Worley is a small town in Idaho, just south of where I grew up. Now when I say small, I mean to say, according to the census between 2000 and 2010 the population rose from 223 to 257. W Missile Base Road is a road that I never knew about while growing up just 20 minutes north on the freeway. But I had always heard about an old decommissioned missile silo, so I took it upon myself to find it, and visit it on my last day in Idaho over the holiday.

I couldn’t actually find too much information about the missile base, or where it was. There’s a great website called siloworld.net, but they don’t list all of the coordinates for the eight missile bases that Fairchild Air Force Base operated in the 1960s at the height of the cold war. They do have plenty of great historic photos of missile base 3 (that’s the one in Worley, or Rockford as it’s listed…), which was operated by the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron, but they don’t tell you where to find it. As the saying goes, it’s always in the last place that you look, so I went to Google maps and searched for missile silos in Worley, ID, and that’s how I found out about W Missile Base Rd.

There wasn’t too much pavement, and fortunately for me the temperatures hadn’t dropped below freezing for a few days. This meant there was between 2″ and 4″ of mud on top of the frozen ground depending on if I was at the bottom of a hill or at the top. There was a point where I almost parked the truck and hiked the rest of the way… but instead I pulled out the manual and figured out how to drop the truck in to 4-low. Things got a bit squirrelly for a while, but I made it. And looking back from where I came, this is what I saw:

And this was the aftermath:

There were piles of logs and farming equipment parked around two sides of the missile base, which was decommissioned in 1965. Paying attention to all posted signs, and not observing any orange placards or “no trespassing” signs (the orange ones are synonymous..), I decided to walk the perimeter of the old base.

The first thing I noticed was an old sign, nearly blocked from view by the trees growing in front of it.

It reads: “This is National Defense RESTRICTED AREA. It is unlawful to enter this area without the authority of the Commander, Fairchild AFB. [] Violators will be prosecuted [illegible]”

This first barn was the one remaining, original building that was left on the site over the years. I was particularly interested in the vent hood laying next to it. The barn in the next picture is actually sitting on top of the old missile bay. Unlike a missile silo the Atlas E missile bases were constructed so a truck could back into a missile bay and leave the missile lying horizontally. Upon activation the missile would be raised vertical, fueled, and then launched. Notice all the old pipes and tubes by this next barn. Those are a few of the things that the air force left behind.

In this next photo, on the bottom right, you can barely see part of the vent for the missile exhaust (check the google maps link below for a good aerial view):

The next few photos are of the old Microwave Relay Site, which was used for communicating with whomever it was that would give the command to blow up the world.

At this point in time, someone pulled into the old missile base to unload a few things. I debated for a minute of approaching them through the gate to chat, but decided against it, considering that I was creeping around in the woods next to the relay site (outside the fence). Scaring the shit out of them would probably not have made a good first impression. Instead, I snapped a few more photos, and headed to town to wash my dad’s truck.

There’s definitely something poetic about grain silos on an abandoned missile base. Someday, perhaps, our generation will have something to look forward to.

The following are links to photos of the base hosted by siloworld.net:

-aerial view of the site under construction: http://www.siloworld.net/CONST/Atlas/ATE/567th/site__3.htm

-photos of the arrival ceremony for the missile, the base in operation, and the decommission: http://www.siloworld.net/CONST/Atlas/ATE/567th/Museum/museum.htm

-and photos of the base as is, taken in 2007: http://www.siloworld.net/567thSMS/ROCKFORD/rockford.htm

And here’s a link to W Missile Base Rd on Google maps: http://g.co/maps/zuk3t

This past weekend was the opening of Pacific Standard Time in Los Angeles, along with Pulse LA, and Art Platform – Los Angeles. I drove down with Sterling and Nick for the opening reception of Art – Platform on Friday evening. We arrived around 6 pm, valet parked my dirty subaru, and proceeded to bump elbows with the art world. There were a myriad of international artists and galleries represented upstairs, including a special installation of Ai Weiwei’s Snake Bag, but there was a sense of vibrant energy coming from the basement. The Co/Lab segment featured a thorough selection of L.A.’s artist-run and non-profit spaces, like Control Room and Actual Size. These types of spaces are typically underrepresented at art fairs due to the high costs of purchasing a booth ($10k+), so it was a pleasure to see them getting a slice of the pie. Co/Lab brought a regional emphasis to the fair, highlighting one of the main reasons the art scene in Los Angeles is booming; it’s affordable to live/work here whether you’re an emerging artist OR curator. And speaking of booming, my congas were installed across the hall from Co/Lab in the second rendition of BOOM, juried and curated by Ali Subotnick from the Hammer Museum. After the opening we headed to the after party on the roof of The Standard hotel where we met up with Tim and a few other’s from Okay Mountain.

Okay Mountain was recently picked up by Mark Moore for representation, and they had installed Stationary Machines, essentially a medieval home-gym/torture mechanism, at the main entrance of Pulse LA. Mark Moore is now also representing Stephanie Washburn, and he is featuring Washburn and Mark Mulroney (both UCSB alumni) in the current Ultrasonic VI exhibition. We spent a good chunk of Saturday sitting at the main entrance to Pulse, drinking free beer with the members of Okay Mountain. Additionally, it was good to see the work of Eric Beltz, another UCSB alumn & lecturer in our department, at the Morgan Lehman booth.

On Sunday, Sterling and I did some thrifting around town and went to Venice Beach for some food before we headed to the Co/Lab after party at Angel City Brewing. This is where the art world started shrinking, almost incestuously. First and foremost, I was excited to see my friend Carmen Price, who was in town working with the Carrie Secrest Gallery (Chicago), who had a booth at Pulse. Before too long, Carmen’s friends Kari Reardon and Liz Nurenberg showed up to the party. I met Carmen at Ox-Bow over the summer, and Kari and Liz had both spent time there in previous years. I introduced Sterling to Carmen, and before too long we figured out that everyone at the table knew Lucy Chinen . Carmen went to school with Lucy at SAIC , and Sterling had done a show with her in Brooklyn a while back. Lucy had introduced us to Samia Mirza, who was gracious enough to let us crash at her house over the weekend. Samia had spent time at Ox-Bow in undergrad, and she also went to school with Carmen. Before too long, Valerie Green sat down at the table. Nick and I had met Valerie a few weeks back and had recently attended her performance at ACME, which was part of Martin Kersels’ exhibition Passionista. Sterling knew Valerie because he had liked one of her videos on vimeo. And then I realized that Kari Reardon always showed up in my ‘people you might know’ list on Facebook.

On Monday we headed back to Santa Barbara, and before too long I was sitting next to Martin Kersels at a bar. And I had a fantastic studio visit with him on Tuesday. It’s a pleasure to be a part of it all.