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$1 million will buy you an entire West Virginia 'town.'

Started by cpzilliacus, May 22, 2016, 02:24:07 PM

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cpzilliacus

Most of the former U.S. Navy/National Security Agency listening post/intercept site near Sugar Grove, West Virginia has been decommissioned, meaning that an entire "town" is available for sale to anyone that has a spare $1 million available. though the government is holding on to a separate nearby parcel, where NSA is apparently still conducting some activities.

Washington Post: Fed up with high D.C. housing costs? $1 million will buy you an entire West Virginia 'town.'

QuoteIf the D.C. pricey real estate market has you down, the General Services Administration has a deal for you.

QuoteJust three hours away, for $1 million – the price of a single-family home in some quadrants of the city – you can buy 80 homes on 122 acres, together with a gym, full-size basketball court, bowling alley, soccer field, and police and fire stations. Did we mention the 12 guest cabins on the opposite end of the property?

QuoteSugar Grove Station, nestled between the Allegheny Mountains and the south fork of the Potomac River, is the ultimate get-away-from-it-all destination. Seven miles from George Washington National Forest, it sits in the midst of a 13,000-square-mile area of the United States known as the National Radio Quiet Zone. All radio communications in the area are restricted. Translated: No pesky cellphone calls from pollsters asking about Donald Trump.


Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.


Max Rockatansky

Hell you got housing, a school, a gym, a place for a store and a fence line to keep out undesirables. :-D  Got to love when old military bases end up going surplus.  Usually they just become low income housing in some urban hell hole, the cool thing with Sugar Grove Station is that it's in the middle of nowhere.  You can have your own Slab City or even Silent Hill recreation if you got the cash.  My cousin's in WV would love this, especially considering it's in the radio dead zone.   :-D

hotdogPi

What happens if more than one person wants it? Choose randomly? Auction? 3 to 5 page essay about why you need it the most?
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on May 22, 2016, 02:36:57 PM
Hell you got housing, a school, a gym, a place for a store and a fence line to keep out undesirables. :-D  Got to love when old military bases end up going surplus.  Usually they just become low income housing in some urban hell hole, the cool thing with Sugar Grove Station is that it's in the middle of nowhere.  You can have your own Slab City or even Silent Hill recreation if you got the cash.  My cousin's in WV would love this, especially considering it's in the radio dead zone.   :-D 

I believe that contrary to some of the comments in the article, cell phone service and WiFi are allowed, though it may be that such systems have to be modified to work in this area.

Seem to me that this would be a great place for people needing treatment from the government for injuries received during military duty (and perhaps public safety generally) to rehabilitate  and recover.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: 1 on May 22, 2016, 02:41:47 PM
What happens if more than one person wants it? Choose randomly? Auction? 3 to 5 page essay about why you need it the most?

Presumably if there were two bids with a tied amount, the government would have to open it up for bidding again.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 22, 2016, 02:54:27 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on May 22, 2016, 02:36:57 PM
Hell you got housing, a school, a gym, a place for a store and a fence line to keep out undesirables. :-D  Got to love when old military bases end up going surplus.  Usually they just become low income housing in some urban hell hole, the cool thing with Sugar Grove Station is that it's in the middle of nowhere.  You can have your own Slab City or even Silent Hill recreation if you got the cash.  My cousin's in WV would love this, especially considering it's in the radio dead zone.   :-D 

I believe that contrary to some of the comments in the article, cell phone service and WiFi are allowed, though it may be that such systems have to be modified to work in this area.

Seem to me that this would be a great place for people needing treatment from the government for injuries received during military duty (and perhaps public safety generally) to rehabilitate  and recover.

I'll have to ask around, there are still some duty stations that don't allow cellular or internet coverage depending on the security level.  Not that I disagree with the assessment on having VA Clinic in a quiet area but that far into rural West Virginia is going to be a tough sell.  Harrisonburg, VA is closest big town and it's close to an hour away...might make it undesirable for hospital staff or worse evacuating someone. 

SP Cook

The place (BTW, this was the ONLY significant military base in WV, prior to the first round of base closures, WV had the smallest active duty military presence of any state, so much for the mythical pork meistery of the late Byrdgod) was first offered to the state, which had the sense to turn it down, as it has no economic potential.  It really is the very middle of nowhere.  Unless you want to start your own doomsday cult or something of that nature, it is little more than military style housing in a job free location.  Might be a good retirement communtiy, if you could get over the more than an hour drive to any medical services.

The Radio Telescope is shutting down and with it may go the "quiet zone".  Oddly, the area has attracted people who are convinced they have "electromagnetic hypersensitivity", which no scientist or physician says really exists, and they are lobbying to keep it active to give them a refuge from their "disease", while the natives want to join the modern world.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: SP Cook on May 24, 2016, 09:54:59 AM
The place (BTW, this was the ONLY significant military base in WV, prior to the first round of base closures, WV had the smallest active duty military presence of any state, so much for the mythical pork meistery of the late Byrdgod) was first offered to the state, which had the sense to turn it down, as it has no economic potential.  It really is the very middle of nowhere.  Unless you want to start your own doomsday cult or something of that nature, it is little more than military style housing in a job free location.  Might be a good retirement communtiy, if you could get over the more than an hour drive to any medical services.

The Radio Telescope is shutting down and with it may go the "quiet zone".  Oddly, the area has attracted people who are convinced they have "electromagnetic hypersensitivity", which no scientist or physician says really exists, and they are lobbying to keep it active to give them a refuge from their "disease", while the natives want to join the modern world.

Basically it's going to draw in the same weirdos that are attracted to Camp Dunlap AKA "Slab City" out on the eastern banks of the Salton Sea.  I'm sure there is going to be the conspiratorial and alien believers out there with extra emphasis on hunting down the "true reason" for the radio dead zone.  Personally I'd be all if I had the money to waste, literally that base would have everything you could want facilities wise....with no people to bother you given the remote locale.  My cousins in WV had a riot talking about this the other day.  Anyways I attached a link for Slab City for reference since I got a feeling this is where Sugar Grove is heading down the line. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City

CNGL-Leudimin

#8
We could band together, purchase the 'town' and fill it with old signage :sombrero:. I would put some € instead of $, though.
Supporter of the construction of several running gags, including I-366 with a speed limit of 85 mph (137 km/h) and the Hypotenuse.

Please note that I may mention "invalid" FM channels, i.e. ending in an even number or down to 87.5. These are valid in Europe.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: SP Cook on May 24, 2016, 09:54:59 AM
The Radio Telescope is shutting down and with it may go the "quiet zone".  Oddly, the area has attracted people who are convinced they have "electromagnetic hypersensitivity", which no scientist or physician says really exists, and they are lobbying to keep it active to give them a refuge from their "disease", while the natives want to join the modern world.

That would be the Radio Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va.? 

Seems to me like a remarkably valuable scientific asset to mothball or dismantle.

As for electromagnetic sensitivity (hyper or otherwise), what about electric power lines?

Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: cpzilliacus on June 20, 2016, 05:04:17 PM
Quote from: SP Cook on May 24, 2016, 09:54:59 AM
The Radio Telescope is shutting down and with it may go the "quiet zone".  Oddly, the area has attracted people who are convinced they have "electromagnetic hypersensitivity", which no scientist or physician says really exists, and they are lobbying to keep it active to give them a refuge from their "disease", while the natives want to join the modern world.

That would be the Radio Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va.? 

Seems to me like a remarkably valuable scientific asset to mothball or dismantle.

As for electromagnetic sensitivity (hyper or otherwise), what about electric power lines?

I think all you get is the military housing and accompanying complexes like the commissary in addition to gym.  I kind of like this idea of walling it off with old road signage and calling it Sign Town.  :-D

GCrites

That radio free zone has to be pushing the value of the property down. Not too many people these days want to go without cell phones and wi-fi.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: GCrites80s on June 21, 2016, 08:56:31 PM
That radio free zone has to be pushing the value of the property down. Not too many people these days want to go without cell phones and wi-fi.

But there has to be at least one conspiracy theorist out there that's paranoid as all hell who has the cash to spend....there is always at least one floating out there.

SP Cook

Quote from: cpzilliacus on June 19, 1970, 01:29:26 PM

That would be the Radio Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va.? 

Seems to me like a remarkably valuable scientific asset to mothball or dismantle.

As for electromagnetic sensitivity (hyper or otherwise), what about electric power lines?



Yep.  Probably beyond the scope of this board, but making a star map of places that, if Einstein was right and thus Roddenberry was wrong, no one will ever go, can be argued to be not the most important thing in a world where half the population lives on less than $1/day.  I does not change my life to know that there is a star nobody knew about billions of light years from here.   

Anyway, some of the electromagnetic sensativity crew lives Amish-esque, with no or limited electic use and will stay away from power lines.  They even ask stores to turn off the lights for them to shop.

BTW, the radio telescope has and interesting and ironic history.  WV used it as the symbol of its centenial in 1963, when it was new and dishes were not ubiquitious.  Except the science part of it had to be run from Charlottesville, because none of the scientists would subject their children to WV schools.  Later as the "BUD" dish tv finally brought TV to rural Appalachia in the 70s and 80s, the dish did not look so high-tech anymore and, as the BUD was replace by the modern small dishes and the rural landscape became littered with abandoned dishes, looking back at the centenial symbol became a symbol of the massive economic decline that followed.

GCrites

^Yeah, my Transformers and G.I. Joe jokes imported from Columbus fell flat when I was attending Marshall in the early 2000s. I didn't think about the possibility of those shows not being broadcast in the area when they were originally aired.

Scott5114

I wonder if it could be redeveloped into a resort. That's the only possible use for it that I could see justifying sinking $1 million into.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

froggie

Should've looked at this thread before now...

I know the area fairly well.  Been through Sugar Grove several times, though I never made it to the base.  Reddish Knob, nearby on the state line, was one of my favorite jaunts, and one can see some of the radio dishes on/near the base from the Knob.

The article is right in that there's pretty much NOTHING in that area....but despite what the article suggests, one can get over to Harrisonburg (i.e. jobs, medical, and James Madison University) in under an hour, so that bit was shoddy reporting.  Also, WVDOH just paved Pendleton CR 25 (which climbs the ridge and connects to SR 924 and, conversely, VA 257) a few years ago.


Meanwhile, why spend $1 million in middle-of-nowhere WV when you can buy a town in Colorado for $350K that's only 45 minutes from Denver?

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: froggie on July 05, 2016, 07:55:20 AM
Should've looked at this thread before now...

I know the area fairly well.  Been through Sugar Grove several times, though I never made it to the base.  Reddish Knob, nearby on the state line, was one of my favorite jaunts, and one can see some of the radio dishes on/near the base from the Knob.

The article is right in that there's pretty much NOTHING in that area....but despite what the article suggests, one can get over to Harrisonburg (i.e. jobs, medical, and James Madison University) in under an hour, so that bit was shoddy reporting.  Also, WVDOH just paved Pendleton CR 25 (which climbs the ridge and connects to SR 924 and, conversely, VA 257) a few years ago.


Meanwhile, why spend $1 million in middle-of-nowhere WV when you can buy a town in Colorado for $350K that's only 45 minutes from Denver?

But Cabin Creek off of US 36 is really just less than a couple buildings.  It took me a couple minutes to find that place since it's not even located on any maps or even a ghost town mapping site that I can find.  I'd get more excited for a place that actually had a street grid rather what appears to be old stage coach/highway stop that went bust after the Interstates got built.  Besides...farm land located ghost towns never have as many interesting ruins in them as stuff up in the mountains.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: froggie on July 05, 2016, 07:55:20 AM
Should've looked at this thread before now...

I know the area fairly well.  Been through Sugar Grove several times, though I never made it to the base.  Reddish Knob, nearby on the state line, was one of my favorite jaunts, and one can see some of the radio dishes on/near the base from the Knob.

The signals intelligence gathering operation at Sugar Grove was described in some detail in James Bamford's first book about the National Security Agency in the early 1980's, the Puzzle Palace.

At the time Bamford wrote his book, in addition to the satellite dishes, there were two Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA, or Wullenweber) "elephant cage" systems (since removed) at Sugar Grove (pictures here). The remnants of the Wullenwebers can still be seen on Google Maps here.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.



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