from the area, I thought it was just outside of/north of Roberts? I always wondered if that's indeed what it was when I used to drive by all the time.
2nd grade, Brimble Hill Nike Site in Beverly MA. We went to the gate once, told them we were "lost". One solider went and got s each a "hoodsie cup". As kids we never knew what was behind the big fences with the "keep out" signs. We thought there were tigers and lions in there.
Very interesting video! Yes some old pictures of the place in its heyday would be interesting. Those towers were neat , to bad they couldn't preserve them , for zip-lines, or climbing, if they weren't to broken down. Like someone else on here said why can't they go in and recycle the scrap iron.
And if so broken ,doze in the old building. Clean up the place ,just saying.
I lived a couple of towns away from a Nike base years ago. I no longer live around there, but the last I knew nothing was ever done with the property after it closed.
Cold war relics are at the top of my interest list for their historic implications! With how things are developing these days, we're likely going to revisit them again...
Nike/Hercules is particularly fascinating for its bizarre concept of fighting worse with bad - as you shoot down a bunch of nuclear bombers with your nuclear missile, you may prevent them from dropping the bad news on you, but you still get a heck of a lot radioactive fallout raining down on you in exchange, rendering large areas uninhabitable. But at least you're not getting toasted in the nuclear inferno... holy cow, what a mad world! 🤪
I agree, it's such interesting history
Thats not how it works. You have to specifically detonate a nuclear device. You cant just blow it up and thinks its going to detonate,
Not much fallout in an airburst. Fallout is mostly dirt and other debris.
Awesome editing as well as the video and the history.
One of these is completely restored to working order in the Marin Headlands. You can visit it, it's very cool.
I live just over a mile away from a decommissioned Nike Hercules launch facility. The buildings (repurposed by local government) and launch silos are still there although I believe the silos were permanently sealed shut. It’s pretty cool to see it knowing it’s Cold War relevance.
Fantastic video.
Cool Swedesboro nj. where are you going to next?
4:13 you can still see traces of the easy eye green paint that the military coated interiors with 😃
That was a totally awesome explorer! Thanks for going down in the magazine area I so want to go check one of these out myself
I used to have a group that would Urban explore places but they don't want to go out anymore they'd rather play Xbox and while that's fine I think this Urban exploring is a lot cooler 🙂
Some launch areas used underground magazines...you are correct... some people are misinformed they call them silos the ICBM missiles used silos.
I grew up in a small town in Colorado, where they still have a Nike rocket on display in the town park. As kids, we always used to marvel at it, but it wasn't until I was much older that I even learned what it was xD.
Wow,..great adventure! Thanks for the outing
Rowland Heights, Ca., my hometown had the bunkers near what is today Pathfinder Road, which now stretches from Fullerton Rd. to the 5 Fwy.
The lightbulb is still there.. Even the metal doors weren't scrapped. Good video info! It sounded like a N.O.R.M. detector.
There was a nike base in Eriel/Sicklerville next to a sand quarter! We would lug beer up the 1 tower on 4th of July and watch the fire works from like 6 or 8 towns! We could see them as far aa gloucester city! There was also one around cape may courthouse and one in gibsboro! All knocked down now unfortunately! Exept for 1 radar tower they saved and is now a functional radar station again! With the big golf ball on top! Next to Triboro sand quary!
Great video! There was a Nike site on Route 3, outside of Philadelphia when I was a kid.