Geodesic domes were taken over by the "natural materials" people in the 1960s and 1970s. This doesn't work. Geodesic domes need standard manufactured components built to tight tolerances. Then they just bolt together. Domes built with wood and shingles do not work very well.[1]

Google proposed to build a big geodesic dome for their HQ in Mountain View. It probably would have been better than what they did build, which looks like some kind of sports arena.

[1] https://www.domerama.com/dome-basics/domebook-1-2/

There was a huge dish pointing straight up. A friend and I walked around on the dish. There was a very small compartment more or less where the elevation axis was. The slightly creepy feeling I might get stuck in it kept me from going in but my friend did.

Another large structure was likely a transmitter. A large surface with a grid of smaller antennas covering one side.

Most cool to me though were the rooms with 6 foot high panels with all manner of analog meters, switches, lights.... Nothing worked of course, most everything was smashed. I wish now that I had brought some tools and removed as many of the components as I could.

My overall impression was a kind of wonderment that so much money and effort would be expended by the U.S. government to watch for Soviet aircraft/missiles. So much equipment built, foundations poured, cinder blocks stacked...

And then I suppose sophisticated satellites made it all obsolete.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Warning_System

An upgrade was recently announced with a collaboration with Australia:

* https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/canada-early-warning-de...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindalee_Operational_Radar_Net...

This video shows some explorers looking around inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMTTjVIMWoE

My other favorite Cold War site is Safeguard, a 70's era anti-ballistic missile system that cost six billion and was only operational for six months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_R._Mickelsen_Safeguard...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_scatter

This method was the back-bone of long distance Cold War communications links (As well as HF using ionospheric propagation) until Satellites started becoming more commonplace in the 70's

A couple things really stuck out for me. First, it looked like everyone that worked there had literally left for lunch one day and never came back. No orderly wind-down, just instantly abandoned, everything left behind. Second, they had these massive brass waveguides connecting the antennas to rooms of primitive mainframes. I found it interesting that no one had ever salvaged, legally or illegally, the considerable scrap metal value contained in those installations. These buildings have been abandoned since before I was born and there was literally tons of high-value scrap just sitting there.

These places have a strange vibe, they feel ancient. No one really messes with these abandoned places, they are treated like an archaic relic or monument even though they aren’t that old. It is sort of a surreal feeling of coming across the ruins of some dead civilization like some kind of sci-fi trope.

Really damn cool though.