
Secret Landscape: America's cold war infrastructure - rsj_hn
http://coldwar-c4i.net/index.html
======
WarOnPrivacy
I grew up where a nike missile base was built on federal prison land. When I
was 10, the base was shut down and the prison took over the buildings, for
administrative use. Different agencies occasionally showed up for various
kinds of training.

Nights and weekend it was all empty except for the occasional patrol truck.
That left lots of time for nosing around & sometimes finding cool stuff.
Dodging Deputy Dawg was a bonus round (Except for that one time with dogs.
Where did they freaking get dogs?).

Another bonus was the occasional home visit by an FBI agent (only ever one). I
think they spooked me more than police detectives ever did, even tho the
agents were probably just tapping my shoulder.

Note: Here, "It was a different time" meant I didn't get life-changing
punishments/black-marks for my age-impaired ambitions.

~~~
082349872349872
To nose around without the VPS of B&E, Bay Area HN'ers can visit:
[https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-
site.htm](https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm)

(I had first heard of this site as a conspiracy theory from a non-tech bay
area friend who swore to god that as a teenager he'd broken into a Nike site —
and left immediately, as he was freaked out to find all sorts of new tools and
electronics about, implying _someone_ was repurposing the missile launchers.
It is reassuring to discover it had just been the cold war equivalent of
napoleonic reenactors...)

------
ckozlowski
I was sitting in one of my college classes one evening when I was passing
papers up to the professor, and saw this guy's name on the page. Figuring
there weren't many "Albert LaFrance"s around, I chatted him up afterwards and
found much to my delight that he indeed was the one.

Nice guy! I asked him how and why he decided to start putting the page
together. He told me about how he'd grown up in Northern VA and wondered what
the Tyson's Corner tower was for.
([http://coldwar-c4i.net/Site_E/index.html](http://coldwar-c4i.net/Site_E/index.html)
) That took him down a rabbit hole of research into that and other things, and
ended up where he is today. At least, that's the story, to the best of my
recollection.

~~~
oh_sigh
Certainly not many young Albert Lafrances...the first page of google results
are full of obituaries for at least 4 unique Albert Lafrances.

------
md_
Very cool.

This reminds me a bit of Trevor Paglan's work, and especially
[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qkv8ww/the-geography-
of-s...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qkv8ww/the-geography-of-secret-
places-watching-the-watchers-with-trevor-paglen) and
[https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Spots-Map-Geography-
Pentagons/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Spots-Map-Geography-
Pentagons/dp/0525951016/).

~~~
pmoriarty
Another Paglen classic, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in this
sort of thing, is _" I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed
By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World"_.[1][2]

[1] - [https://hatoffoil.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/i-could-
tell-y...](https://hatoffoil.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/i-could-tell-you-but-
then-you-would-have-to-be-destroyed-by-me-trevor-paglen.pdf)

[2] - [https://www.amazon.com/Could-Tell-Then-Would-
Destroyed/dp/19...](https://www.amazon.com/Could-Tell-Then-Would-
Destroyed/dp/193555414X)

------
pmoriarty
I've sometimes wondered how unique the United States is in its regular,
official release of formerly secret documents on these sorts of subjects.

I don't expect the former Soviet Republics to have a Freedom of Information
Act, nor to willingly release formerly secret documents to the public.

So, while I'm sure there are a mountain of equally fascinating Cold Ware era
places, equipment, and projects in the former Soviet Union, I suspect not
nearly as many of them are known by the general public as are those of the
United States.

It's also fascinated me that for so many formerly secret things in the US,
foreign intelligence agencies can simply look in the public record instead of
having to do their own leg work and ferret them out on their own. Some nagging
doubt remains in me that some of this sensitive information might still be
useful to an American adversary, despite formal declassification review. Many
other countries probably take no such chances.

~~~
adventured
> Many other countries probably take no such chances.

As a superpower the US is extraordinarily unusual in that regard. China is
approximately a trillion times more secretive by comparison. You can find out
vast amounts of information about US weapons systems, technology & IP,
government agencies, employees, buildings, national agenda, states & related
information, financial information is hyper transparent (both government and
corporate), critical infrastructure (such as energy & utilities systems),
white papers & super valuable research pouring out of our companies &
universities & government agencies, and on it goes. As an example, just look
at what NASA has pushed out into the global public sphere over the last 50
years. US elite technology companies are often open books about what they're
doing, look at what Tesla and SpaceX allow to be revealed; look at how many of
the biggest US tech companies open source their best tools (including Google &
Facebook to name two), instead of trying to keep it all for themselves.
There's a reason China has been pillaging US intellectual property and
research so freely, it's all just sitting there for the taking, begging to be
hoovered up. We share immensely with the world. I don't think we get much
credit for doing it though, I think most of the world is oblivious to it at
best.

------
the-dude
Reminds me of 'The Secrets Of Cornwall - Part 1 - Communications' :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_nnUbX7uuQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_nnUbX7uuQ)

All kinds of bland looking, unmarked buildings housing telecom equipment for
the onshoring fibres.

------
adolph
I wonder how much of the capabilities outlined in this work, like Texas Towers
[0,1] have contemporary analalogies, like SBX [2].

0\.
[http://coldwar-c4i.net/TexasTowers/EE0755-629.html](http://coldwar-c4i.net/TexasTowers/EE0755-629.html)

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Towers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Towers)

2\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-based_X-
band_Radar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-based_X-band_Radar)

------
whalesalad
I used to go drive up to an abandoned Nike missile site in the LA area late at
night. As a teenager, alone, it was super spooky to roll up on all the barbed
wire and warning signs.

~~~
mikestew
The dog and I used to investigate one of the remaining Nike missile bases in
the Redmond, WA area when we'd run the pre-dawn hours of winter. We stayed
outside of all warning signs, fences, and cameras of course.

But it looks like the land next door will be sold for a (what I assume will
be) subdivision one of these days, so better hurry because I'll bet the
missile base land (owned by a school district, last I checked) will go soon,
too:
[https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6850787,-122.078686,3a,48.9y...](https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6850787,-122.078686,3a,48.9y,73.69h,95.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sl6sBllwGRomCu64KHgcCIw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192)

------
thspimpolds
If you liked the stuff here, I would highly encourage you to read this:
[https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Rock-Governments-Secret-
Itself-...](https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Rock-Governments-Secret-Itself-
While/dp/1476735409)

It's very well written and lots of pictures (half the book)

------
arethuza
For some UK sites you can use the relevant categories on Subterranea
Britannica:

[https://www.subbrit.org.uk/](https://www.subbrit.org.uk/)

------
swader999
Wow I miss the grey blue black pages of the nineties!

