Although it was out of sight and out of mind to the average US citizen, it played a crucial role in a geopolitical agenda of extinction-level significance during the Cold War. It was one of 72 blast "hardened" silo structures built to protect nuclear-tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (IBMs) with an ordnance 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
It is an Atlas F missile silo, built by the US in the early 1960s at a cost of about $15m (£12.2m). But this is not a bunker built to hide citizens or to protect the politicians who ordered its construction. To the outsider it looks a bit like a secret government installation – and indeed at one time it was. What lies underneath is a bunker that is unassuming, unassailable and – to many – unbelievable. If you look closely, you might notice what looks like a concrete pill box perched on the top of the small hill, flanked by cameras. Surrounded by a military-grade chain fence and in the shadow of a large wind turbine, a security guard in camouflage paces the fence line with an assault rifle. Nestled among Kansas cornfields in a landscape devoid of any noticeable natural topography, a verdant mound can be seen from a dirt road.
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