You can sleep inside a Cold War nuclear missile silo in Kansas for $417 a night

In 1990, a 10-year-old named Matthew Fulkerson was hiking through the Flint Hills of Kansas with a friend when they stumbled across something the U.S. government had quietly abandoned: a decommissioned Cold War Atlas E missile base, half-swallowed by the prairie, blast doors rusting in the sun. 1

He went home. He kept thinking about it.

Today, Matthew owns his own missile silo. And you can sleep in it.

Atlas Ad Astra Adventure Resort sits on 24 acres in the Smoky Hills of Kansas, four miles off I-70, just outside Wilson (population: 834). 2 The site is a decommissioned Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missile base, built in 1959 during the Cold War, armed, kept on alert, and then quietly decommissioned in 1965 when the technology moved on. 1 The original construction cost was $12.8 million — roughly $120 million in today's dollars. 1

What you're booking on Airbnb is the Launch Control Center (LCC) — a 3,500 sq ft underground bunker that once housed the crew who would have turned the keys. It has the original 40-ton blast doors, a network of underground tunnels, and, now, bunk beds and a microwave. 2 The full 176-foot-deep missile silo shaft is on the property too — you're not just getting the cozy part. 1

Price: $417/night for the underground Launch Control Center (Airbnb SuperHost listing). Guided one-hour tours of the facility are an additional $25 per person; veterans pay $20, kids 10–17 pay $15, and children under 10 get in free. 1 If sleeping underground sounds like a lot, tent camping on the property starts at $35/night. 1

Airbnb put it in their OMG! category and put money behind it — the property received over $100,000 from Airbnb's OMG Fund, plus funding from the Kansas Department of Tourism's Attraction Development Grant. 1

Matthew Fulkerson's origin story is genuinely one of the more unusual things you'll read today.

That 1990 hike wasn't just a childhood memory he filed away. The next day, he went back and met the man converting the Atlas E base into an underground home called Subterra Castle. Over the following three decades, Matthew watched that project develop into a working subterranean residence. He later helped build a custom library for the Survival Condo — a 15-floor luxury underground condominium complex converted from another Atlas F silo in Kansas. In 2013, he bought his own Atlas F silo near Wilson. 1

In his own words: 1

Matthew's stated vision for the property goes beyond "weird Airbnb." He's working to develop it into an Educational Center for Space Habitat Studies — a proof-of-concept for what underground living could look like as humans eventually expand beyond Earth. 1 The resort dog, Dozer, lives on-site and will likely greet you at arrival. 2

Freelance writer Grady Bolding drove out in October 2025, paid the full overnight package — $417 for the stay plus $25 for the guided tour, coming to just under $450 — and wrote it up in detail. His verdict: 2

Bolding describes being greeted by Matthew and Dozer, getting the full tour of the facility, and settling into the Launch Control Center for the night. The LCC comes with bunk beds, a microwave, a fridge, a coffee maker, and a TV. 3 He calls it "a one-of-a-kind campground for history buffs and anyone curious." 2

The rest of the property adds to the experience in a very Kansas way: walking and biking paths across the 24-acre site, a nightly community campfire, outdoor games, and some of the best stargazing in the Midwest thanks to the near-total absence of light pollution. 1 There's a composting toilet and a cold plunge shower house with skylights and picture windows. This is not a hotel. You are camping, spiritually, just underground in a blast-hardened room built to survive a nuclear near-miss.

One genuine heads-up the property is upfront about: uneven terrain, open holes, protruding rebar and concrete, multiple flights of stairs, confined spaces, and tunnels. It's not recommended for guests with mobility issues, respiratory conditions, or claustrophobia. A Kansas agritourism liability waiver applies. 1 Know what you're signing up for.

The internet is predictably split. On Reddit's r/interestingasfuck, a post about the Airbnb's underground chamber racked up 1,411 comments. One upvoted response: "Shit looks like a torture room. Yikes." 4 Other commenters in the same thread invoked the Backrooms — the horror internet concept of an infinite, fluorescent-lit liminal space you can't escape — as an unsettling frame of reference. 4 The comments going the other direction tend to be from people who clearly would have booked it before the thread finished loading.

TikTok creators have called the 40-ton blast doors and Cold War survival infrastructure "the ultimate immersive experience." 5 KSNT News in Kansas called it a "hidden gem" when they covered it in March 2024. 3

The campground's Campspot listing has a 5.0 rating from verified reviews. The Airbnb listing is under the SuperHost program. 1

The Airbnb listing is titled "Top Secret Atlas F Missile Base — underground stay" and is live at airbnb.com/rooms/655066825417773535. 6 The property website with tour booking and campsite reservations is atlasadastra.com.

Wilson, Kansas is about 3.5 hours west of Kansas City, and 12 miles from Wilson Lake — so a road trip that adds a day of fishing or trail running to the nuclear bunker overnight is entirely doable. The site is positioned as an agritourism destination, which means it works as a destination stay, not just a one-night novelty.

If you want a comparison: the nearby Missile Silo Ranch and Titan Ranch in Arkansas offer similar decommissioned silo stays if Atlas Ad Astra is booked out. 2 But this one has the host who has literally spent his whole life working toward it. That's the part that's hard to replicate.