Roadside Oddities, p. 152-154
Players: Beth and Josh - June 2010
Directions: 1580 W. Duval Mine Rd.
Sahuarita, Arizona
Entrance Fee: $8
The theme for this mission was "peace through deterrence..." To commemorate Arizona's role in keeping the peace during the Cold War (by having missiles designed for massive destruction) the Titan II silo was allowed to be preserved and toured. In its hay day a visitor here would have been shot for trespassing. Now, the elderly provide tours for the curious.
During your tour an elderly guide leads you through three stories underground. There, you can see all the procedures for destruction...you can even sit in the control seat and push one of the three buttons that would "kill some commies!" To this day, the location of the three missile destinations are still kept confidential.
The Titan II carried the most powerful nuclear weapon ever deployed. The warhead that topped each of the rockets had about thirty times the destructive energy of the deadliest warhead in service today. " Weird Arizona" puts this into perspective for us "...if a nuclear explosion on the order of only one megaton (the warheads that topped each of the rockets had 9 megatons...)were to occur about Tucson's city hall, it would produce a crater one thousand feet in diameter, obliterate nearly everything in a circle reaching Grant Road to 29th Street, and whisk away any residential buildings for another mile beyond that. Plus, given the right wind conditions, radiation would kill everyone from Tucson to Nogales within two weeks." (Treat, "Weird Arizona" p154)
I am posting more pictures from this location on my shutterfly account!
No comments:
Post a Comment