Dow AFB: Bomarc Missile Battery site -- Part I of II

This is a three part series. You're currently looking at the first post of three related to Dow AFB's Bomarc missile site.

• Part 1.5, which discusses a bit more about how the site would have fit into the regional defensive scheme.
• Part 2, which is more photos of the launch houses.

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It was last November. Cold, snow was already on the ground under gray Maine skies. I was hanging out with a friend and saw something interesting out the window while standing in front of his john. This fence:

His bathroom wasn't this close, but this is the fence...

At the time, I was familiar with Bangor's role in the WWIII that never happened; but I had no idea my friend lived in such close proximity to Dow AFB's old Bomarc site. Despite his reluctance, I got him to walk with me through the short woods, and onto a paved perimeter pathway that hadn't been used since "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was at the top of the charts.

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In the background you can see the site's old diesel storage tank, in the foreground you can see a post more exiting than this one, and in the middle you can see the perimeter walkway.

Perhaps, no more Doctor Who. 

As we walked along bits and pieces of the base came more into view. The checkered structure is a water tower that's apparently still in use by the city, so not really something I care to go near. Things that are still in use and threaten you with unpleasant consequences aren't fun. Looking at how overgrown this once pristine and secured site had become, however, is fun. Not fun like 'roller coasters' or 'motorcycles' fun, but fun like "if I step into a hole in the spacetime continuum and come to occupy the same space but somehow in 1959 I'm going to be riddled with bullet holes before I realize what happened" fun.

I really shouldn't be concerned about microtears in the fabric of time, I should be more concerned with whether or not I'm breaking any laws. There were no "no trespassing" signs, but I still got an eerie feeling of "you guys shouldn't be here." After all, there are now several private businesses in the area and adolescent shitheads with no sense of historical context have apparently been messing with some of the buildings.

Stay Classy, Bangor

If you can't tell, shit like this really annoys me. It tends to make those who own the property nervous about people who just want to visit an installation that used to house supersonic, nuclear-capable surface to air missiles. What's so wrong with that? I mean, why would you want to tag up something that's 'Half-Life' level of cool?

Oh...

We walked up to the back of the missile assembly building. I have no idea what the garage doors were for on the second story, and I can't really tell whether or not the part of the building in the foreground is original -- it definitely looks original. To the left, you can see that some of our youths in the area are immune to paranoia. If you can spark up at an abandoned USAF facility and not want to nope the fuck out of there, you either have balls of steel or brains of bricks.

Through the trees, you can see the site's diesel storage tank. Someone has cut a hole in it and installed a garage door. Inside the "garage" there was a couch that looked like it was used by either kids to sit on and get high, or for homeless men on bath salts and spice and everything vice. Either way, we didn't stick around much.

As we exited, we passed the old guardhouse. I was surprised at the cinder block construction, considering that Bomarc missiles were nuclear capable. The guy sitting in there back then would wave past all sorts of personnel that were more or less just waiting for a computer down in Thomaston to signal that Soviets were about to rain down nuclear hell. And you probably thought your job was depressing.

There was some sort of access hatch in the guard house that was wide open. But it was cold and dark and I really didn't want to go inside since I don't trust a 40 year old ladder to service 250lbs of dork terribly well.

The trip didn't last too long. And I'm aware I missed a lot of stuff. I didn't go near the missile "coffins" at all. And I didn't get any pictures of the semi-underground utility tunnel, or the concrete conduit access 'thing' either. I plan to return and take more photographs.

I've included a map below to give you some impression of the missile base in relation to the air force base.