Tank Farm Road

So I grew up outside of the badass city of Pittsburgh. When I was in high school I absolutely loved military stuff. History, tactics, weapons, surplus, EVERYTHING. I spent a vast amount of time researching the stuff and really far more time than is really socially acceptable on it.

Anyways, when I was in high school I was talking to a kid about my love for military stuff and he told me that on his road there was an old secret military base. I did not believe him one bit but still asked questions. He says it was used to store tanks and other stuff which he believed were WWII era soviet and Nazi surplus. I assume they were storing and testing it to get a better idea of the enemy. He says that he used to go in there all the time with friends to drink and smoke and hang out. Told me he used to hang out in the rusty shells of the tanks and drink. Even said there were just crates of random army stuff down there. I was intrigued. I was in love. I needed to know more.

He told me there only one entrance he knew of that was open. Supposedly just a hole in the fence of the place and a hole in the ground you crawl through to get inside. He said there used to be a giant blast door of sorts in the side of the hill as well that had tanks outside of it that he thought had been removed since he had last been there. Well, I was sold. I had to see it.

I told my best friend at the time about it, and he was intrigued. The girl I was sleeping with the time agreed to drive us up there. So he and I got fully geared to go up there. Everything we needed for a potentially extended exploration of the area was packed into several bags and packs we carried. Rope, Geiger meter, radios, flashlights, tools, etc were all we thought was necessary. We were prepared to stay there as long as necessary and do whatever we needed to do to see this place.

So we map out our area and get directions to the place. This was back before google earth and all of that new-age nonsense to help us out. Man I tell you just getting to this place is unreal. First of all, it is VERY out of the way near relatively built up areas like several large strip malls and highways. If you are familiar with Aliquippa, it is near the Beaver Valley Mall in a way. On our way there before we even left "civilization" we had trouble finding a road due to a name change from my directions. We stopped at a gas station a few miles from our goal and after a long debate about what to do, I simply went into the station and asked them about the place and how to get there. What happened next was interesting. The several people int he store reacted a bit differently than I had anticipated. I was merely asking for directions mind you and the way they reacted after I said Tank Farm was strange to say the least. All of the customers in the store told me it was fake. It did not exist as I wanted it to (even though I never mentioned why I wanted to find the road or ANYTHING about the place there) and that I was wasting my time chasing down a natural gas plant. The clerk was the only one who helped me out with the truth. He confirmed the tank story my friend at school had told me. He said he had seen the tanks himself as well, but could not give me detailed directions to the place though what he said did help me find the place later what he said was just not very clear directions.

Anyways, we got lost. Very lost. The roads up there are poorly marked and very steep gravel roads. There was one part of the road where it was just narrow enough for our tiny ass car. One side was a 50+ foot rock face, and the other side was a 80 foot or so drop down. No guardrail, no safety features, nothing. Just a straight drop from a rock road onto trees 40 or more feet below you. I have explored Pennsylvania's western forests all of my life and I have never seen anything like that in real life. It was like something from a cartoon for real. I will mark it on the map if I can find it for you.

So we got lost. We were pretty terrified. This was not the kind of place where you get lost and ask directions, we can tell. I will share more about that later. After 2 hours or so of driving and backtracking over and over and over again, we finally were on what we believed to be Tank Farm Road, our goal. Now that we were on the road, it was time to find the actual goal. This proved to be almost as difficult as finding the road itself! Like I said, we were lost as hell. We had finally found the road, but had no idea what part of it we were on or what we were really looking for other than tanks outside, concrete, and a door in a hillside where the tanks lay behind.

I am not afraid to ask directions or help from someone if I need it. My friend and girl were not as into that as I was. As we were driving around and back around and back around over and over trying to find where to go, we saw people watching us from their houses and yards. I mean, this is a back woods dirt road in the middle of nowhere with houses dotted along it. Even a trailer park strangely enough for the area. I mean, we stood out on a quiet fall day. That is for sure. I swear we drove back and forth literally for hours straight on all of these roads all near each other looking for this place. So we ended up stopping 2 times other than at the gas station. Once was in front of this house I will mark on the map. Turns out this place was right on the other side of some trees from my destination, but the local did not tell me that. I walk up to this house (it may have been a trailer) and as I am I see an old drunk guy and his friends sitting around in the garage facing me. I introduce myself (false first name lol) and ask them where I might find the Tank Farm. They told me they did not know what I was talking about. See, right before we found this house we had passed a fenced in area but it had signs on it from a local natural gas provider and we saw pipes and stuff and assumed it was nothing that was what we wanted. Anyways, these guys flat out lie to me. As I am walking back to the car, their dog started chasing me and bit me on the leg! I am not sure if they sent it after me, but it wast around when I got out of the car and talked to them. At first I avoided it on the way back to the car and then the little dick just leaps up and bits the inside of my leg. Thank god he missed the jewels, but it was close. I admit I punched the dog on the top of the head when/as he bit me which is VERY against my beliefs about not hurting animals, but the mutt had it coming and I think he would have bit me more if I hadn't done that. Yes, the bite broke the skin and I bled all of my BDU bottoms. No I did not get tested for rabies or call the cops, though it was discussed quite a bit on the way home. After the next event I will discuss, you will probably understand why.

So we drive back to the fenced in area. At the time we were convinced it was not the right place, but now I know it is. We were standing in front of the gate and could clearly see some old buildings and pipes coming out of the ground some distance from us on the protected side of the fence. We were standing there doing radio checks between us and the girl and just about to get our packs out of the trunk when a guy drives up on an OD green motor cycle with a sidecar complete with young kid in it. he asked us what we were doing and I said we were just hiking. He proceeded to tell me that any land around us was closed to hiking and other activities. I asked him why and he said that is how it is. When I sort of brushed him off when he continued to sit there on his bike he told me he was calling the police. I asked him why and he said that the car was parked on posted land in front of the gate and that he thought we were up to no good. Admittedly, I should have left the full camo garb and rucksacks and such at home, but come on army surplus is PERFECT for exploring junk. Durable, comfortable, dries quick, resists stains and spills, all equal perfect in my book. But this story isn't about the pants I wear daily!

After this little incident the girl was spooked as was my friend. I however was unmoved by this guy and his false authority. As part of my mapping out ritual, I had located the closest police station and state police barracks just in case so I knew how much time I had. I always do this. You may find this strange, but when I explore stuff I should not I come prepared to the very T. I had calculated that in perfectly dead police activity I would get at LEAST 30-45 minutes or more before police arrived provided there wasn't a random patrol somewhere, but I had a scanner on me with proximity signal retrieve as most do now and it was silent and had been for an hour or so.

We knew the gate was compromised. The guys house that he came from was right across from the gate and he could literally see us clearly parked there. So we moved on down the fence. I will mark on the map around where we got in. We drove to the side/back ish of the "facility" and this is where that narrow ass road from before plays in. It was after we passed this terrifying point and even having to let another car pass coming from the other way which was simply terrifying. Really, and I am not a pussy haha. It was a long drop. Anyways, we found a broken gate at the end of this short access/logging type road. Now when we went through this gate, we first saw alot of nothing. To our left was some cleared trees which we explored first. I will mark this. There was a skid steer loader parked in the middle of the woods with nothing else around. Brand new looking skid steer (no key anywhere on the vehicle) in the middle of nothing on the other side of a fence. Strange. We didn't even see any vehicle tracks or anything from anything that brought it in there. So we are stumbling around this place. You will notice in the pictures there are several concrete circles. Your guess is as good as mine on that. They are all surrounded by 20-30 foot high mounds of dirt that all connect. it was pretty obvious that there was alot of ATV activity around all over the place. So we made our way left towards the buildings. All of the buildings there were gutted or mostly gone. The one main building you can see was gutted and pretty open. No windows or doors. There is also a concrete pad raised above the ground like it was used for repairs or something on trucks or similar. If I remember right, it was near a building that looked like a garage. I was not impressed by the buildings. What a let down, really a rip off.

[edit on 23-1-2010 by A-E-I-Owned-You]

There were dozens of pipes and ventilation apparatuses coming out of the ground in the field below the main building on the map. There was no order at all to them that I saw, but I do not think I took anything further than all of the pipes into consideration. As in, I did not think to look at the different types of pipe and see if there was a pattern. Anyways, these pipes were to small to crawl in which is how I was told to get in through a hole or pipe where you crawl downish. These things went deep. Flashlights, laser pointers, rocks, yelling all came back with pretty much nothing in the way of figuring how deep it was. We spent several hours trying to find out how to get in but had to abandon the operation prematurely because at this point the girl was just driving around barely in radio contact to avoid being stopped if she came across the police. We did not need her lost and we could barely keep in radio contact there which was odd. It is at the top of a VERY large hill. You would think that CB radios would be able to reach at LEAST a mile in those conditions especially with the hand units I own. Maybe it is part of the mystery. I certainly found it odd. Fresh batteries in all units and we could barely keep in contact out of sight of each other when they worked fine before we left and after. I still use them on ops.


So yeah this long wall of text for nothing. I am sorry to waste your time. But the thing is, I cannot find anything about this site at all anywhere. it is obviously something! No-one makes several concrete circles on the ground and then mounds up dirt and leaves it there. There was a purpose to this place, and I do not think it was for natural gas as the signs say it is. You will notice there is a pond on one of the map pictures. I believe that to be the entrance, but I have not been back there since I saw this on google earth. I live in Vermont now too so it makes it hard to check it out. But I do know that area with the pond is downhill from the rest and I regret not checking it out. I was so dumb back then I will admit. I was looking for a door in a hillside and I never even looked over the edge of the hill!!


So in closing, the real point of this thread is this;
To entertain you guys with a true story about my first real exploration operation.
Lets find out what this place is. The REAL reason, not some natural gas bull.
I want to see if anyone will make a trip there since I am unable to now. I want some pictures of this place and tanks! I did not get pictures which I regret but at the time I did not own a digi cam and really what i saw wasn't worth pictures. Well, maybe to you guys but you can pretty much see what it looks like from the overheads I provided. it looks just like it does there. The only thing you cannot see are the pipes behind the building and the rise of the dirt mounds between the concrete circles.


I am done typing. Please be respectful with your replies. While there is not much to my story, it is still my story and I have the right to tell it how I want it including its length. it is worth researching more with your help though so please do not just write this off!

Tank Farm Rd, Aliquippa, PA 15001
www.bing.com...




I look forward to your replies and anything you may find!


[edit on 23-1-2010 by A-E-I-Owned-You]

Very Interesting I myself live in the same area . But, you may be playing with fire .

Originally posted by hosta420
But, you may be playing with fire .

How so?

Just an idea; could this be one of those secret underground cities? I mean, with the air pipes and such, and all those dirt mounds came from?

A "Tank Farm" is another name for an Oil Depot. Those round concrete pads used to have oil tanks sitting on them. No mystery here.

en.wikipedia.org...

I think the poster is right about the oil depot.
But I really did like the motorcycle jerk's house being pinpointed, along with "dumb guys' house " and I enjoyed the aerial view of where the "dumb dog" was .

Originally posted by quisp
A "Tank Farm" is another name for an Oil Depot. Those round concrete pads used to have oil tanks sitting on them. No mystery here.

en.wikipedia.org...

Be Wary Of The Above Thread Killer. Most likely a Gov't Shill (quisp)!
This is what ATS is all about! I wish I could help you out brother, Star and Flag any way. A good effort.

No Gov't shill here. Just little old me, Quisp. I just thought it was obvious what it was.

Started to do some google searches and here is what I came up with.
PDF of the "Tank Farm"



Looks to be pretty mundane, I assume the locals were just protective of there area. If the ground water there is screwed from the leaking of oil the locals maybe a bit crazy too

Originally posted by quisp
A "Tank Farm" is another name for an Oil Depot. Those round concrete pads used to have oil tanks sitting on them. No mystery here.

en.wikipedia.org...

I know what a tank farm is. I did research into this before I posted it here you know. it isnt just some simple gas thing. There are NO tanks anywhere to be seen and no mounts for pipes or pipes around the concrete circles so there were probably not tanks there as you would be able to see SOME remains of piping whether it be on the ground mounts, holes, or pipes themselves.

I have also seen the pdf.

You can say it is nothing, but having two people who had never met each other (friend at school and gas station employee) tell me flat out they had seen and been on said tanks. Army tanks. Not gas tanks. So is there some sort of conspiracy to make me think there is something there when there isnt? That is a little out of whack of the usual M.O. of the government.


The only pipes I saw went straight down into the ground in a grassy field area behind the main building. There were no horizontal pipes anywhere nor mounts for them in the form of concrete blocks for them to rest atop or ANYTHING similar. I am not an idiot, I know there is more to this than meets the eye and it is proven in the lack of evidence of it being a gas tank farm. There is NO evidence of that!

Originally posted by dragonsmusic
I think the poster is right about the oil depot.
But I really did like the motorcycle jerk's house being pinpointed, along with "dumb guys' house " and I enjoyed the aerial view of where the "dumb dog" was .

Well, if someone else goes there, they should avoid those places. I want pictures and more evidence of either instances. Whether gas farm or tank farm. I say there is more there than meets the eye. There was just to much oddity and coincidences and lack of evidence for me to shrug it off. That is why I spent a few hours putting this together for you guys. So you can help find the TRUTH not just "hurp derp ITS A GAS TANK FARM". I know what it is said to be, now let us find out what it really is.

Hey i grew up in the area too!! Western PA is a great place to live. This is the first i've heard of this secret facility though. I'd love to explore it myself someday, if i ever move back to the state.

The woods and rivers and old industry buildings make it a fascinating place, in an eerie way. That's probably why G. Romero based all his "dead" movies in the area.

This is an old tank farm from WW2 they had fuel stored all over the country away from the coasts so saboteurs couldn't get to them.

No tanks or pipes left because they sold it off after the war to commercial oil companies who found it easier to unbolt them and re use them than to buy new.Got pennies on the dollar for them.

This is a standard layout for a tank farm. The government and the military standardized them for ease of construction.


Not a secret place just abandoned.Maybe still government property they are so screwed up they still have places they own that are abandoned.Ground is probably contaminated.

[edit on 23-1-2010 by calcoastseeker]

Well, lets say that the surface IS a gas tank farm. There are still stories told to me about ARMY TANKS around the area both outside and underground. I remember talking to someone at some point and they said that someone was coming into remove some of the tanks and it may have been the gas station guy but it was so long ago I do not recall specifically leading me to leave it out of the above nonsense. I am still fairly certain there is something else there. The place just has the right feeling and evidence and lack of evidence for everything just clinches it for me. Some can be skeptical, but I still want some helping digging into it.

I don't want to come off as a nit picker - but I do have a nit to pick so I shall pick my nit with you - no offense intended - I just need to have this little issue answered for my well being.

Early in your post you said:

Originally posted by A-E-I-Owned-You
This was back before google earth and all of that new-age nonsense to help us out

Then a bit later you stated:

Originally posted by A-E-I-Owned-You
but I had a scanner on me with proximity signal retrieve as most do now and it was silent and had been for an hour or so.

So, I would like to know - was it "back before" or is it "now"?

Thanks,

Dorian Soran

The Good Doctor