Arctic Valley Missile Base

During the cold war the United States and Canada developed a cooperative defense system called the Joint Air Defense Operation. I don't know much about it, but from what i understand it was a network of radar and missile sites. The idea was to protect our countries from an attack by Russian bombers. I don't know if the sites included nuclear missiles. I was surprised how little information i found online in the time i had to investigate.

Due to the effects of the cold war the base is eternally shrouded in thick smog.

A reconnaissance photo of my approach.

The main entrance and guard shack.

There is an old JADO missile site above Anchorage, on the mountain top at Arctic Valley. I had always heard this was a "secret" base, with "secret" tunnels and whatnot. As far as being a secret, it's in plain view over the city and shares the peaks with a public ski slope and some radio towers. It's often a good landmark to let you know when you're getting close to town.

One summer during a week too smokey for hiking i decided i would go check it out and see what kind of "secrets" it harbored. It's on top of a mountain but from the ski resort it's not a long hike, maybe 1,200 vertical feet and less than a mile of walking. Still, the smoke was killing me. I couldn't believe how much it affected my lungs. Everyone i passed on the trail seemed equally surprised. I thought it would be a good way to get some exercise in poor air conditions because it was so short, but once i was there i realized the net effect on my health would be negative.

Most everything of interest had been removed long ago.

Once at the top i noticed two things. What i had always thought were the silos that everyone mentioned were actually radar towers, and after being abandoned for decades there now appeared to be a crew of people working on them. As soon as i set foot on the road a truck was driving by and stopped to yell at me. The guy was very threatening and acting like i was lucky that i was being shot on site. What made me mad about this guy was that he wasn't even in the military. He appeared to just be some painting contractor. So that was annoying, to have hiked all the way up there just to be immediately turned around.

As soon as i started heading back, a mother with her two kids made it up to the road. Yes, the abandoned cold war missile silos are the type of place that moms go with their children to have a picnic lunch. The guys who were working up there were extremely nice to them and seemed saddened to tell them they had to turn around. I guess i should be a mom. Weeks later i read in the paper that North Korea has caused renewed interest in the old base, and there are indeed renovations going on. Just my luck, i decide to go to a popular site that's been abandoned for decades, and the day i get there is the day they decide to open it back up.

The bay that housed the missiles.

I wasn't deterred, and simply went to another area of the base where there were no workers and it was easy to stay out of site. This area seemed to be the bulk of the original base, and it was here that i found the actual missile hangers (not silos). The first day by the time i found my way in i got hungry and had to leave. A few weeks later i returned under the cover of fog, so those workers couldnt' even see me at all.

The site up close is generally gutted, with anything of interest having been removed long ago. I did find an interrogation room and a lot of impressive blast doors. And, the rumor of underground passages turned out to be true. I found several tunnels, but they had been plugged with large rocks and dirt. I don't think they were a secret, more likely they were a comfortable way to get from building to building when there were arctic blizzards on the mountaintop.