Atlas F Site 556-5 Missile Silo, Lewis New York

The missile silo at Lewis, New York, is the kind of Cold War site that refuses to stay buried. Built to hold an Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missile deep in the Adirondack landscape, Site 556-5 later became one of the most recognizable privately restored Atlas F complexes in the country: a place where the underground launch-control center became a home, veterans returned for reunions, and the physical machinery of nuclear deterrence survived long enough for visitors to walk through it.

Atlas F Site 556-5 was an SM-65F / HGM-16F Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch complex assigned to the 556th Strategic Missile Squadron at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York. The 556th SMS operated under Strategic Air Command and was associated with the 380th Bombardment Wing / later 380th Strategic Aerospace Wing at Plattsburgh. Site 556-5 was located near Lewis in Essex County, New York.

The site was part of the twelve-site Plattsburgh Atlas F missile field, the only operational U.S. ICBM field east of the Mississippi River. Although some secondary summaries list the squadron's 1961 organization date as the site activation date, the best operational-context date for the Atlas F force at Plattsburgh is 1962-12-20, when the 556th SMS became operational. USAF unit-history chronology records the first 556th SMS ICBM off alert on 1965-03-12, the last ICBM off alert on 1965-04-10, the last ICBM shipped on 1965-04-13, and the squadron discontinued on 1965-06-25. Those dates show the difference between site-level decommissioning, alert phaseout, missile shipment, and formal unit discontinuance.

Site 556-5 is no longer an active military installation. It is a decommissioned Atlas F launch complex in private ownership, known in preservation and media accounts as Boquett 556-5, Bouquet 556, or the Lewis Missile Base. The launch-control center and associated underground areas have been substantially restored and reused as a private underground residence and special-access historic site. There is no general public access.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Site 556-5 sits in the Adirondack foothill country west of Lake Champlain, south of Plattsburgh Air Force Base and near Lewis, Essex County, New York. Unlike the flatter Champlain Valley Atlas sites, the Lewis complex occupied a more rugged, forested, and mountainous setting. Adirondack Architectural Heritage describes the North Country Atlas F sites as varying from flat pasture and meadowland around Lake Champlain to rougher, boulder-strewn, forested Adirondack terrain; Lewis is the most visually dramatic example of that upland setting. The site was part of a ring of Atlas F silos placed around Plattsburgh AFB, with ten sites in New York and two across Lake Champlain in Vermont.

The Atlas F complex was not a Minuteman-style unmanned launch facility controlled from a remote LCC. It was a self-contained Atlas F launch complex with an adjoining hardened control center. New York State Military Museum's Atlas-site description summarizes the general Plattsburgh Atlas F layout: a two-story command building about forty feet in diameter, a forty-foot tunnel from the command building to the silo, and a missile silo approximately fifty feet in diameter and about 185 feet deep. The same source notes that a typical Atlas F site occupied about nineteen to twenty-one acres, with the inner five acres enclosed by barbed-wire-topped chain-link fence. Site 556-5's later private-property footprint has been described in media reporting as about eight acres, and the owner's preservation description also emphasizes the five-acre former security compound. That later acreage should not be treated as a confirmed original Air Force acquisition acreage.

A site-specific feature at Lewis is the nearby former support airstrip. Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields documents an approximately 1,800-foot unpaved northeast/southwest runway about half a mile west of the missile silo, visible in 1962 official construction-era aerial views. That source notes that the site was at one point associated with the construction number 556-10 and later redesignated 556-5, reflecting the way Atlas F sites could carry different construction and operational numbering during the buildout. The airstrip was not depicted on the June 1965 Burlington sectional chart, remained clear in 1976 aerial imagery, and was still visually recognizable in 2023 aerial imagery, though there was no sign of active aviation use.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Site 556-5 existed because the United States was racing to place survivable intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert at the height of the early 1960s missile-gap era. Atlas was the first operational U.S. ICBM family, but the first deployed Atlas variants had serious basing limitations. Atlas D and Atlas E launchers could be hardened only to a limited degree and had to expose the missile above ground before launch. Atlas F represented the final operational Atlas ICBM configuration and moved the missile into a vertical underground silo with an elevator and adjoining launch-control center.

The Plattsburgh field had a special place in the Atlas story. The 556th Strategic Missile Squadron had previously been associated with the short-lived Snark missile program and then became the last Atlas F squadron in the Atlas program. The Plattsburgh HAER history records that construction began on twelve Atlas F ICBM sites under Plattsburgh AFB's control in the early 1960s, that they were all within roughly a fifty-mile radius of the base, and that sub-zero weather and water seepage delayed preparation of the silos and installation of the missiles. When the 556th SMS became operational on 1962-12-20, Plattsburgh became the only base east of the Mississippi River equipped with ICBMs.

The Atlas F was liquid-fueled and technically demanding. It could sit on alert with RP-1 kerosene fuel aboard, but liquid oxygen was cryogenic and had to be loaded during the launch sequence. In a launch order, the crew would work through emergency-war-order procedures, begin LOX loading, raise the fueled missile on the massive silo elevator, lock the elevator at the surface, and then launch. In ordinary alert status this did not mean the missile was continuously raised above ground or continuously loaded with liquid oxygen. It meant the missile and site were maintained so that the crew could move through the launch sequence quickly if ordered.

Construction and Activation

Construction of the Plattsburgh Atlas F field began in the early 1960s under the Air Force ballistic missile construction program. The Plattsburgh Atlas F Construction Historical Summary covers the period 1960-08-01 through 1962-10-31, and the HAER history describes the larger field as a demanding construction project affected by severe winter conditions and water seepage. The Corps of Engineers and the Air Force had to build hardened underground sites in a region that included flat Champlain Valley land, forested hills, and Adirondack terrain.

The assigned missile, Atlas 70F, was accepted on 1962-05-25 and delivered on 1962-06-15, which places Site 556-5 within the missile-installation and checkout phase before the squadron's December operational acceptance. The 556th SMS was officially organized at Plattsburgh on 1961-10-01, but the missile field itself did not become operational until after the twelve Atlas F complexes were completed, checked out, and accepted into SAC's alert force.

Missile System and Technical Role

Site 556-5 housed an Atlas F missile, the silo-based version of the Atlas ICBM. The Atlas F was stored vertically underground on a large elevator platform. Its silo protected the missile from attack and weather, but the missile did not launch from within the silo. During the launch sequence it had to be fueled with liquid oxygen, raised to the surface, and launched from the elevated platform. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas F sites as having a vertical silo with an adjoining control center, inertial guidance, RP-1 aboard while on alert, LOX loading at countdown, and launch after the missile was raised to ground level.

The assigned missile for Site 556-5 was Atlas 70F. It was General Dynamics missile serial number 61-2556, General Dynamics manufacturing number 70F, and Air Force missile tail number 556. After its operational service at Site 556-5 ended, Atlas 70F continued its career in the space and reentry-test program. It was launched from Vandenberg AFB Gantry A-3 on 1969-01-16 carrying an ABRES RMP-B11 reentry-vehicle test payload, and the launch was successful.

The Atlas E and Atlas F systems used the AVCO Mark 4 reentry vehicle with the W-38 nuclear warhead. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum identifies the Mark 4 as a reentry vehicle used on U.S. Air Force Titan I and Atlas E/F ICBMs deployed in the early 1960s, carrying a W-38 nuclear warhead with a yield of about 3.75 megatons.

Operational History

Operationally, Site 556-5 was one of twelve Atlas F complexes assigned to the 556th Strategic Missile Squadron. The 556th SMS stood alert as part of SAC's early ICBM force at Plattsburgh AFB. Each Atlas F complex had its own launch-control center and required on-site crews, unlike later Minuteman launch facilities that were unmanned silos controlled from remote launch-control centers. Association of Air Force Missileers material describes Atlas F combat crews as including two officers and three enlisted members: a combat crew commander, deputy combat crew commander, missile facilities technician, ballistic missile analyst technician, and electronic power production technician. Crews were responsible for a site for twenty-four hours, with a longer practical duty period once briefings, travel, food pickup, relief, and turnover were included.

The most vivid known operational account tied specifically to Site 556-5 comes from Richard Somerset, a former Air Force ballistic missile analyst technician interviewed by Smithsonian Magazine. Somerset was assigned to the Atlas F silo at Lewis after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Smithsonian described the Lewis silo as one of a dozen sites within one hundred miles of Plattsburgh AFB, completed in 1962 after round-the-clock construction, and stated that Somerset served on a five-man crew that worked twenty-four-hour shifts, one day on and two days off, maintaining and inspecting the systems while waiting for an emergency war order that everyone hoped would never come.

That crew account matters because it brings the site's alert mission down from abstract strategy to a specific room underground in Lewis. Site 556-5's missile crew did not merely guard a buried rocket; it lived through the procedures, messages, checklists, and uncertainty that made early ICBM alert duty psychologically heavy. The crew did not know the missile's assigned target, and its job was to be ready to execute a retaliatory launch if a valid order came through the command system. The controls, doors, warning signs, and escape hatches later preserved in the private restoration are the physical remains of that alert routine.

In 2008, New York Almanack reported that architect and designer Alexander Michael was conducting tours of his restored Atlas missile silo in Lewis and described the restored command-control center as a rare opportunity for public access. In 2014, Seven Days documented a reunion at Site 556-5, where former 556th SMS members returned to the Lewis silo and were welcomed by Michael for a barbecue and self-guided tours of the renovated underground complex. In 2023, Adirondack Architectural Heritage offered a Cold War Missile Silo tour at Lewis, identifying Boquet 556-5 / Lewis Missile Base as part of the Plattsburgh ballistic missile program and noting that special access had been granted to tour the repurposed silo.

Deactivation and Disposal

The Plattsburgh Atlas F field had a very short operational life. In November 1964, the Department of Defense announced the phaseout of first-generation Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. The 556th SMS unit-history chronology gives the key phaseout sequence: the first 556th SMS ICBM came off alert on 1965-03-12; the last ICBM came off alert on 1965-04-10; the last ICBM was shipped on 1965-04-13; and the squadron was discontinued on 1965-06-25.

The Plattsburgh HAER history states that Atlas F missiles assigned to Plattsburgh were removed from their silos, that equipment was salvaged from the sites for use in the Air Force space program as space launch vehicles, and that the sites were divested from Air Force ownership. Site 556-5's own assigned missile followed that pattern. Atlas 70F did not disappear as scrap immediately after leaving Lewis; it was later used in the ABRES reentry-test program and successfully launched from Vandenberg in 1969.

The site later appeared in federal environmental-restoration reporting as Formerly Used Defense Site PLATTSBURGH ATLAS S-5, FFID NY29799F109600. DERP tables list it as a FUDS property with one Installation Restoration Program site and no Military Munitions Response Program site in the cited fiscal-year tables. Later DERP reporting lists PLATTSBURGH ATLAS S-5 among FUDS properties achieving final response complete before FY21/FY22, with reported incurred costs of $97,000. T

Current Status and Site Use

Site 556-5 is now a privately owned former Atlas F silo complex, widely known through preservation and media coverage as Boquett 556-5, Bouquet 556, or the Lewis Missile Base. Alexander Michael's Siloboy site describes the complex as an Atlas F ICBM silo designated by the Air Force in 1960 as Boquett 556-5 or Lewis Missile Base, and states that the launch-control center has been converted into a modern underground residence while restoration work continued on other parts of the complex. Smithsonian Magazine reported that Michael purchased the site in 1996, when it was in poor condition, and spent years restoring and reimagining the underground space.

WPTZ/MyNBC5 reported in 2013 that the decommissioned silo sat on more than eight acres in Lewis and that the one-bedroom, one-bath underground residence occupied several levels below ground, with the control center used as a bedroom and warning signs and escape hatches still intact. Smithsonian's photo essay and the Siloboy pages show why Site 556-5 is unusually important among private Atlas F survivals: the launch-control center, access tunnel, surface features, and many original Cold War-era elements were not simply stripped and forgotten but became part of a deliberate restoration and adaptive-reuse story.

The site is not open for casual public visitation. Published access has been by special open house, reunion, or organized tour. Because it remains private property and a former missile complex with deep underground spaces, it should be treated as inaccessible without owner permission and potentially hazardous to enter without a guided, authorized visit.

Chronology

• 1960-09-01 Construction began on the Plattsburgh Atlas F Lewis site.
• 1961-10-01 The 556th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Plattsburgh AFB.
• 1962-05-25 Atlas 70F, the missile assigned to Site 556-5, was accepted.
• 1962-06-15 Atlas 70F was delivered for the 556th SMS / Plattsburgh assignment.
• 1962 Site 556-5 was turned over to the Air Force; the exact public date is not verified in the source pass.
• 1962-09-19 Construction-era aerial imagery documented the Lewis missile site landscape and nearby unpaved support airstrip.
• 1962-12-20 The 556th SMS became operational with the Atlas F system at Plattsburgh.
• 1964 Former crew member Richard Somerset later recalled a false-alarm war-code episode while serving at the Lewis control console.
• 1965-03-12 The first 556th SMS ICBM was removed from alert.
• 1965-04-10 The last 556th SMS ICBM was removed from alert.
• 1965-04-13 The last 556th SMS ICBM was shipped.
• 1965-06-25 The 556th Strategic Missile Squadron was discontinued.
• 1969-01-16 Former Site 556-5 missile Atlas 70F launched successfully from Vandenberg AFB Gantry A-3 on an ABRES RMP-B11 reentry-vehicle test mission.
• 1996 Alexander Michael purchased the Lewis missile silo, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
• 2008-10-26 New York Almanack reported a public open house/tour at the restored Lewis Atlas missile silo.
• 2013 WPTZ/MyNBC5 reported that the restored decommissioned missile silo residence in Lewis was offered for sale.
• 2014-06-06 Members of the 556th SMS held a reunion at Site 556-5 in Lewis, New York.
• 2023-07-20 Adirondack Architectural Heritage offered a special-access Cold War Missile Silo tour at Boquet 556-5 / Lewis Missile Base.

Plattsburgh history-office packet on Atlas Missile Deployment

Read about the Atlas at Plattsburgh AFB

All Atlas Missile Silo Locations