North Carolina A-51

i believe its a practice range for the F-15's stationed at Seymour Johnson. I believe they just drop non-explosive bombs to hone their targeting skills

Hey ben94gt,

Would you please contact me concerning these reported silo's in Pilot Mountain. My e-mail is [email protected]

Thanks

haha this thread is back from the dead, unfortunatley, my original source of info, washball, has seemed to dissapear from ATS. Honestly, I am more interested in the Wilkesboro area silo then pilot mtn, but it would be cool to find out about pilot mtn.

Harvey’s Point was originally a tugboat base used during WWII and Korea. It served as a base for tugs that towed targets into Albemarle Sound for the Navy pilots flying down from the Norfolk, Virginia.

In August of 1968, a friend of mine purchased a houseboat in Winton, NC, and asked me to help him bring it back to Richmond, VA, via the Intercoastal Waterway. There were four of us on the trip.

The second afternoon, we were sailing east in Albemarle Sound when a nasty squall line started making up in the west. Albemarle Sound is very shallow, and no place to be in a houseboat with the sea keeping characteristics of a shoebox. After a quick look at the chart and the Notice to Mariners we found this “abandoned” tugboat base very close on the port beam at Harvey’s Point. We got in just ahead of the storm, and found a covered slip with concrete pier. Very snug, almost a boathouse. We had a beer as the storm blew past us, sideways.

Suddenly, three men in civilian clothes, each with a different type weapon, ran into the boathouse, spread out and told us not to move. Then another civilian arrived (for some reason I remember he wore cowboy boots) and we were marched up a path thru the pines to a two-story brick building; told to empty our pockets and left in the small lobby. A half hour later our things were returned, we were told the boat would be confiscated until the next day. One of their people would drive us into Hertford, but we would have to find our own way back.

A guard, in some kind of generic uniform, drove us to the only motel in Hertford. On the way we were complaining about not being able to leave –the storm having blown itself out, and the guard told us we were lucky. He said two fishermen had their boat sink off Harvey’s Point, and when they swam ashore, they had been arrested. The next morning, the motel clerk called the local sheriff and he agreed to drive us back to the base. On the trip he admitted the whole thing sounded kind of funny, since the base had been abandoned for years. When we got back to the fence –there was a small plywood box with a phone, hanging next to the vine-covered gate. It really did look abandoned from that side. The phone worked and they sent a car for us. It was kind of funny to watch the sheriff trying to look thru the gate which they only opened wide enough for us to squeeze thru. Driving back to the boat slip I did notice a new runway running north to south between rows of those WWII “temporary” barracks. Probably about 3,000 feet long. Some new roads had been cut off the main road, but didn’t see any new construction.

When we got back to the boat it was pretty evident it had been searched without much effort to disguise the fact.

We didn’t find out what was going on there until years later when I read G.Gordon Liddy’s autobiography, “Will”, in which he tells about flying down to “the CIA’s secret weapon’s testing facility at Harvey’s Point, NC.”

So while trying to get out of the weather, we had come waltzing into a secret CIA operation.

If you go to Google maps and try to “zoom” in on “Harvey’s Point Defense Testing Activity” you will find that the images are blocked three clicks from full resolution, but you can make out the runway.

Wow, I saw this thread on Harvey's Point and I thought I might correct some misinformation.

First of all, I have no idea what they are actually doing down there. I have lived within a few miles of this base for my entire life, but have not been on the property since the late 50's/early 60's.

Originally the US Navy operated Harvey's Point as a sea plane base, not a tug boat station. After WWII the base was shut down and turned over to the town of Hertford to use. There was a large concrete ramp there for sea plane storage. My Mother actually learned to drive on this ramp. During the 50's the Navy had a program to develop a jet powered seaplane (Seamaster). Harvey's Point was selected as the East Coast base for this plane. It is at the tip of a penninsula, with lots of calm water all around, allowing plenty of potential sea plane take off and landing directions. I can remember riding down to the base with my family around 1960 while construction was underway. I also remember that we were potentialy going to lose part of some of the land we farmed becasue of road construction connected with the base. The Seamaster program was eventually cancelled, and the work to convert Harvey Point to a base for this plane was stopped. A lot of details about this are at www.globalsecurity.org... . After the sea plane program was cancelled, the base was converted to other uses. When I was young I can remember Army personel being stationed at the base. One of my friends' Sister dated an Army guy, but even then he would not talk about what they did at the base. Eventually the Army guards were replaced by civillian guards. The name of the place has changed several times over the years.

In recent years refugess from the North have started buying property in the area (Perquimans County). There is (or was) lots of waterfront property available in the area and this is attractive to rich retirees from further North. Develpers are now creeping ever closer to the base property. A few years ago the base bought some of the adjeacent propery and fenced off everthing south of the last State road next to the base. Now they have bought even more property and plan to close that road. A friend of mine lives down that road. As soon as they provide access to his property from a different road, they will move the fence again to create a larger buffer zone between the base and adjeacent proerty.

I driven to with 20 yards of the base gate many times, before turing off to visit my friend. There is nothing special to be seen at the gate. Riding up to it would just be a waste of time. The stories about explosions blowing trees over is BS. At times you hear lots of explosions, but few are large enough to rattle windows of nearby houses, much less blow over trees off the base. Likewise the stories about people being shot are BS as well. I've never heard of anyone being shot. If you get too close to the base in a boat you will be warned, but that is about it. I've gone by it many times on a boat without incident. They definitely have good security, but they are not going to shoot curious civilians.

A few years back they built a runway at the base long enough for modern planes. These days most visitors fly in (at night mostly). Before that they would fly to the Coast Guard Base in Elizabeth City and motor over to Harvey's Point in vehicles with blacked out windows (it is about 20 miles from one to the other by road). I can remeber when they cleaned the base up a few years ago. Lots of blown up vehicles were crushed and hauled out.

The base is a very good neighboor to the community. It supplies employment and has very little impact on the neighboors. The occasional explosions are trivial. Locals that work at the base are very closed mouthed about what they do, and locals who know them, know not to pry. If you want to see the base from the air, Terrasever has arield views.

Originally posted by CAConrad0825
The actual location of the Farm is not disclosed, and Delta Force is not even acknowledged to exist.

The location of The Far may be classified, but it sure as hell isn't any secret. I've passed the entrance to that base many time...