Titan missile complex for sale

BATUM - Take two steps into the former Larson Air Force Base Complex 1A Titan ICBM Facility, and it's hard to not learn about history.

So says Bari Hotchkiss, current owner of the site.

"You can't help learning the history of the Cold War, not only just coming on the site but walking through the buildings," he said. "If there had been a nuclear blast, that took out everything above ground, they had two underground antennas that were protected they could raise and still communicate, and say, 'Well, do we fire or not fire?' Just walking through the building, you're going to learn about history."

Located on Batum Road between Moses Lake and Ritzville, Hotchkiss is advertising the facility for sale on Ebay with an asking price of $1.5 million.

"I tried it for a couple years ago with an absolute auction started at $1," Hotchkiss said.

He had never before done that on the Web site, and was unaware of an existing system to sign potential bidders up ahead of time to guarantee they were legitimate.

"What happened was I was just getting jerks from all over the place just throwing bids out," Hotchkiss said. "When it hit $30 million I knew it wasn't serious, so I just pulled it. And that was the case, the high bidder (said), 'Oh, I thought it was a joke.'"

The site is roughly 57 acres and includes 16 underground buildings, including three 160 foot-tall missile silos, three four-story equipment terminal buildings, two antenna silos, 100-foot control dome building and a 125-foot power dome building.

The facility took two and a half years to build and was in operation for the same amount of time.

"It was a rush job to get them up at the height of the Cold War," Hotchkiss said. "They were actually armed and ready to go during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It's still classified, I don't know whether these were up and ready to go at that point in time as far as getting ready to push the button, but they were here and ready to go."

The missiles were the last to come in and the first to be removed, Hotchkiss said.

Originally a resident of the Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., areas, and currently based in southern California, Hotchkiss said he would prefer to do a joint venture or lease the property.

"The number-one goal is to make some sort of a teaching facility, youth camp or something like that," he said. "If I had my choice, if I had the time and won the lottery, I'd just do it all myself."

Hotchkiss has owned the property for about 10 years.

"We heard it was available and I'd looked at other places all over the country, not Titan sites, because there aren't very many of these, but there have been a lot of old Atlas sites I've been considering," he said.

Most sites, however, are full of water or have water problems which have made them unsalvageable.

"Found this place, took one tour and I said, 'My gosh, when's a person ever going to have an opportunity like this again?'" Hotchkiss said. "It is such a jewel - you would not believe the world press I'm getting right now on the place. So I'm really hoping we can find some folks, hopefully some folks locally too, that would like to do something with this, because it seems like everybody in the world would love a tour through here to see what's down there."

Hotchkiss recently conducted an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., as well as media from Russia, Australia, Ireland and Poland, as well as other media doing their own stories.

There's been quite a bit of interest from potential buyers, too.

"But, you know, nobody's brought me a check or signed on the dotted line," Hotchkiss said. "I am trying to hold out, number one, for what I'd kind of like to see with it and, number two, well, then something special. I don't want to sell it for a mushroom farm or for potato storage; that'd be such a waste. That'd be like using an old Dusseldorf Mercedes for delivering milk or something."

Hotchkiss is afraid of having the place damaged in making a sale.

"It's a world jewel," he said. "There's, as far as I know, really no place like this on earth that's in this condition."

The facility is the only one Hotchkiss owns.

People come from all over to see the site if they happen to be on a trip. Sometimes he has time to give a tour, but most of the time he doesn't, Hotchkiss said.

"Even though we have caretakers and my sons are local, I don't let anybody in here except if I'm showing, because it's just so dangerous," he said. "You can step off the tunnel at the missile silo and splatter 100 feet down at the bottom. And there's all kinds of steel sticking up."

Hotchkiss has visitors sign a liability release before they go down.

"You step in the wrong place, it can hurt you," he said.

Moses Lake resident Col. Clyde Owen served as base commander of Larson Air Force Base when the missile sites closed. He said he has not been around the Batum site for approximately 40 years, perhaps last setting foot on the property in early 1965, but he used to go out to see how his troops were supporting the activity at the facility.

"My people were in charge of the food service, the security, the maintenance and all above ground (work)," he said. "I had nothing to do with the missile as such. They were not under my command. It'll be very interesting to me to see what they do with it."

Hotchkiss sees the central location of the facility as a positive. He can see for miles in any direction on a clear day, for instance.

"I love the openness, we're out here where we're not really going to disturb anybody if we make a little noise," he said. "In past years we've brought our kids up in a van and sort of used it as a working youth camp, made this the base camp. We spent a whole summer just cleaning up the trash people had been dumping here for years, planting trees, running drip irrigation and all kinds of stuff."

Hotchkiss would also love to invite the people, who wrote graffiti on the walls of the complex when it was open and easily accessible before he owned it, back for a day of cleaning.

For a camp, the ground above could house the cabins and other typical camp necessities, Hotchkiss believes. No matter the temperature, he said, there are buildings underground the size of gymnasiums for teaching camps and astronomy.

"This has got the tremendous historical value," he said. "There's just so much unique space, there's all kinds of possibilities. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something with this. The place literally could be here for thousands of years, like the pyramids."