Atlas F Site 579-8 Missile Silo, Lake Arthur New Mexico

The most telling detail about Atlas F Site 579-8 is not only that a nuclear missile once sat underground east of Lake Arthur. It is that this hardened launch complex, built for a weapon meant to cross continents, later became part of a much quieter local story: federal disposal, environmental investigation, a water-cooperative conveyance, and a 2009 Ready for Reuse determination. In the early 1960s the site represented the most urgent edge of Cold War engineering, a pressurized Atlas missile, RP-1 fuel, cryogenic liquid oxygen, a silo-lift launcher, a buried launch control center, security forces, and launch crews working at the limits of liquid-fueled ICBM technology. After only a short operational life, it became a former defense property whose remaining surface property had to be made safe enough for reuse.

Atlas F Site 579-8 was an SM-65F Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch facility assigned to Walker Air Force Base near Roswell, New Mexico. It belonged to the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron, under the 6th Bombardment Wing, later the 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing. The site code was 579-8. Its missile system was the SM-65F Atlas, the final operational Atlas ICBM variant and the Atlas model deployed in hardened silo-lift launch complexes.

The site entered the Walker Atlas F operational story during 1962. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron history contains both a 1962-06-30 narrative statement that the squadron became fully operational and a 1962-11-30 entry for turnover to Strategic Air Command and operational status. The site is no longer active as a military installation. It is a decommissioned former Atlas F launch complex and former federal property. EPA, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Ready for Reuse determination for the Site 8 surface property on 2009-09-16. USACE FUDS records identify the property as WAFB FAC SITE #8 / K06NM0486, and Defense Environmental Restoration Program reporting lists WAFB FAC SITE #8 / NM69799F628100 as having achieved final response complete before fiscal year 2021.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Site 579-8 stood in open Chaves County country near Lake Arthur, New Mexico. EPA's 2009 Ready for Reuse determination described the former Atlas Missile Silo Site 8 as approximately 27 miles southeast of Roswell, about 5 miles east of U.S. Highway 285, and near the town of Lake Arthur. The surrounding landscape is part of the Pecos Valley: semi-arid, rural, agricultural and ranching land broken by desert scrub, irrigation works, farm roads, scattered residences, and utility corridors. Its apparent remoteness was intentional. The twelve Walker Atlas F sites were dispersed around Roswell so that a single attack could not easily destroy the entire squadron.

A Walker Atlas F tour bulletin from 1962 included a vicinity plan for the twelve sites and listed Site 8 as 21.4 miles from Walker Air Force Base and 15.3 miles from a reference crossroads identified as the intersection of Highways 380 and 83. The same plan placed the site in relation to Walker Air Force Base, Dexter, Hagerman, and the surrounding launch complexes. Those distances illustrate the design of the missile field: Walker Air Force Base provided the parent installation, headquarters, support, security, and maintenance infrastructure, while the missiles themselves were spread across a large rural ring.

The physical complex was much more than a silo. The 1962 Walker tour bulletin described the standard Atlas F launching facility as consisting of a launching silo, a launch control center, and an underground connecting tunnel. The launching silo had a 26-foot, 1-inch inside radius, giving it an inside diameter of roughly 52 feet, 2 inches, and was about 178 feet deep. The launch control center had a 40-foot inside diameter. The silo used reinforced concrete walls, and inside the silo a steel crib supported the missile and associated equipment. That crib was suspended from shock mounts. The launch control center also used suspended floors. These features were meant to protect equipment and personnel from blast shock and to keep the complex functional under extreme conditions.

Above ground, Site 579-8 would have included the surface elements common to Atlas F launch complexes: an access road, security fencing, entries and hatches, ventilation and utility features, communications or antenna-related equipment, hardstand and parking areas, and the large silo-door structure above the launcher. Satellite images show the rectangular former missile-complex footprint, the circular silo feature, access traces, and surface remains in open rural terrain.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Atlas F Site 579-8 existed because the United States needed a strategic missile force that could survive long enough to deter attack and respond if deterrence failed. Atlas was the Air Force's first operational intercontinental ballistic missile family. It gave the United States a missile that could reach intercontinental targets, but it also carried the burdens of first-generation technology. The Atlas airframe was a thin stainless-steel pressure-stabilized structure; it required pressurization to remain structurally sound. Its propulsion system used RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. Compared with later solid-fueled missiles, Atlas demanded more maintenance, more launch preparation, and more careful propellant handling.

The Atlas F was the most advanced operational Atlas ICBM. Unlike Atlas D gantry and coffin-launcher arrangements and Atlas E semi-hardened coffin sites, Atlas F was stored vertically in a hardened underground silo-lift complex. The National Park Service summarizes Atlas F as an 82-foot missile held in a blast-proof silo-lift configuration and capable of launch in approximately ten minutes. Seventy-two Atlas F missiles were deployed at six bases, including twelve at Walker Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Site 579-8 was therefore not a local defense site for Lake Arthur, Hagerman, or Roswell. It was part of a national nuclear deterrent. Its isolated location, hardened silo, buried launch control center, security perimeter, communications systems, and distance from other launch complexes all served the same strategic purpose: dispersal and survivability. In the logic of the early 1960s, a credible retaliatory force had to be difficult to destroy and fast enough to launch under crisis conditions.

The phrase "operational launch-ready alert posture" requires careful explanation for Atlas F. It did not mean the missile was continuously raised above ground, and it did not mean the missile was continuously loaded with liquid oxygen. In normal alert conditions, the Atlas F sat vertically underground on its elevator launcher. RP-1 fuel was kept aboard. The missile and facility were maintained in readiness. The missile's pressurization, propellant, electrical, communications, and environmental systems had to be monitored. Launch crews, maintenance teams, and security forces supported the site on a twenty-four-hour basis through the squadron structure. Liquid oxygen would be loaded as part of the launch sequence. The silo doors would open, the launcher would raise the missile, and the launch crew could top off liquid oxygen during a short hold before the final launch command. During a crisis, readiness meant crews, communications, security, propellant systems, and missile hardware were brought to the highest practical state of serviceability within the limits of the Atlas F design. It did not mean a continuously exposed or continuously LOX-loaded missile waiting above the silo.

Construction and Activation

Planning for the Walker Atlas F missile field moved at the speed of a national emergency. A 1962 Army Corps of Engineers tour bulletin stated that the decision to build Atlas launching facilities in the Roswell area was reached in early January 1960. The Albuquerque District Office was asked to perform soil investigations to determine whether the geology would support the proposed installations. Spencer J. Buchanan Company and Gordon Herkenhoff & Associates performed investigations that produced favorable results.

Design began in early March 1960. The project was advertised for bids on 1960-05-16, bids were opened on 1960-06-15, and the construction contract was awarded on 1960-06-16. The contract, valued at $22,125,828, went to a joint venture of Macco Corporation, Raymond International, Inc., The Kaiser Company, and Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company. Notice to proceed was issued on 1960-06-20, and work began on 1960-06-23.

The tour bulletin gives an unusually concrete picture of the work. For each Atlas F launching facility, about 48,000 cubic yards of material were excavated by open-cut methods, followed by about 24,000 cubic yards excavated by silo shafting. About 6,000 cubic yards of Portland cement concrete were placed at each site. The structural crib steel alone weighed about 600 tons. When suspended and balanced with fueling vessels, motor generators, propellant-loading skids, and related systems, the total suspended weight was about 1,800,000 pounds. The bulletin also noted the extreme cleanliness required for the propellant-loading system because the system handled cryogenic temperatures, high pressures, and liquid oxygen; foreign particles or hydrocarbons could create serious hazards.

EPA's Ready for Reuse determination for Site 8 states that the Department of Defense acquired the property in 1960 for Silo Site 8 and that construction of the missile launching facility was completed in November 1961. An Atlas F site could be physically constructed before the missile, propellant systems, launch-control equipment, communications, crew procedures, and Air Force acceptance process were fully ready.

The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron itself had been activated on 1961-03-14 and organized at Walker Air Force Base on 1961-09-01. Its lineage record places the unit under the 6th Bombardment Wing, later the 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing. By 1962 the squadron was receiving missiles, building crews, and moving from construction and activation into operational alert status.

Missile System and Technical Role

Site 579-8 housed the SM-65F Atlas, a liquid-fueled, first-generation intercontinental ballistic missile. Atlas F used RP-1 fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. RP-1 could be kept aboard during alert, but liquid oxygen was cryogenic and had to be loaded during the launch sequence. That requirement shaped the entire site. The launch complex needed propellant storage and loading systems, cryogenic handling equipment, high-pressure gas systems, power, ventilation, environmental control, alarms, safety systems, communications, and a trained crew capable of moving from alert to launch in a tightly controlled sequence.

Atlas F launch operations differed from later Minuteman operations. A Minuteman launch facility was normally an unmanned solid-fuel silo controlled from a remote launch control center. An Atlas F site was a self-contained launch complex. It had a crewed underground launch control center on site, a connecting tunnel, an elevator launcher, and liquid-propellant support equipment. The missile stood vertically underground. In a launch sequence, two 75-ton overhead silo doors opened, the missile was elevated from the silo, liquid oxygen was loaded, and the missile launched from the raised position.

The Site 579-8 missile was General Dynamics missile serial number 62-12139, General Dynamics manufacturing number 103F, and Air Force missile tail number 139. The missile was accepted on 1962-07-31 and delivered on 1962-08-07. Missile 103F later had an Operational ICBM / ABRES mission and was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Gantry A3, on 1971-06-29 with the ABRES RVTO-2A2 reentry-vehicle test payload. That later test flight shows how Atlas hardware continued to serve research and reentry-vehicle testing after operational Atlas F missile sites had been retired.

Public sources identify Atlas E/F missiles with the General Electric Mark IV reentry vehicle and W-38 nuclear warhead. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum describes the Mark 4 reentry vehicle as used on U.S. Air Force Titan I and Atlas E/F ICBMs deployed in the early 1960s and states that it carried a W-38 nuclear warhead with a yield of about 3.75 megatons. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron lineage/history compilation similarly describes the Atlas F as using a General Electric Mark IV reentry vehicle with a W-38 warhead and a range of about 6,000 miles.

Operational History

The operational life of Site 579-8 was brief but intense. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was part of Strategic Air Command's rapid expansion of the ICBM force in the early 1960s. The squadron's twelve Atlas F sites formed a ring around Roswell and Walker Air Force Base. Site 579-8 was the Lake Arthur site in that ring.

The squadron history records SAC missile operations, turnover to SAC on 1962-11-30, and operational status on 1962-11-30. It also contains a narrative statement that the 579th became fully operational on 1962-06-30 and later says the squadron became fully operational during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October-November 1962. For the individual Site 579-8 history, the safest interpretation is that the site was part of the 1962 activation and operational buildup and was in SAC operational service by the 1962-11-30 turnover/operational date recorded in the squadron lineage.

Operational duty at Site 579-8 involved more than simply keeping a missile in a silo. The complex had to support continuous readiness of a liquid-fueled weapon. Launch crews had to maintain procedures and checklists. Maintenance teams had to keep propellant-loading equipment, electrical power, environmental controls, elevators, valves, doors, alarms, and communications functioning. Security personnel had to control access to a remote, high-value nuclear-weapons site. The site's underground spaces and propellant systems also imposed safety risks that later missile systems reduced but did not eliminate.

The Cuban Missile Crisis forms an important part of the Walker Atlas F story. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron history states that the squadron became fully operational during the October-November 1962 crisis and that all operational 579th sites were at a high level of alert and ready to launch if necessary. For Site 579-8, this means the site should be understood as part of the squadron-level alert effort, while also recognizing the limits of Atlas F technology. High alert did not mean the missile was continuously elevated or continuously loaded with liquid oxygen. It meant the operational sites, crews, security forces, communications, and launch-preparation systems were held in the highest practical readiness posture.

The Walker Atlas F field also had a difficult safety record. Three of the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron's twelve sites were lost in explosions: Site 579-1 on 1963-06-01, Site 579-5 on 1964-02-13, and Site 579-2 on 1964-03-09. These were sister-site events, not documented Site 579-8 accidents, but they are central to understanding the environment in which Site 579-8 operated. Atlas F combined nuclear alert duty with a large pressure-stabilized missile, RP-1 fuel, liquid oxygen, high-pressure gases, confined underground spaces, and complex mechanical systems. The fact that Site 579-8 appears not to have suffered a comparable public accident does not make it simple or safe; it places it within a missile field where the dangers were plainly demonstrated.

Deactivation and Disposa

l Site 579-8's active missile life ended as part of the early phaseout of liquid-fueled first-generation ICBMs. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron history states that on 1964-11-18 Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that liquid-fueled missiles would be phased out three years early because of the increased reliability of solid-fueled missiles such as Minuteman and Polaris. The same squadron history records the first 579th ICBM off alert on 1965-01-05, the last ICBM off alert on 1965-02-04, the last ICBM shipped on 1965-02-09, and squadron inactivation on 1965-03-25.

EPA's Ready for Reuse determination gives a slightly different disposal sequence: the Department of Defense announced phaseout of the Atlas F program in May 1964, and in June 1965 Silo Site 8 was declared excess to the General Services Administration. These dates can be reconciled by distinguishing operational decommissioning from property disposal. The missile was removed from active service during the squadron phaseout, the squadron inactivated in March 1965, and the real property disposal process followed.

The post-military disposal of Site 579-8 is unusually well documented. EPA states that DOD acquired about 250 acres for development of the site, while the actual missile facility occupied about 6 acres including a road easement. In September 1966, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare conveyed 14.62 acres in fee simple and 2.01 acres of easement to the Lake Arthur Water Cooperative Corporation. In June 1966 the remaining easements expired following non-use. Those details suggest the former missile complex entered a water-related reuse pathway rather than simply being sold as ordinary ranch land.

Environmental response continued decades later. EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that a Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection were conducted under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program by USACE. The December 2005 site inspection examined the septic leachfield, former underground storage tank area, and sump outfall area. The investigation led to voluntary removal of impacted soil in the sump outfall area, confirmation sampling, and additional documentation in 2006. Monitoring wells were later plugged and abandoned. NMED concurred with a Finding of No Defense Action Indicated in September 2007. On 2009-09-16 EPA Region 6, NMED, and USACE determined that the Site 8 surface property was Ready for Reuse for its current and anticipated future use. The certificate stated that environmental conditions on the surface property were protective of human health and the environment.

The site also appears in federal environmental inventories. The 2015 USACE Formerly Used Defense Sites inventory lists WAFB FAC SITE #8 / K06NM0486 in Chaves County, Lake Arthur, with Site 01 CON/HTRW and Site 02 HTRW. DENIX/DERP Table 9 lists WAFB FAC SITE #8 / NM69799F628100 among Formerly Used Defense Sites that achieved final response complete before fiscal year 2021, with two Installation Restoration Program sites.

Current Status and Site Use

Atlas F Site 579-8 is a decommissioned former missile launch complex. It is no longer an active military installation.

The site should be treated as private property or restricted former defense property with no public access. The 1966 conveyance to the Lake Arthur Water Cooperative Corporation is documented in EPA's Ready for Reuse determination, but current ownership and day-to-day site use were not independently reverified from county records. The Ready for Reuse determination applies to the surface property and its current and anticipated future use; it should not be read as an invitation for public entry.

Former Atlas F sites may include dangerous underground structures, confined spaces, standing water, old utilities, debris, unstable openings, and environmental or industrial hazards. EPA's Site 8 determination specifically notes that water found inside the silo structure was sampled and would not be considered for domestic supply because of total dissolved solids. Even when regulatory agencies determine that surface-property conditions are protective for intended reuse, that does not make underground missile structures safe for casual exploration.

Publicly available imagery shows surviving surface traces of the former complex.

Chronology

• 1960-01 The decision to build Atlas launching facilities in the Walker/Roswell area was reached, and the Albuquerque District was asked to perform soil investigations.
• 1960-03 Design work for the Walker Atlas launching facilities began after favorable soil investigations.
• 1960-05-16 The Walker Atlas F construction project was advertised for bids.
• 1960-06-15 Bids for the Walker Atlas F construction project were opened.
• 1960-06-16 A $22,125,828 construction contract was awarded to the joint venture of Macco Corporation, Raymond International, Inc., The Kaiser Company, and Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company.
• 1960-06-20 Notice to proceed was issued for the Walker Atlas F construction project.
• 1960-06-23 Work began on the Walker Atlas F launching facilities.
• 1960 DOD acquired property for Silo Site 8 development.
• 1961-09-01 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico.
• 1961-11 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that construction of the Site 8 missile launching facility was completed in November 1961.
• 1962-06-30 A 579th Strategic Missile Squadron narrative history states that the squadron became fully operational on this date.
• 1962-07-31 Missile 103F, serial number 62-12139 and Air Force tail number 139, associated with Site 579-8, was accepted.
• 1962-08-07 Missile 103F / tail number 139 was delivered.
• 1962-10 During the Cuban Missile Crisis, operational 579th Strategic Missile Squadron sites were held at a high level of alert.
• 1962-11-30 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron history records turnover to Strategic Air Command and operational status on this date.
• 1963-06-01 Walker Atlas F Site 579-1 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-8 event.
• 1964-02-13 Walker Atlas F Site 579-5 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-8 event.
• 1964-03-09 Walker Atlas F Site 579-2 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-8 event.
• 1964-11-18 The Defense Department announced early phaseout of liquid-fueled missiles such as Atlas because of the increased reliability of solid-fueled systems.
• 1965-01-05 The first 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was taken off alert.
• 1965-02-04 The last 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was taken off alert.
• 1965-02-09 The last 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was shipped.
• 1965-03-25 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated.
• 1965-06 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that Silo Site 8 was declared excess to the General Services Administration in June 1965.
• 1966-06 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that remaining easements expired following non-use.
• 1966-09 The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare conveyed 14.62 acres in fee simple and 2.01 acres of easement to the Lake Arthur Water Cooperative Corporation.
• 1971-06-29 Missile 103F / tail number 139, associated with Site 579-8, was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the ABRES RVTO-2A2 reentry-vehicle test mission.
• 2005-12 USACE completed a Site Inspection for Silo Site 8 under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program.
• 2006-02 USACE completed a Site Investigation Report Addendum documenting confirmation sampling and related environmental results.
• 2007-09 NMED concurred with a Finding of No Defense Action Indicated for Site 8.
• 2009-09-16 EPA Region 6, NMED, and USACE issued a Ready for Reuse determination and certificate for the former Atlas Missile Silo Site 8 surface property.
• 2015-09-30 The USACE FUDS inventory listed WAFB FAC SITE #8 / K06NM0486 in Lake Arthur, Chaves County, New Mexico, with Site 01 CON/HTRW and Site 02 HTRW.
• 2021 Defense Environmental Restoration Program reporting listed WAFB FAC SITE #8 / NM69799F628100 among properties achieving final response complete before fiscal year 2021.

Read about the Atlas at Walker AFB

All Atlas Missile Silo Locations