Wednesday, July 28, 1999
Ultimate site for Y2K blast may be in Lawn
By Bill Whitaker
Judging from recent developments within the Atlas ICBM Historical
Society, some of our area’s most intriguing future economic
development may be going on underground.
Evidence of that came to light just last month with the announcement
of a one-of-a-kind Atlas ICBM museum utilizing a massive missile
silo near Clyde, one of a dozen such sites that ringed Abilene
during the height of the Cold War, all then housing nuclear missiles.
The site near Clyde is currently owned by the Clyde Independent
School District.
Far more curious than that, however, is a plan to turn yet
another abandoned Atlas ICBM silo near Lawn into an out-of-this-earth
banquet and meeting facility.
Sorry. Make that an in-this-earth banquet and meeting facility.
If all of this comes as news to some folks, it’s easy
to understand why. Even some hard-core missile aficionados in
these parts (and, yes, such folks do exist) believed the old missile
silo in Lawn had been closed some years ago after long serving
as a solid waste site for this town of 360 folks.
So imagine the surprise of Larry Sanders, founder of the locally
based Atlas ICBM Historical Society, when he was told otherwise
by no less than Lawn Mayor Johnny Hudson.
Larry was chatting with area folks about economic development
when Lawn’s mayor asked why Larry’s budding Atlas ICBM
Historical Society had never bothered to investigate the Lawn
silo — abandoned in the mid-1960s and left in the hands of
Lawn city officials — as a site for its future museum.
Of course, Larry dutifully explained no one bothered looking
at the old silo because it was reportedly crammed full of refuse
— 383,000 cubic feet of solid waste, to be exact.
“Then Johnny said to me, ‘No, we never put anything
in that hole,’ ” Larry recalled excitedly. “It
came as a complete shock to me, and I thought I knew everything
about the old missile silos around here. It was like talking about
some long-lost relative you thought had died in a crash and finding
out he’s actually living just down the street.
“Anyway, Johnny took me out to the site that weekend and
it was amazing — and it was clean!”
Trash that idea
While the Atlas ICBM Historical Society’s plans for the
Clyde ISD silo remain part of a grand non-profit plan to lure
tourists off Interstate 20 to visit what they hope will be a unique
museum showcasing the Cold War, the Lawn site is a for-profit
venture headed by Larry. But it’ll still be a one-of-a-kind
attraction, one Mayor Hudson tells me he’s quite excited
about.
After all, how many other places will be able to boast of banquet
facilities in a genuine underground Cold War lair? What’s
more, Larry has plans to stock his place with vintage photographs
and drawings and charts detailing the Atlas ICBM’s pivotal
role in the Cold War during the early 1960s.
Leasing agreements between the city of Lawn and Larry may be
inked this week.
“It’s going to be more than just a place to have
meetings and banquets,” Larry vowed. “The place is the
experience, the venue is the entertainment. I know it’s going
to be great. It’s not only going to create four to six jobs
in Lawn, it’ll also create a great attraction for our area,
and not just for Lawn but for all of Abilene.”
Among the possible highlights: A refurbished launch control
center, a two-story underground structure modified to accommodate
up to 140 individuals for catered, banquet-style dining, meetings
or private parties. Larry sees it as ripe for reunions, military
functions and, yes, university groups whose students used to break
into these old silos for cheap, off-campus thrills.
“I figure if they were once willing to break their necks
to get into these places for a cheap thrill,” Larry joked,
“many of them will now be happy to come for dinner!”
Pass on the fish
Larry, who also serves as aide-de-camp for state Sen. Troy
Fraser, admits the Lawn silo has seen some damage but nothing
that can’t be adequately addressed. “It’s been
left empty all this time and there’s a lot of water damage,”
he conceded, “but you can repair sheet rock and scrape rust
and paint walls.”
He sees it as the “ultimate location for a number of Y2K
functions.” And who could argue otherwise?
Incidentally, if Lawn Mayor Johnny Hudson’s name seems
familiar to readers of the Abilene Reporter-News, it’s for
good reason. You may have noticed Johnny on our front page Monday,
helping in West Texas Utilities clean-up efforts at Lytle Lake,
which saw huge fish deaths due to rising water temperatures and
plummeting oxygen levels.
“All I’m waiting for,” Larry told me, “is
for Johnny to pick all those dead fish out of Lytle Lake.”
Which suggests that, if and when Larry and his partners mount
a grand opening of their underground banquet facility late this
year, Johnny will likely pass if they’re serving fried catfish.
Bill Whitaker, who bets Larry Sanders and the Atlas ICBM
Historical Society will have one blast of a millennium party underground
by year’s end, can be reached at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com.
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