The Silo's at the end of KGB road... (Anchorage, Fairbanks: how much, house)

[AQHA]

Anybody know the story of the cement bunkers out there at the end of KGB? I was hiking around out there the other day, pretty cool place. I was told they were used to house missiles during the cold war... any truth to that?

[akravenlady]

I heard something like that once upon a time.

[Nephler]

I believe that's true. Though now all it is is a trash pit. It's the worst area I have ever seen in my life. Nobody seems to give a crap about that area. The people that dump their crap out there should be hung.

[Alaska Deb]

Wowzer. From what my kids tell me, those silos are a free-for-all. They are there having a weekend-long party...as there are people off in the woods throwing around hand grenades. It was then I learned you can buy a hand grenade in town for 20.00

When I asked about the police, I was told they didn't go all the way down the road.

How much of this is true, I don't know...but it is not a place I'd frequent.

[Nephler]

Not sure about the grenades, but I know there is lots of gun fire out there.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by AQHA

Anybody know the story of the cement bunkers out there at the end of KGB? I was hiking around out there the other day, pretty cool place. I was told they were used to house missiles during the cold war... any truth to that?

IF you are talking about the silos out on Knik Goose Bay road, then those were part of the Nike Missile system for the Cold War. There is also one by Kincaid Park (out towards Ted Stevens International Airport) and on the Mountain overlooking Anchorage as well. They had radar domes for controlling the outbound missiles and the one on the mountain had the incoming tracking Radar dome as well.

They were overlapping in their defense coverage of the two military bases in Anchorage.

Old site out by Knik


Mount Gordon site

[Nephler]

What's the dates on those photos startlite?

[starlite9]

I don't know the dates, the sites were built in the late forties and operated (if I recall correctly) in to the early 70's before being shut down. They are around Fairbanks as well, the systems were connected in with the early warning systems all along Alaska's Northern and Western coastlines as well.

When I was a kid, they launched a couple of times off the mountain above Anchorage and we could see the missiles head along the mountains to the south, figure they were doing test fires out towards the Gulf of Alaska.

They also use to shoot 105's shells from Eagle River Flats up onto the base of that mountain as well. They dropped wrecked cars up there by helo's and then shelled them for practice up into the early 70's as well until the public realized they were firing shells "Over" the Richardson Highway and then it stopped after a lot of protests about it. We use to sit out on the playground at Chester Valley Elementary school in the early 1960's and watch the black flak puffs by them... At that time we thought that was pretty cool... At night, the shelling would make the entire sky flash just like it would on a battle field...

They don't do a lot of that type of stuff there anymore.

[blueflames50]

does anyone have any current photos of the site???

[AQHA]

The silo's are big bunker looking units, the kids said there are also underground tunnels out there at the end of KBG. Does that airport still get used?