• A decommissioned Cold War missile silo in North Dakota was up for auction on Tuesday.
  • The site has 14 launch sites for Sprint missiles, which were designed as the last line of defense against Soviet weapons.
  • Despite 70 bidders, the price only reached $52,500, which the seller rejected.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A piece of Cold War history went up for auction in North Dakota on Tuesday.

Decommissioned in the 1970s, the Remote Sprint Launcher 4 is a time capsule in need of repair. Other Cold War era missile silos have appeared for sale around the country in the last year, including in Arizona, Kansas, and New Jersey.

The 50 acre property has not officially sold yet, as the seller and bidders negotiate on an acceptable price. In the meantime, see what it looks like now.

The sale includes 49 acres of property in northeastern North Dakota.

The bunker itself has 11,000 square feet underground, mostly untouched since it was decommissioned in the 1970s.

It's located in rural Fairdale, North Dakota, "in the middle of a prairie," the seller told The Bismarck Tribune.

Source: The Bismarck Tribune

Leslie Volochenko bought the property in 2012 for an undisclosed amount.

Now, with plans to move to Texas, he's hoping to find an interested buyer.

The property is officially called the Remote Sprint Launcher 4, where Sprint missiles were kept with potential to launch during the Cold War.

Sprint was an Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), built to take out incoming missiles before they could strike.

ICBMs in North Dakota were considered the last defense against a Soviet attack over the arctic, Military Times reported.

Source: Military Times

Sprint missiles were 30 foot long cones that weighed over 7,700 lbs.

They could travel as fast as 7,000 miles per hour.

It was decommissioned in the 1970s, and has largely remained untouched since.

By the time the site was active, it had already been defunded.

Source: Military Times

Now it sits as a time capsule to the Cold War and the near miss of nuclear war.

Volochenko intended to refurbish the property, but he never got around to it

He hasn't changed much about it since 2012.

His only major addition was writing his last name on the entry tunnel.

Source: Inforum

He has also been working on cleaning up water that leaked inside the bunker.

As far as sprucing up the exterior, Volochenko says he planted flowers and released some pheasants.

"They're intact but they show signs of abandonment. They're rusty and in need of repair. There are 14 missile tubes. It's quite a facility" property manager David Keller told Military Times.

Source: Military Times

Despite the need for repairs, Keller says the site is "the ultimate in pandemic getaway spots."

The property has 14 missile launch tubes, plus a command bunker.

An auction was scheduled for Tuesday, August 11 through Pfifer's Auction and Realty.

There was no starting bid for the auction, but Keller told the Bismarck Tribune that he expected the property to do well.

He indicated that there was interest from doomsday preppers and Cold War history fans.

Concrete walls over two feet thick, in a bunker deep underground, could certainly appeal to someone looking for a fallout shelter from natural disasters, attacks, and pandemics.

Some have suggested potential as a campsite, or tourist attraction, which has been done with some other decommissioned missile silos around the US.

The property's untouched status makes it a relative rarity.

There were once as many as 1,200 nuclear weapons stored in North Dakota.

Keller told Atlas Obscura that North Dakota was an ideal place for missiles not just because of the location, but also the low population density.

Source: Atlas Obscura

Most have been demolished or used for scrap parts, so Remote Sprint Launcher 4 is a rare find.

The property is double fenced, so it could provide privacy and security for anyone willing to take on the work of a major fixer-upper.

Despite the historical significance of the property, the auction didn't go according to plan.

The final bid of $52,500 was far below estimates.

Source: Inforum

Keller told Business Insider that there were more than 70 bidders at the auction.

However, the seller did not accept the final bid, and Keller says that they will continue negotiating.

The missile silo-turned-doomsday-bunker market can be hard to predict. In December, a Titan II missile complex in Arizona sold for $420,000, $20,000 over asking.

Source: Business Insider

A few months later, two more Arizona missile silos went on sale for $495,000 each. One sold for $500,000, while the other saw a price cut and is still on the market.

Source: Business Insider