Unique Gift Ideas for 2012- What Says "Merry Christmas" Better Than a Decomissioned Nuclear Missile Silo?

I'll be the first to admit, I tend to be a tad lazy when it comes to Christmas shopping, especially since the advent of all those retail gift cards you see in just about any given grocery store these days. This isn't because I don't care about the intended recipients of the aforementioned gift cards, but rather I trust them to be able to pick out something for themselves better than I could.

But for those of you who want a little something that's outside the card box, how does the gift of a decomissioned US Air Force anti-ballistic missile facility on the high plains with architechture straight out of Blade Runner strike you?

From here, the United States Air Force kept watch for Soviet missiles and runaway replicants- srmsc.org photo

The 400+ acre Stanley Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in Cavalier County North Dakota is listed at more than 400 acres and could be described as a Doomsday Prepper's dream come true.

According to the GSA auction site:

The Stanley Mickelsen Safeguard Complex (SRMSC) is an Anti-Ballistic Missile complex which was developed to preserve the United States’ second strike capability against Soviet nuclear missile attacks. The property is located in North Dakota and was the United States’ first Anti-Ballistic Nuclear Missile Defense System. The SRMSC became operational in 1975 and was deactivated in 1976.

An unofficial website dedicated to the history of the facility says that despite being fully operational for less than a year, the facilities Perimeter Acquisition Radar was still used as part of the Air Force's space tracking and early warning system while the rest of the compund fell into caretaker status and came under command of the US Army's Space & Missile Defence Command. Accoring to the GSA auction website, those properties are being auctioned off seperately.

Personally, I think I'm more of a derelict former Coast Guard signal station on a remote Maine island kind of guy. If you feel as though the 400+ acre site on the Dakota high plains might be a bit too much, then perhaps you could go back to my 2010 Christmas gift idea of getting that special someone their own ghost town. Apparently both Otira, New Zealand and Currie, Nevada are still available.

Nevada Northern Railway depot at Currie, NV- Now with 99.9% less rail traffic, although that could be changing soon. Landing a Day photo

Its also worth pointing out that the former Nevada Northern line through Currie has actually seen a train since the 1999 shutdown of BHP Nevada railway- the most recent freight operator of the line. In late 2009, the Nevada Northern Railway museum- which owns the 118-mile right of way- was approached by S&S Rail services about storing freight cars on the northern portion of the line. Although an estimated 400 cars were stored along the Nevada Northern line between Shafter and Currie [S&S brought in their own locomotive for that- NANESB!] there is still a 65-mile gap between Currie and the current northern end of the Nevada Northern operations out of East Ely, NV. The re-opening of the copper mines in Ely may also spur the eventual reopening of the entire Nevada Northern line, meaning that while Currie may still be a ghost town, the rails running through it would see trains on a regular basis.

Of course, a number of ghost towns have come on the open market since then- including a few just down the road (kinda) from Currie.

Along US rotue 6 and the former Rio Grande Denver to Salt Lake City mainline is the town of Woodside, UT that went on the market in August. The town features 'free range llamas', a cold-water geyser that was once a tourist attraction and was also used for filming a few scenes from the 1991 film Thelma & Louise.

Woodside got its start in 1881. It was called Lower Crossing then and was used by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad as a water stop.

The town grew to include several stores, a blacksmith shop and even a school. The population peaked around 1920, when about 300 people called Woodside home.

Then the railroad consolidated its operations, moving 45 miles northwest to Helper in Carbon County.

"When the railroad had no more use for (Woodside), it was just kind of doomed to a slow death," said Edward Geary, a retired BYU professor and the author of "A History of Emery County."

The town got a brief reprieve in the late 1930s when the highway was built and a cold water geyser — created decades earlier by railroad workers seeking fresh water for their steam engines — became a minor sensation with tourists.

"They had signs up and down the highway and they built up a board fence so you couldn't see it without paying admission and going inside," Geary said, noting that at one time the so-called "Roadside Geyser" was blasting a column of water about 75 feet in the air every 40 minutes.

"As I recall, it was just about the time they invested money in it, that it petered out," he said. "I think probably by 1970, there were no full time residents at all in Woodside."

The entire town is listed for sale through Bridge Realty in Price, UT and the current asking price is just under $4 million.

Author and ghost town historian Bruce A Raisch has pointed out that although a few ghost towns (or sparsely populated rural towns) have been sold to foreign nationals within the last year or so, there are still a number of ghost towns on the market including Rocky Bar, ID and Okaton, SD.

Stuck for Gift Ideas for That Person Who Has Everything? Try Getting 'Em Their Own Town!

Maybe that special somebody in your life has recently been dropping subtle little hints like 'Wouldn't it be nice to find somewhere to get away from it all?' or 'Hey- just get me a remote and sparsely populated municipality for Christmas this year'.

Well you're in luck, friends. There just happens to be a few such towns out there for sale on the open market. Naturally, I wouldn't even bother mentioning them unless there were some sort of railways involved.

Railpictures.net photo- Darryl Bond

The first such locale is down in the mountainous West Coast region on New Zealand's South Island and is called Otira. Otira has a population of roughly 44 and features a pub, fire station, 18 homes (14 of them occupied by tenants), a school and of course, a railway depot. Otira started out on a stop on the trans-Alpine stagecoach route in the 1860s, but served as railhead to the west coast until the Otira tunnel was completed in 1923.

The town is situated along KiwiRail's busy Midland line between Christchurch and Greymouth, which crests New Zealand's Southern Alps. Aside from the daily TranzAlpine Express, the line sees regular freight in the form of coal, dairy products and lumber from the West Coast to the rest of New Zealand or the port of Lyttleton for export. The western end of the 5 mile Otira Tunnel is just outside of Otira proper as well.
Otira is also located along NZ Highway 73 and flanked by Arthur's Pass National Park on three sides. This stretch of Highway 73 also boasts the 1999-built 440 meter Otira Viaduct (above), which replaced a winding, treacherous and landslide-prone stretch of highway.

But as of June 2010 it's all up for sale with the asking price of NZ$1.5 million ($1.1 million US). The current owners have put the town on the market after purchasing it for NZ$80,000 in the late 1990s. By comparison, NZ$1.5 million could get you a good-sized upscale home in suburban Auckland.

Assuming that Otira goes for anywhere near its asking price while factoring in a kiwi property boom and increase in value of the New Zealand dollar to the equation and the couple- Bill and Christine Hennah- will have gotten quite the return on their initial investment.

Although Bill and Christine had invested alot of TLC into the town over the last decade or so, Bill's sore shoulder and Christine's arthritis are slowing them down, leading them to put it on the market. The couple purchased the schoolhouse to move into once they 'retire' from owning Otira and a buyer for the town is found. The couple says they've been entertaining offers from as far afield as Canada, Malaysia, the UK and Norway.

For those of you in North America who want a town of your own but without the lengthy trans-Pacific flight, the northeastern Nevada town of Currie could be just what you're looking for.
Currie is located along US Highway 93 and the dormant Nevada Northern Railroad right of way in southern Elko county, NV. The unincorporated town got its name from the nearby ranch of Joseph Currie, who settled in the area in the 1880s. Currie started out as a stagecoach and freight stop, but with the discovery of copper in nearby Ely, NV the Nevada Northern Railroad was constructed between Ely and the Southern Pacific Junction at Cobre, NV (some 140 miles). The railway was completed in 1906 and a railway station and telegraph office opened up in Currie that same year.

Passenger service along the Nevada Northern halted in 1941 (by which point the NN had become a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper) and freight service continued until the closure of the mines in the Ely area in 1983. The line was then acquired by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 1987 in anticipation of servicing a coal-fired power plant that was never built. However, the line saw a revival in the late 1990s when Australian mining company BHP leased the line to ship copper ore concentrate from Rieptown, NV to the Union Pacific interchange at Shafter. The line was abandoned in 1999 and although copper mining resumed around 2004, the ore was hauled by truck and the line through Currie remained dormant.

In 2007, the LA Department of Water and Power sold the line to the City of Ely and White Pine County to the south despite efforts of some salvage outfits to seize the line, rip up the rails and sell them for scrap. Although it was hoped that the revived mine traffic could make its way to rails along with coal, more recent plans to construct a coal burning power plant outside of Ely were thwarted last year.


So while there may not be the rumble of freight trains rolling past the Currie depot (above), there's still the matter of a lonely stretch of US 93 making its way north from Las Vegas to Idaho and points north.

According to this site, the town includes an RV park, the Goshute Mercantile (below), a schoolhouse, the old Currie hotel and the Nevada Northern depot. There's also a Nevada Highway Department Maintenance yard in town, but that's not included in the sale.

Although classified as a ghost town, Currie is thought to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 residents. The Currie school only taught up through grade 8 before shutting down in 2001, and the nearest bus stop was 35 miles away. Any children remaining in Currie would have to be homeschooled or boarded in Ely.

The town has apparently been on the market for a decade, although a cursory search indicates there has been no mention of a buyer since notice went up of Currie being for sale.

But with that in mind, good NANESB! reader, think of how that special somebody's eyes will light up when they see one of these remote and sparsely populated (but scenic!) towns under the Christmas tree this year.

Food for thought.