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Quirky Things Seen From The Air in Your RV

PilotjohnS said:
After last year, I am surprised anyone showed up.

This is THIS year’s Burning Man, right?
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So.....is that a city?

I am aware of the Burning Man event but, having never attended, is that a city built in that arc or are those tents/campers?
 
Vlad said:
Found a strange abandoned facility north of Cheyenne WY. Wondering what that would be?

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Located here.

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There are quite a few of them scattered around out West, here. The ICBM sites are mostly abandoned, but the Minute Man sites are still online. These buildings are pretty cool! The long buildings are where the ICBMs were brought in and off-loaded, then brought upright to be launched. The big trench to the side of the ICBM buildings were for diverting the rocket engine blast away from the building. There is an angled concrete wall at the building and beginning of the trench to direct the blast. The long, swimming pool structure alongside the building might have been for water storage to mitigate the effects of the rocket engines blast. The control building is atop the command structure which is deep underground. All of these were manned units. There is one just West of Greeley that just has the HUGE concrete and steel sliding "door" that covered the silo. Pretty cool.
 
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Roadjunkie1 said:
There are quite a few of them scattered around out West, here. The ICBM sites are mostly abandoned, but the Minute Man sites are still online. These buildings are pretty cool! The long buildings are where the ICBMs were brought in and off-loaded, then brought upright to be lowered into the silo. The big trench to the side of the ICBM buildings were for diverting the rocket engine blast away from the building. There is an angled concrete wall at the building and beginning of the trench to direct the blast. The long, swimming pool structure alongside the building might have been for water storage to mitigate the effects of the rocket engines blast. The control building is atop the command structure which is deep underground. All of these were manned units. There is one just West of Greeley that just has the HUGE concrete and steel sliding "door" that covered the silo. Pretty cool.
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I didn't realize these Atlas sites had silos. I just assumed they stood them up in the concrete building and fired them from there lol. There is a site right off I-25 about 12 miles or so North of the one in Vlad's picture that's open to tours in the summer. Pretty far out of the way drive, but google earth shows 2000' of a straight gravel road I'm sure an RV could use lol.

I've seen the Minute man sites in Wy, Co, and Mt. They are a whole lot less conspicuous. Just a fenced in field with a few little buildings.

Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites, & Trails - Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility

Mountain bikes, boats and fishing poles are really just toys for grown-ups; so go be a kid again. After all, we've got plenty of trails for getting mud on those tires, including those in Guernsey, Buffalo Bill and Curt Gowdy State Parks. If making a splash is more your style, we've got space...
wyoparks.wyo.gov wyoparks.wyo.gov
 
Jjackh10 said:
I didn't realize these Atlas sites had silos. I just assumed they stood them up in the concrete building and fired them from there lol.
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That's exactly how the first-generation Atlas D ICBMs were stored and launched. The missiles were kept horizontally on erector/launchers in those flat buildings you see with now-missing hardened doors covering them, then raised to vertical if a launch was necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-65D_Atlas

Dave
 
Thermos said:
That's exactly how the first-generation Atlas D ICBMs were stored and launched. The missiles were kept horizontally on erector/launchers in those flat buildings you see with now-missing hardened doors covering them, then raised to vertical if a launch was necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-65D_Atlas

Dave
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I stand corrected! I edited my post to reflect what actually happened! Thanks! I knew SOMEONE would chime in!! 😊
 
Vlad said:
Hi Joe,
It's a decommissioned power station just north of Farmington NM.
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Looks like a place I saw in a movie once. In fact it's probably a very good movie set because they could blow stuff up and not be worried about damaging anything.

It looks expensive, you know, when you consider the amount of money it would cost to build in the first place. Was it a coal-powered site?
 
planenutz said:
Looks like a place I saw in a movie once. In fact it's probably a very good movie set because they could blow stuff up and not be worried about damaging anything.

It looks expensive, you know, when you consider the amount of money it would cost to build in the first place. Was it a coal-powered site?
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Yes: it was a coal-fired plant digging coal from a mountain sacred to the Navajo called Black Mountain. It had been in operation for 50 years but the shift to renewable energy spelled its downfall. And the cost of cleaning up the coal-burning emissions..... Here are some before and during destruction images. BOOM!!
 

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Upon further inspection…it appears someone(s) was having some ground based fun.

First pic is looking southeast towards Shasta from middle of nowhere Southern Oregon.

Second pic is a closeup of a ridge in the first pic. I’m guessing trails were made by a fun loving snow-mobiler? A long way from anywhere!
 

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Taltruda said:
It’s a Mexican rodeo corral.. interesting shape for sure!!
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I used to do Gymkhanas (kids rodeos) in those. We called them Key hole corrals. Race down the long part (on horses), turn barrels in the round part, race back to the finish line!! 'Pole bending' was done in the long part.😊
 
Roadjunkie1 said:
I used to do Gymkhanas (kids rodeos) in those. We called them Key hole corrals. Race down the long part (on horses), turn barrels in the round part, race back to the finish line!! 'Pole bending' was done in the long part.😊
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I see something other than a key hole.. maybe it’s just me..
 
I am sure Jjackh10 knows about it but I have no clue what it could be. Right in my backyard, a strange facility too far from any civilization. Another silo? Aliens? Aboriginal tribe's yurts? The roads are too muddy to land and explore on foot. There is a lot of power coming to there though...

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Vlad said:
I am sure Jjackh10 knows about it but I have no clue what it could be. Right in my backyard, a strange facility too far from any civilization. Another silo? Aliens? Aboriginal tribe's yurts? The roads are too muddy to land and explore on foot. There is a lot of power coming to there though...
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I don't know that one buddy. Maybe a CIA black site disguised as an oil field maintenance shop? :ROFLMAO: I did build a water treatment plant near you for the towns of Tridell & Lapoint years ago. It would have looked similar but not that remote.

If it's north of you in Wyoming its probably related to the Trona mines. Between all the mines there's somewhere north of 5000 miles of tunnels under there. So some of their support facilities are pretty far flung.
 
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