Abandoned US Military Bunkers and Batteries

[12thengr]

Across the river in Oregon @ Ft. Stevens St. Park is Battery 245. Mounted with a couple (ugh) Navy 5" inchers.

[12thengr]

View from Battery 245. Much lower than Battery 247.

[12thengr]

Naval gun and bunker access door.

[12thengr]

Fat person attempting to enter Battery 245 ersatz gun.

[sgtpeter]

Makapu'u Point - East end of Oahu

 

Salvage -

 

Is Makapu'u the same as Mokapu?

 

Peter

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Nope,

 

Mokapu is the peninsula stretching into Kaneohe Bay between Kaneohe and Kailua.

 

Makapu'u is on the east end of Oahu past Waimanalo, overlooking Molokai

 

MCBH Kaneohe Bay is at the end of Mokapu and I live atop the ridge. There are also several bunkers and a fire control complex still remaining on Mokapu and some large underground hospital tunnels at Aikahi (Battery 405)

 

http://notsogreathikingblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/puu-papaa-and-mahinui-ridge.html

[Salvage Sailor]

Re: Makapu'u bunkers and lighthouse. I posted this somewhere else but have lost track of it

 

Just below the bunker complex lie the foundations of the original USCG buildings for the lighthouse at the end of the trail. You will also find this plaque near the foundations.

 

To get to the bunkers and powerhouses you have to climb up the ridge from there.

[NGCoastArtillery41]

One of these days I need to get some pictures of the abandoned bunkers around Fort Rosecrans and maybe even try to get down to Fort Emory here in San Diego.

[mghcal]

Up here in Northern CA around Beale AFB they built a series of complexes back in the 1960s to house the Titan I Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The Chico site used to be easy to get into but they have it pretty well secured now. The same went for the Sutter Buttes site but I heard they recently tried sealing it up as well though I haven't been up there to look since I was a kid. The site in Lincoln looks to be sealed and when I went to look last year it was located within what looks to be a city maintenance yard. It makes me wonder if these sites will be lost to history and what someone will think in a few hundred years when they stumble upon these massive structures. Here's a cool article about the Chico site.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/titan-i-missile-silo-beale-2014-10?op=1

 

http://www.calcoldwar.org/Titan-Missile-Page.php

 

There was also a really creepy government complex in Stockton. I'm hesitant to say much about it but was hoping someone else will know the site. It looked like a typical industrial park with a few buildings connected by enclosed walkways but there was a massive underground complex that went down multiple stories I don't know how many but it was impressive and I never went down to the bottom frankly I just wanted to get the heck out of there. It looked like the workers had just up and left suddenly there was tons of equipment and files strewn around. Multiple observation chambers as well. Super creepy stuff was left there. Anyone else familiar with this site? I knew the night security guards that were paid to watch the grounds of these abandoned buildings for several years. It's one of those experiences where you see an unassuming building surrounded by fences and razor wire and start wondering what's really in there lol.

[Thor996]

Fort Williams Portland Maine - took these about four years ago

[Thor996]

On April 13, 1899, President McKinley named the one-time subpost of Fort Preble, Cape Elizabeth's first military fortification, Fort Williams. Named after Brevet Major General Seth Williams, Fort Williams grew to be a tremendous military asset during World War II. Besides protecting the shoreline of Cape Elizabeth, the infantry and artillery units provided the Harbor Defense for Portland. After the war, many of the forts in Casco Bay were closed, including Fort Williams, which traded in its defense of the coast for caretaker status and Army Reserve accommodations. Fort Williams was officially closed and deactivated on June 30, 1963.

 

[kammo-man]

Love this thread !!!!

 

 

please post more goodies .

 

owen

[lamarhooten]

Up here in Northern CA around Beale AFB they built a series of complexes back in the 1960s to house the Titan I Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The Chico site used to be easy to get into but they have it pretty well secured now. The same went for the Sutter Buttes site but I heard they recently tried sealing it up as well though I haven't been up there to look since I was a kid. The site in Lincoln looks to be sealed and when I went to look last year it was located within what looks to be a city maintenance yard. It makes me wonder if these sites will be lost to history and what someone will think in a few hundred years when they stumble upon these massive structures. Here's a cool article about the Chico site.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/titan-i-missile-silo-beale-2014-10?op=1

 

http://www.calcoldwar.org/Titan-Missile-Page.php

 

There was also a really creepy government complex in Stockton. I'm hesitant to say much about it but was hoping someone else will know the site. It looked like a typical industrial park with a few buildings connected by enclosed walkways but there was a massive underground complex that went down multiple stories I don't know how many but it was impressive and I never went down to the bottom frankly I just wanted to get the heck out of there. It looked like the workers had just up and left suddenly there was tons of equipment and files strewn around. Multiple observation chambers as well. Super creepy stuff was left there. Anyone else familiar with this site? I knew the night security guards that were paid to watch the grounds of these abandoned buildings for several years. It's one of those experiences where you see an unassuming building surrounded by fences and razor wire and start wondering what's really in there lol.

The Sutter Butte site is all sealed up/filled up! Got to crawl all around the one in Chico back in the day! Botheres and I would make a midnight run from Red Bluff , park over by Richarsons Springs Resort and hike up thru the star thisles in our cutoffs just so we could hope to find the opening again and not get the locals noticing! I think the road on the north side(?) is still call Missle site road or something like that. Only have two bad poloroids of all the adventures up there! Wound up working with a fellow that his dad was a subcontractor on all the concrete/metal tubing-tunnel layout! He also worked on the ones up here in WA state. Have searched most of those out but had no luck getting on the sites. Deer Park WA one is like the Lincoln CA one... you could be right on it and not know! The Bantum WA is still fenced off but has all the top structures gone. The propelent tanks are gone too. There is a site like the Stockton site over by Islaton(?) West side of the river. Managed to get toooo near an active site when some fellow army buddies and I thought that after all night of drinking at Ft. Leavenworth required a trip to a silo! Lawrence KS area still has active one to this I think! LOOONG story there!

[lamarhooten]

Not a true bunker site, but still neat just the same. The old Nike-Ajax site on Ft Leavenworth KS was interesting! The actual area were the missles came up on the very large elevators is still being used as a boat/motorhome/car storage site. The elevators still worked and the doors still opened back in 85! The HQ, barracks and other buildings were about a mile away and not on FLK proper. No much there back then. Last time I was in the area (KC ASMIC show 2013) the housing area had been moved up to were all this was. REALLY got the local Provost Marshals office unhappy when I asked a couple of MPs if the boiler plant tunnles still have access to the HQ, MP and Medical Barracks basements! AND that a metal cover behind the Provost Marshals office is the end point of the one tunnel! Me and my big mouth! Luckly the CID guys were understanding! Still thought I knew to much about FLK but was a collector of DIs and thought that I was no spy or 911 bomber member! Wife will never let that one go!

[john k]

Rye Nh. You can get into the underground complex pretty easily.

[MECHINF-A15]

Here is a link for an very interesting exploration of abandoned Fort San Jacinto (Galveston, Texas), Fort Crockett (Galveston) and Fort Travis.

www.photodave.net/2011album/04apr/sanjac.htm

 

When I was a kid in the 1950s there was a lot more left of Fort Crockett and I remember exploring the bunkers on our trips to Galveston. Time and development has done away with most of it.

[Salvage Sailor]

Ho‘okuleana - Battery Cooper built in 1944 overlooking Kaneohe Bay

 

It may look familiar as it's often used in Movies and TV shoots (Lost, Hawaii Five O, etc)

[Salvage Sailor]

Battery Hawkins (Fort Kamehameha, protecting the approaches to Pearl Harbor).now on Hickam Air Force Base

 

Mauka (landward) side view, the beach and harbor entrance is on the other side

[Salvage Sailor]

More from Makapu'u Point - East end of Oahu, easy hike and great views of the Molokai Channel

 

Observation and ranging bunkers

[Salvage Sailor]

More from Makapu'u Point - East end of Oahu, easy hike and great views of the Molokai Channel

[Salvage Sailor]

More from Makapu'u Point - East end of Oahu, easy hike and great views of the Molokai Channel

[Salvage Sailor]

More from Makapu'u Point - East end of Oahu, easy hike and great views of the Molokai Channel

[m1a2u2]

http://www.businessinsider.com/titan-i-missile-silo-beale-2014-10?op=1

 

http://www.calcoldwar.org/Titan-Missile-Page.php

 

There was also a really creepy government complex in Stockton. I'm hesitant to say much about it but was hoping someone else will know the site. It looked like a typical industrial park with a few buildings connected by enclosed walkways but there was a massive underground complex that went down multiple stories I don't know how many but it was impressive and I never went down to the bottom frankly I just wanted to get the heck out of there. It looked like the workers had just up and left suddenly there was tons of equipment and files strewn around. Multiple observation chambers as well. Super creepy stuff was left there. Anyone else familiar with this site? I knew the night security guards that were paid to watch the grounds of these abandoned buildings for several years. It's one of those experiences where you see an unassuming building surrounded by fences and razor wire and start wondering what's really in there lol.

Can you be more specific about the Stockton site? What years was this?

[Skysoldier80]

I actually went to the Point and the fort this summer. The guns are long gone, but old bunkers and Earthworks are still there. The best place to see the history of the bay area is the Presideo (spelling may be off). The 1994 closed Army base has a great history of the area. The Fort under the Golden Gate Bridge is awesome also (am having major brain farts this morning so i can't remember the name). What is neat about the fort is that is was designed to be 1/4 of Ft. Sumter (so only a section of the original fort) and it is the one oldest Brick buildings west of the Mississippi River)

1948 photo showing the dismantling of one of the 16" guns guarding San Fancisco Bay since 1935. Are the sites still there?

1948___D...1935___A.jpg

 

[ON PATROL]

Fort Winfield Scott is the building you are referring to. It was the only major Third System structure built on the West Coats. If you are into this stuff, I would highly recommend the book SEACOAST FORTIFICATIONS of the UNITED STATES, by Dr. E.R. Lewis. I did a little volunteer field work for him back in the 1980's, in Hawaii. I was tasked with locating the four old former LEXINGTON and SARATOGA 8" twin battery sites. It was fun crawling around through the sites. I've also been through both of the ARIZONA turret sites, (Batteries Arizona and Pennsylvania). Yeah, good times.