Growing up here in Abilene, home of Dyess Air Force Base you see and hear some pretty cool stories about our military. One of which is does Dyess have nuclear missiles or not? That I’ll leave for debate later. The other is about our local missile silos. In high school I heard all kinds of things about the missile silos most of which scared me.

I heard they were haunted by people that had gone in and fallen to their death. I had pictured in my mind a small winding staircase that ran along the inside of the silo with no guard rail to protect you from falling into a deep, deep pool of water.

I was told it was dark and steep and very dangerous, yet some of the kids in high school would sneak into them and explore. I was never asked to go, guess I wasn’t cool enough, but I would have said “no” even if I had been asked.

I ran across some video on YouTube about one of the missile silos here in Abilene and curiously watched it, only to find out that it is a very popular dive location for scuba enthusiasts. I’ve lived here all my life and had no idea this existed.

The missile silo was built in the 60′s and housed the Atlas missile but soon became obsolete and was decommissioned just 2 years later. The silo was left abandoned and flooded with ground water; very clear water (and very deep) which makes it a perfect place for scuba divers to get certifications for deep dives.

The silo pool is 127 ft deep and holds about 2 million gallons of water.

The Family Scuba Center in Midland, Texas owns and operates the Valhalla Silo and offers supervised dives through their company (it is not open to the public). For information on the Valhalla Silo check out the Family Scuba Center’s website.

I found out much more than I imagined about the elusive missile silos of Abilene and I didn’t have to risk life and limb to see it!! If you are as curious as I was about what is down in the silo check out the video below; it’s pretty cool and not at all what I expected.

Pretty sure it’s not haunted, it’s a good ways down to the actual water but doesn’t look too dangerous to me, in fact it looks pretty exciting.

 

More From Rock 108