



I climbed onto one of the cylinders, hoping there might be a way into the subterranean complex, and wasn't too surprised to find that the hatches had all been sealed.









During the height of the Cold War, Arizona's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was home to 18 Titan II nuclear ICBMs. The three-phase construction began in 1960 and was completed in 1963 after one million man-days of labor were spent on the project.





In October 1981, President Reagan announced that all Titan II systems would be decommissioned as part of a modernization program.





During Operation Rivet Cap in 1983, the ICBMs at Davis-Monthan AFB were removed from their silos and shipped to Norton AFB in California to be dismantled.

Dozens of decommissioned Cold War era ICBM missile silos exist across the country, but very few are accessible these days.Several days and a few hundred miles from my ultimate destination, a Titan missile silo complex in Colorado still open for exploration, I had a raging case of ICBM fever. Hoping for temporary relief, I stopped to check out a partially unearthed Titan II in Southeastern Arizona.The morning after my ride into Tucson , I enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Mother Hubbard’s Cafe . The waitress seemed to be having a rough morning, so I tried to brighten her day by being extra polite and smiling a lot. I must have given her the wrong impression because as I was leaving she slipped me her number. It happened so fast that I didn't get a chance to tell her that I'm already spoken for and that I'm not into women. I sure did appreciate the compliment though. Hopefully she wasn't too heartbroken when I never called.I navigated a series of rural highways until I reached a little dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. There was a simple gate of two thick metal bars to keep vehicles out, but no signs warning away trespassers.I jumped the gate and wandered the property with a few interesting features, including a rusty metal thingamajig,An odd cement bucket thing,a monolithic concrete cube,several giant concrete cylinders protruding from the ground,and a rusting metal dome.I had finished taking pictures and was about to head back to my car, when a white police pickup truck pulled up. The cop, a guy of retirement age with a grown-out crew cut, was quite friendly.I told him I was there to take a few pictures and didn't realize I was on private property. He said that people often steal the no trespassing signs, which is why none were posted. We talked for a while and he told me he’d like to own a missile silo, but they’re ridiculously expensive because they’ve become collectors’ items. He said I should check out the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Arizona. I was tempted to check it out, but didn't have enough time if I wanted to be in New Mexico by the day's end.Next stop: a creepy miniature golf course outside Willcox, AZ