Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Aerojet-Dade Abandoned Rocket Facility (Homestead-Everglades)

Aerojet Dade was opened in the mid 60's as a contractor to win NASA's bid for a rocket to send man to the moon. Three rockets were tested here between 1967 and 1968. When NASA decided to go a different route on the type of fuel used to power the rocket, Aerojet lost the bid and left the Miami-Dade Facility abandoned. It has been abandoned since 1969.
 
 
 
Yes, you may call it my craziest adventure yet; but to an experienced or even amateur UrbExer it isnt at all crazy. Access is pretty easy but the remoteness can have you wondering: Where the hell am i? Why does my Iphone not have service? What was that noise? I have been here twice already and so far I havent fell into a trap door, encountered homeless, enountered law enforcement, or been attacked by the zombies of the everglades. The road to this place is actually a nature trail built by the South Florida Water Management District-the government entity which owns the property. When you arrive down the long stretch of road there are a series of locked gates. Not hard to get around, they were made so pedestrians and bikes can go through. There are no gates to access the Aerojet facilities area which contains about 9 abandoned buildings. However at the last gate the only way is to straddle the gate like a cowboy and easily make your way over. This is the last stretch of road to get to the Rocket in the silo which is about 4 miles away.


My first time I was with two friends with no bikes. What were we thinking? I guess we weren't. The facilities took us about 2 hours to get through as the property is large. However the Silo is miles away and what seemed like a long unending road turned out to be a long unending road. The silo was in sight but didnt seem to get any closer. We decided another day and next time we would bring bikes.

The second time I returned with just one of them. We rode our bikes this time just to the Rocket Silo, the trip took about 20 minutes each way. When we got there it was a sight to see. Although the SFWMD consistently comes out to put boulders in front of doors and weld metal back over spaces that shouldnt be open, UrbExers seem to always figure out a way around ;-). In the silo there is a huge round cover over the rocket 
However there are a few tiny openings where you can see the Rocket




On our way back on the second trip we saw what looked to be a police car and a truck on the other side of the last gate where I parked the car. I was nervous, were we in trouble? Did they see us in a helicopter? Why am I so paranoid? As we came closer we saw that the "cop" car was actually an old pontiac that had a bike rack on their car (fellow explorers), and the truck was a white SFWMD van. He had keys to the gates and went down to the last gate and then rode back out. Not sure what this was for but at least we didnt need to pick our bicycles up over a gate for the 6th time as he waited for us to exit then locked the gate back up.

This is a great trip and I highly suggest it for you adventurers and mild risk-takers. Alligators are in the area as well, giving you the ability to get some good pics. Below are more photos from both trips....enjoy!





































                             Some Edits below







28 comments:

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  4. Wow, AbandonedFL, no need to be a dick. That's a fast way to get people to stop reading your website.

    To the author: I've read some things that have said that a lot has changed in the last year - have you been out recently? Is there still reason to visit? It sounded like many of the buildings were scrapped.

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    1. Hey Sarah,

      Yes I was just there a few weeks ago and some of the buildings I can still see. One of them at the front I know was torn down cuz the SFLWMD wanted to get the stuff that can easily fly away in a storm to be taken away....the solid buildings tho I could see from where I was. I didn't go in this time, but have been there a few times. I was at a different spot near there.

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  5. Yes . Please let us know if we should take the trip out there. I hear that you cannot even seen the missile

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    1. Hi Joyce,

      I definitely think its a good idea to take a trip out there....if theres nothing there anymore don't kill me lol but I was just there and was able to see some of the buildings from the entrance. I know a few were taken down but the main buildings should still be there. The rocket is most likely definitely still there because its alllllll the way down the road, very remote and hard to get to. You need a bike really. They said they were not going to attempt to get it out because it would be really heavy and worthless to try. However they are open to a Museum paying to take it. Have fun!

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    2. The rocket is blocked up in such a way that you can still see it if you have a powerful flashlight. As I was there this spring break, the only thing that is different from when those photos were taken and now is that there is no longer any metal buildings.

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  6. Hi! Have you seen the site recently? I heard due to some murders at the site that the place had been locked up. Is there still some way to access it?

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  7. Yes the place was locked down do to a murder ( not murders ).. But you can still get in. You'll just need a bike, atv or dirt bike to ride as walking would take you 30 or so min...

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  8. hey guys I was just out there a few weeks ago definitely worth it the walk is long its about a mile and a half to the buildings. but its a beautiful walk FYI bring bug spray ALOT OF HORSE FLYS. Also the rocket has been covered to prevent people from going down in the tube

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  9. How do i get there im in Melbourne fl no address? i love exploring
    and i got nothing better to do since i moved here. . . .

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  10. What road do u need to go down to get to the site??

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  11. What road do u need to go down to get to the site??

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  12. I lived in Dade at the time, worked on the jetport, and fished in C-111, but did not know about Aerojet. Can not seem to find it on a map. Where is it?

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    1. You worked on the jet port?
      I recall that being built in around ‘74 since we would take our swamp buggies and ATV’s in the Glades at that point due to it being more direct to the camp than the L28 levee.
      Aerojet is nowhere near the jetport.
      As you’re on the 18 mile stretch, US1 towards the keys, just before you hit jewfish creek, a few miles to the West is where Aerojet is located (south Redlands).
      Trigon62@yahoo.com

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  13. GPS...
    25.321433,-80.557317

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  14. Cory,

    Could you please contact me: j.slater AT fonthillmedia.com?

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  15. I just made the trip to the aerojet facility today. Came from up north of the Seattle area. Of course the rocket is capped off, but if you go into the right I beams, you can see it with a powerful flashlight. It was awesome. Frickin long ass ride on a Nike for a fat guy,lol. What tall might not be aware of is the Nike Missile Site that was also on that road HM-65. The control site was just east of the Aerojet buildings, and the launch site was the next road south before the big rocket. Theres nothing left though. Ther es are also 2 other Nike sites. One is west and is a National Park (Ham-69) and there is another on North Key Largo (HM-40).

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  16. Someone send me directions to this. Id like to check it all out and take a good drone video with my dji phantom 4 pro.

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    1. Aerojet Rd, Homestead, Florida 33034. You could also search up Aerojet road on google maps, and it will deposit you at the mouth of the road.

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  18. On the web archive, I managed to pull up a document from DTIC that shows period photos and diagrams of the buildings (all be it very poor quality). Aerojet stuff starts at page 178. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0456999/page/n178?q=aerojet+dade

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