Snark Missile Base | Presque Isle

Presque Isle: land of the Oriental Pearl, the Northeastland, and one of the last remaining Shop N' Save locations. Barring tourists who don't bother to look up (or read) when using Exit 186, it's got nearly everything Bangor has including an old nuclear missile base that's since turned into an industrial park. On Skyway drive you'll find an odd collection of long, narrow, hangar type buildings that used to house the the 69 foot Snark intercontinental range missile. The very first offensive weapon in the United States with the capability to deliver an H bomb payload to Russia. Also of note: if the warhead wasn't dropped, the Snark could land itself.

Originally part of Presque Isle Army Airfield that was established in 1941, a squadron of (four) Snark missiles were placed here on alert in February of 1961 and deactivated in June 1961, in service for about four months.After deactivation of the 702nd Missile Wing, the base was reclassified as a national air guard facility. While a premature end to the Snark's operational life and the resulting economic impact to the Presque Isle area may be considered unfortunate, the story nearly had a much more unfortunate ending:

"We had gone to full power for the last sixty seconds before simulated launch. The bird was out on the launch pad. Screaming, I had counted down the last ten seconds over the intercom and pointed at ... the launch switch ...normally, we would retard to idle, let the engine cool down, go to "engine stop," lower the launcher and tow the bird around to the other end of the building where it would be checked over and readied for another run. But not this time...."

-Captain James Berrall, USAF (Retired) 

If you click the attribution above, you can read the full story. While the Air Force told the citizens of Presque Isle that no missiles would be test launched, that didn't mean that they wouldn't be tested at all. During a drill, the engines actually fired while still on the launcher, going at full throttle while attached to the ground and depleting its fuel stores. Poetically described as "reared up on its launcher with its wings spread, thundering away, shaking the ground and the building, proudly telling all the base, the town of Presque Isle and all the surrounding territory for miles around that it was one great big powerful monster lunging at its leash",  Capt. Berrall's account of this faulty missile becomes chilling as he explains that once the missile went from its external stores to its internal ones that, without pressurization to keep the missile body in shape (since the thing wasn't actually flying) that it would have collapsed, potentially spraying its easily combustible fuel everywhere in what could have been quite the toxic fireball.

As this was the first missile we had capable of reaching another continent, it popped up in media quite often:

News articles:

• 12/14/1957 - The Bulletin - makes it very clear that the Snark base in Presque Isle was the very first operational missile base in the US capable of striking Russia.
• 12/14/1957 - The Miami News - mentions the Snark missile in a writeup of political disagreements related to defense appropriation.
• 12/16/1957 - The Beaver Valley Times - runs the byline "Russia will be in range of 5,000-mile missile" Cost is outlined at 12 million dollars, and mentions that the Snark was capable of dropping an H bomb within four miles of its target.
• 12/19/1957 - Spokane Daily Chronicle - touts the 5,000 mile range of the Snark missile and mentions its deployment in Presque Isle. Article also mentions the Air Forces "WS-110" aircraft, which never materialized. (Not hard to figure out why.)
• 04/04/1958 - Lewiston Evening Journal - Article identifies base components while serving notice that construction was open for bids soon. Base to include six assembly buildings, a power/water pumping plant, an engine run-up building, six compressor houses, fuel distribution infrastructure and sewers.
• 05/25/1958 - The Reading Eagle  - reports that the Snark missile base in Presque Isle may have aroused safety concerns from locals, and states that the Snarks were nuclear and not to be fired or test fired unless a war actually were to occur. All crew testing and training occurred in Florida.
• 01/19/1959 - The Milwaukee Journal -  The Snark base at Presque Isle was presented as a complementary force to the Atlas missile program. Article indicates 30 were meant to be stored there. Also of note are plans for development of a 'nuclear powered warplane.'
• 05/20/1959 - Lewiston Daily Sun - Article indicates construction is nearly complete. 
• 09/26/1959 - The Spokesman Review - tells of a failed Snark test flight, but claims that the 'rocket' has been fired over 60 times and is one of the more reliable missiles in the US arsenal. (This article also has a great picture of Khrushchev...)
• 06/09/1960 - Lewiston Evening Journal - An eight man Snark missile crew from Presque Isle successfully tested a 5,000 mile guided missile test in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 
• 12/06/1960 - The Ocala Star - reported the last test flight of a Snark missile, as it was made obsolete by the Atlas. The Presque Isle base is mentioned as the only Snark base once again, and is described as running interference for bombers should war break out.

Webster Mill/Striar Textile | Orono

On a dead end street in the community of Orono, surrounded by upscale beige duplex condominiums is a nice little cul de sac that used to be the site of significant industrial activity. Driving by, you'd never know that it used to be the site of a building that was eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its extensive history dating back to the late 1700s according to some.

The mill building you see above was built in 1892 after the original built in 1875 burned. An article from the Lewiston Evening Journal from late 1895 indicates that the mill was 'new' when an iron bridge was constructed for it. By 1900 it was mentioned in the same paper as being one of the mills immersed in a glut of timber industry activity. (At the time, Bangor was the Pittsburgh of plant cellulose.)

WWII brought the necessity for the mill to begin casting parts for anti aircraft and anti-tank weaponry [citation], and the paper component met its end due to failure to modernize according to this 1972 Bangor Daily story. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by Strair Textile for use as a warehouse for its Ayers Island factory just across the river. Striar Textile operated until 1992, when it file for bankruptcy to the tune of almost 10 million dollars.
It sat abandoned for ten years, out of the news and with the next web footprint being visible in the early 2000's, when the Bangor Explorer's Guild decided to venture inside:

"We found out about this building near the begining of March, 2002, and have so far, only done a little scouting of the outside because we did not have lights at the time. Walley climbed the steel ladder and crouched in the opening, trying to get a look into the back entrance but could only see a large, dark, expansive room; so he hucked a brick across the room, hoping to distinguish the flooring material by the sound of it landing. It sounded like a cement floor, but it was still too dark to investigate any further."

- Bangor Explorer's Guild

You can 'tour' the building, with extensive descriptions and quite a number of interesting photos here.

Apart from being explored by the Bangor Explorers Guild, the next web footprint found was when it was later to be the site of a 200 person rave held in 2003 and was boarded up shortly thereafter.

Cleanup started in 2008, the site was demolished some time between 2011 and 2012 and it now serves as housing for well off suburbanites, despite having been eligible to be included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Train Station | Old Town

In the early 1800s America's railroad system was at its infancy. 1829 was the first time a (passenger) railroad had ever turned a profit, or had freight/passenger stations available to the public -- and that was the Baltimore & Ohio. Six years later, the Bangor and Piscataquis Rail Company had run its very first train from Bangor to Old Town, and the succeeding company -- Veazie Railroad, would move to become one of the first successful railroad companies in the nation.

Let's put this in a little bit of perspective: Hudson, Pittsburgh, NYC and parts of Ohio were some of the cities to be connected by rail before Old Town and Bangor; which is no surprise, those cities and those areas represented the backbone of American industry at the time. The City of Old Town claims that this Bangor to Old Town line was the second railroad in the country.

It's worth noting that a great number of rail travel innovations that we may take for granted today developed some time after rail service in the Old Town area.  "Knuckle" style couplers and vacuum brakes were nowhere to be seen. When Old Town was on the map (in terms of rail), rail travel didn't look anything like it does today.

Closing "The Troll Cave" Case | Kenduskeag i95 overpass, Bangor

Bangor Explorer's Guild

There are a great many places within the city of Bangor that give that provide a nice backdrop against which things that go 'bump' in the night may go 'bump.'  One of which is a hollow highway overpass.

Considering the city's role in the Cold War with its bombers, fighters, nuclear weapons stores and missile base it would stand to reason that tales of hidden rooms, top secret pipelines, passageways and subterranean bunkers would easily tickle the imaginations of anyone who may catch wind of them. Cue the (unfortunately now defunct) Bangor Explorer's Guild. They had documented a particular bridge based on a tip received in the early 1990s: "someone told one of our agents that interstate bridges were hollow inside so the military could hide tanks, weapons, and emergancy (sic) supplies inside secret rooms."

While the Kenduskeag valley overpass is indeed hollow, the purpose was unrelated to Civil Defense. The notion of military/CD use is a symptom of an inter-generational game of telephone -- the Bangor Explorer's Guild for all their chutzpah never had access to an invaluable research tool for this sort of thing: Facebook. Or rather, Facebook users. There's a fantastic group (for locals) dedicated to memories of those who grew up in the area.  I'd asked and had this misconception cleared up in rather short order: The design of this bridge isn't for storage, it's so that air may act as an insulator that would prevent the bridge from freezing before the rest of the highway.

Its purpose may seem somewhat mundane considering whispers of preparation for the doomsday that never came, the bridge isn't without its own *bumps* in the night. Several graves had to be moved for the construction of this bridge in the nearby cemetery, and in 1980 two teenagers had a fatal (and horrific) accident which involved a Corvette flying off of the bridge at 100+ mph, through the trees into the cemetery with the largest recoverable component being the engine block. 

Apparently it was also quite the part location during the 1960s and 1970s until Bangor's homeless problem caused the site to become too dangerous. It is effectively off limits today.

Note: If I have quoted you/used your story and you'd like to be credited please contact me using the links at the top of this page. Also I don't normally make a habit of blogging about things I find on Facebook, this is intended as a third party follow-up to the Bangor Explorers Guild entry on this structure.

East Side Dump | Bangor

WikiMapia.org describes Bangor's Essex St hill as a popular sledding location that used to be an old ski area. Given how steep, how close to residential areas and wetlands it is, its history as a ski area makes perfect sense. Did you know that it also used to be the site of Bangor's municipal dump?  This area used to be a open-burning dump for the first half of the 20th century. It has been referred to as The East Side Dump.

BANGOR CITY DUMP FORMER SITE 74187 WATCHMAKER ST BANGOR  A LARGE FIELD AT THE END OF WATCHMAKER ST WHICH LEADS DOWN TO A LARGE WETLANDS.  THIS IS STILL AN OPEN FIELD TO THE RIGHT AND AT THE END OF WATCHMAKER STREET. THIS WAS AN OPEN BURNING DUMP UNTIL THE MID-1960'S WHEN IT WAS CLOSED AND THE KITTREDGE STREET DUMP WAS OPENED. THERE IS A LARGE WETLANDS AT THE BASE OF THIS FIELD. THIS SITE IS EASILY WITHIN VIEW OF I-95 SOUTH. INFORMATION ON THIS SITE WAS SUPPLIED BY THE CEO OF THE CITY OF BANGOR IN 2008 PRE-1976 44.82438 -68.76602

 Maine DEP

The purpose of this post isn't to muckrake, as this area was a landfill back when we had leaded gasoline and cigarettes were practically a health and beauty item. It's really just an interesting 'huh' sort of factoid.

The East Side Dump was one of Bangor's first municipal dumps, having arisen out of concerns related to the spread of tuberculosis in the early part of the 20th century and many private dumps dotting the city. (Remembering Bangor, Wayne Reilly, Page 114-116.)

One Room Schoolhouse | Grand Falls

This schoolhouse was used from the 19th century to mid 20th. It has been preserved by the Grand Falls historical society is and is popular with geocachers, other than that I know little. Photos donated form the mid 80s by an anonymous source.

USS Maine "1 Pounder" Gun | Milford

In the past, I've written about the abandoned WWII era airfield in Milford. Milford is also home to yet another 'attraction' of sorts, a relic from a different time raised from the bottom of Havana harbor: One out of the USS Maine's four Hotchkiss/Diggs-Schoreder 'One Pounder' light guns.

If you're unfamiliar with the USS Maine, let me give you the tl;dr (tl;dr is too long, didn't read in 'internet speak.')  Cubans revolted against the Spanish, and in 1898 we sent the Maine to protect our interests in the area. The ship exploded and sank. The official story is that five tons of gunpowder ignited, more or less obliterating the entire forward third of the vessel. That's the Navy's story. The vessel was recovered using some pretty impressive engineering skills and pieces of it are all over the country. 

One such piece of it is in Jordan Park, which is right off of Rt 2 in Milford.

You can see this gun (or some like it) in the photo(s) below, enlarged with sharpness/brightness adjusted.

Source from Imgur.