I HEAR THER IS SOME IN LORTON? ANY INPUT?

Sure thing - Drive down Route 1 to Gunston Rd. Turn right (if headed North), or turn Left (if headed South). Drive for 12 miles. Park. Enjoy.

COOL THANKS

No problem

;)

From route 1 take lorton rd west. stay on it through the curvey portion. Pass furnace rd on the left. There is a fork in the road maybe a half mile from there, take the right fork that is also furnace rd. after you cross the 1 lane bridge look for a historic marker on your left.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=lorton+rd+lorton,va&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=MsmmSoeoKtOJnQfPn_CzBw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

You can look at the map and figure it out from there

It's defiantly really easy to find; look on furnace Rd. But beware, go down a "Restricted" road, and patrol security will block you in on both sides, followed by cops behind them, search your car, your persons and charge you with trespassing and you'll have to hire a lawyer for $1000 a pop for them to talk to the prosecutor for 15 min to get you a NOLLE PROSEQUI, or Null Process which means "Not Prosecute" but the charge stays on your record.. if you're lucky... do some research tho, its some creepy shit...

Rocketeer & Dude -- You guys are taking all of the fun outta this topic with your real direction-giving! ;)

Yeah the old Nike anti-aircraft Missile Silo built during the cold war to defend D.C. from Russian attack. Pretty cool topic but the apparent "marker" of this site is just in some random field near the silo's location but it would be really neat if they opened up the silo(s?) for tours but they won't because I am sure they are being used for something else these days...I doubt anything too big like nuclear as these sites have been made public but something is definitely going on there if there really are patrols and police watching the silo site entrances

BJ Wrote:
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> I doubt anything too big like nuclear as these sites have been made
> public but something is definitely going on there

The sign is not in some random field - it is across the street from where the Nike site was. The silo's were sealed when Lorton Prison took over the site. There is nothing "going on there." They play baseball there sometimes. The site is designated to be a Cold War heritage site. It was to be the site of the Cold War Museum. However, that did not work out and the museum has moved to Faquier County. So it is not really known what will happen now. The new South County Middle School has been built on part of the land that was formerly the Nike site. The school opens in September. The 7th and 8th grade students at the current South County Secondary want the new middle school to be called Nike Middle School.

There's also a historic marker near one of the old silo sites along 7100 headed westbound just past the 123 overpass. (Does anybody ever read those things?) There was more than one silo site; they were built in a ring around DC. According to another post here, the old HQ building still exists near the ex-Lorton Reformatory (hi-sec) grounds. Closed down, boarded up, and empty. Most of the silo sites have been covered over with dirt to keep kids out. The last person I knew that went into one said it was just a big concrete hole in the ground lined with empty beer cans and used condoms.

All 6 of the underground magazines and 24 launch pads are still there surrounded by the abandoned prison buildings in Laurel Hill Park. Go into the park past the guard gate and you can drive onto two of them. They're covered in concrete but easy to identify. Just across the street from the Lorton sign. The Popes Head rd launch site is now Popes Head Park on the west side of the parkway at the end of Quiet Brook. Only the perimeter fence remains. On the east side of the parkway the command and radar site is still there and largely intact at the end of LaDue off Popes Head rd. it's now a road facility for Farfax Co. This site is directly behind the sign on the parkway about 100 yards into the woods.

Topic: Missle Silo

Follow Up: Anyone belong to Lorton Hertiage Society so that we can ask them to participate in our Forum here ?

Lorton Heritage Society
8912 Ox Road
P.O. Box 1726
Lorton, VA 22079
E-mail: info@Lortonheritage.org
http://www.lortonheritagesociety.org/


Cafe Twin
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are any of these silos enter able? id love to explore one

Wow, there is a lot of random weird facts here. So basically, all the land originally belonged to the prison and the inmates worked the fields. The hippies in the 60s protested to stop the "slave labor" of the inmates. The government kindly obliged because they needed a place for the missile platforms anyways. The silos encompassed many of the fields. If you check wikipedia you'll see photos of them. Everything above ground was destroyed when they closed down the sites in the 80s. As housing was built closer and closer a child went missing and was found inside one in the late 90s. After that incident, the government buried all the underground bunkers. These were above ground silos. Not like the ones in the movies. They were located pretty far off any public roads. Frightening part was, the locals didn't even know about them nor did the prison employees. Missiles loaded you could not see them from Lorton rd or furnace road. The sign is where it is because they had to put a marker someplace after the public figured out what was going on. I've hiked out to where one of the missiles pads once was. Nothing there but a concrete pad. Even thats all gone now due to housing development.

Can't say there was not a child who disappeared in an old NIKE site, but NOT the one at the prison, and certainly not in the mid 90's. They would have to go through the guard gate, or climb an 8' chain link fence with concertina wire on top as it was inside Minimum Security at that time.

All the silos were covered with a foot of concrete when it was changed from a NIKE site to Minimum Security. Access would be extremely difficult at best.

The site is at the corner of Hooes and Furnace road. You can still see the NCO quarters standing there.

The fire point, where what would be called HQ was, has been eliminated by the new schools.

I am unaware of a single prison employee who did not know they were there, or what they did. Many residents worked there, so not many residents were unaware either.

I hope the file attaches, it is fairly interesting.

You could see the missiles from either road when they did their MANY tests. Pretty difficult to hide any of this.
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Are there any photos online

The Nike missile system was very similar in nature to the Soviet-era SA-2 SAM.

The Nike Hercules had a nuclear warhead atop it and imagine having a dozen of those a few miles from your house!

Back in the 60's, the only bomber the Soviets could throw at us would've been the TU-95 Bear and those could've been shot out of the sky by 1950's era jets. The Soviet countermeasure systems sucked and wouldn't have been able to keep the radar from achieving lock-on.