Abandoned Places: Quehanna's Jet Cell Bunkers

Tuesday looked to be the pick of the week, and my husband and I wanted to drive somewhere further away than usual and go for a long hike. We kicked around the possibility of an overnight backpack, but in the end, we decided to do two short day hikes in the Quehanna Wild Area.

We made a couple of bagel-and-cheese sandwiches and nabbed some chili (cold, to be eaten later at home) from Benton's Market in Karthaus and put it in the cooler. Then we made our way into Quehanna, where, much to our surprise, there was snow still on the ground in spots! If we'd been backpacking to our usual spot in the Valley of the Elk, we probably would have been sleeping on snow-pack!

Our first hike, about a four-miler, took us through green, mossy woods and back to some really big rocks where my husband had spotted a rattlesnake last May. T. Tiger and the gang (including the moose, who traveled in a side pocket in my daysack) kept an eye out for snakes but we did not see any.

We did discover the second and third butterflies of the year, though, on this, the first full day of spring. The second butterfly was a mourning cloak, spotted around 2:15 p.m. in a sunny field above some beaver dams. The third was either a comma or question mark, too fast for me to tell which, spied in a sunny parking lot by the road around 5 p.m., as we were getting ready to leave Quehanna. So far, I have not gotten pics of any butterflies.

Our second hike was to the abandoned north nuclear jet engine test cell bunker, which you may see in these two photographs. Above is the outside graffiti. In the extras, you may see what the inside looks like. There is a wooden structure right inside the door that blocks the light. I think it may have been related to the times when this bunker was used (briefly) as some sort of bat refuge.

The graffiti was the star of the day, but it was dark enough inside the bunker that it was quite hard to photograph it. When I put my super vivid setting on, though, it made the graffiti really stand out, and almost glow, so that was the filter I used for all of my graffiti shots, both inside and out.

The graffiti itself featured the usual number of penis drawings, a bunch of bad words (not safe for work, or for children, I'm sorry), and some pretty creative and unusual other stuff. I took several hundred pictures on this day and I have to admit that about half of them were of the walk in to this bunker, and of the bunker interior and exterior.

The history of these bunkers is that they were created in the mid-1950s during the Atoms for Peace initiative. This bunker was used for research. The goal was to develop nuclear-powered jet engines for the United States Air Force, so that fighter planes and bombers could stay airborne indefinitely, without refueling. The project was abandoned in 1960.

Now, just a quick word on the graffiti. This is one of my favorite spots to photograph in the entire Quehanna Wild Area. The jet cell bunker is really cool, and now that you can go inside again (the door was locked for years), the graffiti itself is fascinating and amazing.

There is also a little pond near the abandoned nuclear jet cell bunkers, and later in springtime, it is just full of randy newts. We did see just a few as the afternoon sun warmed up the water and melted the bit of ice that had been on the surface. Then, with six miles under our belts for the two hikes, we sauntered back out to the car, and headed for home.

My soundtrack songs are for the graffiti, two views: Warren Zevon, with Ain't That Pretty At All, and Led Zeppelin, with Houses of the Holy, from their double album Physical Graffiti.