and Canada and make it through all of the air defenses, they’d be smashed to smithereens by 5-ton nuclear-tipped Hercules missiles launched from hundreds of these rural Army outposts that were spread across the U.S. Should intruders cross the DEW Line (the Distant Early Warning radar system) that protected the U.S. They were the city’s last line of defense. Louis Air Defense System, a protective ring of firepower that operated for nearly a decade - from mid-1959 to early 1969. It was one of four “backyard” missile sites that formed the St. The missile station, officially dubbed SL-40, is near Hecker, a town of 500, though it has a Red Bud address: 5055 M Road. Louis Public Radio The Army assured neighbors of the missile sites that they would not be "hot targets." Keller emphasizes that the property, including several weathered cinderblock buildings, is being sold “As Is.’’Ĭredit Mary Delach Leonard | St. And we’ll see at the end of the day what it brings.’’ “I figure the best appraisal for a property like this is an auction. “You really can’t appraise something like this,’’ Keller says. So the actual sales price could, well, skyrocket. The minimum opening bid is $70,000, and Keller knows several potential buyers who are willing to meet that. Some neighboring landowners are interested in the land, military history buffs would like it to be a museum - and he’s heard from a few survivalists. Or, flooding the rooms for a scuba diving school. Among the novel ideas he’s heard for the Hecker site: turning the three underground bunkers, where missiles were once stored, into an underground pot farm to grow medical marijuana. Keller, who usually sells farms with soybean fields and corn silos, has some ideas for repurposing this former military installation now knee-high in grass and weeds and colorful wildflowers.įormer missile bases around the country have been converted into luxury homes or warehouse storage, he says. Louis Public Radio The old shop, pump house and generator buildings are still standing.
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