The weekend's weather
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy
HIGH LOW 46 32
Sunday: Sunny
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
HIGH LOW 60 39
Kansan Weekend Edition
Friday
February 5,1999
Section:
A
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Wandering the Web
This week's trip through the World Wide Web is a celebration of African-American history and culture. February is African-American History Month, and the Internet is a great resource for learning about the rich cultural diversity of the nation.
■ www.usia.gov/usa/black.his/homepage.htm
This is the United States Information Agency's gateway for online information about African-American history and culture, and African-American History Month. The page is full of useful and interesting links to additional sites.
■ www.blackarchives.org
This is the homepage of the Black Archives of Mid-America, housed at the Kansas City Public Library. The site contains digital images, literature, correspondence, publications and other items of African-American life and culture in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa.
(USPS 650-640)
www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/
civilwisdom
www.nbs.org
If South Padre Island is out of your financial reach for spring break, consider going to some of the places listed here. This site lists a travel itinerary for those who want to visit important places from the civil rights movement. The site also includes a virtual tour for those who can't make the trip.
CONCERTCALENDAR
This is the Public Broadcasting Service's home on the Internet. PBS has several links in recognition of African-American History Month. The best are "Wayback" and "Literature and Life." Although designed primarily for kids, they are just as informative for adults. The "Wayback" link includes quizzes to test your knowledge of African-American history and general American history.
Brown Bear Brewing Co., 729 Massachusetts St.
■ Tonight: Soul Bandits
■ Tomorrow: Woody Davis
Blues Band
The Bottleneck, 737
New Hampshire St.
■ Tonight: The Majestics
Rhythm Review
■ Tomorrow: Son Venezuela
Sunday: Swing Set
Jazzhaus, 926-1/2
Massachusetts St.
■ Tonight: Tim Mahoney and the
the Meanies
■ Tomorrow: The Bel Airs
Tomorrow: The Bel Airs
Granada, 1024 Massachusetts St.
Tomorrow: Dr. Zhivegh St.
Index
The University Daily Kanson is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kanson are 25 cents.
News...3A
Movies...5A
Feature...8A
Classifieds...6,7B
Horoscopes...2B
Surplus of Cold War era
Douglas County missile base stands empty,but full of dreams
By Ezra Sykes Kansan staff writer
When Michael Hiebert was young, he was the kind of kid who had to have a fort or a treehouse.
Now he has a missile base located in the hills of southeast Douglas County.
Hiebert bought the missile base nine years ago in hopes of turning it into his permanent residence, but now he is trying to sell it.
The Atlas-E missile base is one of nine that surrounds Forces Air Force Base near Topeka, said Hiebert, who has toured several of the other sites bought by civilis.
The 17,000 sq. foot base was built between 1958 and 1962 and was only active for about two years, he said.
Because it took more than 20 to 25 minutes to move a missile into the upright position and launch it
— missiles were stored horizontally — the missile base became obsolete in a short period of time.
Despite its short life as a working missile base,
the place was built
to last; its walls
range from 20
inches to 16 feet
thick.
"In the 1950s, they spent $4.5 million dollars to build the thing." Hiebert said. "Today, they might spend $30 million on it. They spared no expense and used nothing
A garage door leads into the missile bay, which is covered by a 300-ton lid that at one time could open for a missile launch.
but the best materials."
At the opposite end there is a wide trough called a flame shoot that was used to capture the initial blast of a launching rocket.
"I thought it would be a great lap pool," Hiebert said.
Michael Hiebert, Douglas County resident, owns an Atlas-E missile base in the hills of southeast Douglas County. He still has ideas for renovating the base. Bottom: An empty room in the missile base. Photos by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Other ideas include a Jacuzzi in
the adjoining room, a greenhouse in the command room, a basketball court outside and a restaurant called the Cold War Cafe.
A tunnel connects two of the major rooms of the missile base. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
In recent years, the property has been used for anything from an ice rink to a place for private parties; red hand prints left on the wall mark last year's Halloween party.
The lower section of the missile base contains the old command center and living quarters for the six men who normally occupied the silo during its prime.
Hiebert pointed to the center of the room, now flooded with water, to a place where two toilets once stood side by side.
"You can still see the wax rings," Hiebert said, explaining the cramped living arrangements of the soldiers. "They didn't give many conveniences to the guys that lived here."
Hiebert said the place could be creepy at times, especially while working there alone.
"I'll be working down in a lower section and a pigeon in the air vent will squawk," he said. "By the time the echo gets down to me, it sounds groulish."
It is difficult to keep the place open to work on because of vandalism and theft, said Hiebert. He recently had $2,000 worth of tools and a generator stolen from the site.
Murl Westheffer of Century 21 Miller & Midyett said that this was the first missile shell he had ever tried to sell and that people from across the country had come to see the property.
Westhefer is trying to sell the 25-acre property for $250,000. He would not say how much he spent purchasing the property.
Potential buyers have envisioned converting the silo into a home, a business or a warehouse for storage, he said.
Wasthefer said he was having a fun time with the project.
"I'd take on another one if I could," he said. "I wouldn't hesitate for a second."
Although the property is for sale, Hiebert said he would have no problems keeping it.
"I love to come out here," he said. "It's so quiet you can hear a bird's wings cut through the air. I'll come here to work on the place sometimes and end up reading a book or just daydreaming."
Rushmore heads above rest
Kansan movie critic Brendan Walsh says Bill Murray and newcomer Jason Schwartzman complement each other in this quirky comedy.
See page 8A
See page 7A
The KU women's basketball team this weekend takes its four-game winning streak to the Hearnes Center to face the Missouri Tigers.
Seepage 1B
Celebrating a legacy
See page 5A
An editor of The Wall Street Journal visits campus to participate in a panel discussion and to receive the William Allen White Award for public service through journalism.
Stick and move
It's ice hockey sans ice. The KU Roller Hockey Club plans to take its winning record to the national tournament in Chicago this season.
See page 8B