Valley of the Tanks: Abandoned Military Range

oh my god you guys I've been to some pretty cool places but this is one of the most amazing [Music] hey Wanderers here today I'm at one of the most amazing locations I've ever explored I'm in the middle of nowhere and I say I'm in the middle of nowhere a lot but I really mean it this time look this really is the middle of nowhere this huge barren kind of high desert valley with all these busted up old homesteads there's a ton of old buildings here and what they are is actually really sad this valley was settled by ranchers in like I think the 1860s like a long time ago and they had a pretty decent sized community something like a hundred families living out here and it was all very peaceful bucolic supposedly very lush and verdant and they were able to grow all kinds of amazing crops because there's a lot of groundwater out here but guess what happened the government ruined it what else is new because there's a Naval Air Station nearby right so they would use the area as training grounds for their fighter jets and they would do these training bombing missions and like strafe stuff and blow stuff up and they owned land all around this valley that the government owned the land for their training area but they were buying up like all the land around this valley and I think they kind of had their eyes on this valley well the ranchers didn't want to sell out because they loved living here so basically what happened is the government just made it so unpleasant for the ranchers that they forced them all out they would fly their low-level missions with their fighter jets over the valley and at supersonic speed so it was really loud and disturbing and eventually they did force more or less all these ranchers and farmers out of the valley so it's kind of sad I mean now there's all these abandoned houses and barns and the people just ended up leaving I mean I guess according to what I read online I mean they did the government didn't buy them out but according to some of the ranchers it was below market value and they didn't really get what the property was worth and they didn't want to leave in the first place they were sort of forced out so it really has kind of a sad history although if you think about it I'm sure those ranchers forced out whatever Native Americans were living here before them so you know I guess it's just all part of the tide of or the wheel of history right one tribe shoves out another tribe shoves out another tribe and so on in the words of my favorite author Kurt Vonnegut jr. it's the way of humanity look this was actually a really fertile farming valley at one time so much so that the water is still running continuously I mean just to remind you this looks kind of like a barren desert valley but I guess there's like a lot of groundwater here and that's why I was all these ranchers lived out here and had pretty successful ranching and farming operations till they kind of got run out I mean the ground is so marshy here with all the standing water that it's really hard to even get in any of these old buildings but I'm kind of see inside that one there's nothing left in the way of personal artifacts just kind of like an old barn or work shed but it's still really sad to think of the people who lived here and how much they must have loved this valley it's interesting though if you look at what these little buildings are made out of look at this these are old rocket boxes rocket containers isn't that crazy so even though these ranchers were sort of forced out by the military they were scavenging their materials to build their own structures that's weird and then if you look at this one up close you know really pretty rusty patchwork wall but we let's just zoom on one of these rusty panels well if you can read that because it lights kind of harsh arrow brand cyanide from the American Cyanamid company anyway it's hard to say you know who's the bad guy who's the good guy in this situation because like with everything it's not just black and white it's all shades of gray so I don't know if the government really jerked these poor ranchers around or if the ranchers were just being obstreperous or what the deal is but the bottom line is the the military still uses this area to practice blowing stuff up and there's supposed to be a lot of really cool military ruins in this area like okay look at this huge friggin abandoned tank have you guys ever seen an abandoned tank out close cuz I sure haven't I don't even think I've been up close to a tank in person but look at the size of this thing look I mean these things come up to my shoulder I'm five three number fourteen good ol number fourteen holy cow thing is incredible just sitting out here rusting away in the desert waiting for someone to take it home and show it some love just kidding I think that would be considered looting if you took this thing home a and B I don't think it would fit in your garage it's not like you could keep this in there okay you guys let's try to climb up and get inside the little compartment where the guy sat when he was blasting people I bet we can you can climb up here pretty easy huh lots of footholds I'll just put my foot right here and grab a hold up here Wow far friggin out look at this thing yeah I know what all these handles are for that's just for hanging on to you well I wish I could get inside some of these all these hatches are like bolted clothes you can't get in any of these things but let's climb up here and see if we can get into the a little compartment where the guys sat when he was blowing people up now and I'm probably gonna get a lot of comments on this video calling me an idiot because I don't know what any of this stuff is but hey what can I say I'm a lover not a fighter I mean my dad was in the Army I grew up in that culture for a little bit and he actually did write around on a tank probably similar to this look at this old radar Disher I don't even know what that was there's the RPG launcher or whatever that was looks like there might have used to be two of them but one of them is missing and then this thing is a maybe that's like a pillar where a second one of those radar dishes was mounted because it looks like the same base look here's the little hatch where you went down to sit in the there's the seat look so the guy said let's go down in there what do you say okay we're gonna go down into this tank yikes it's real sketchy down here I got to be careful sorry if this video is kind of weird but I don't want to die all right far out man I'm sitting in the chair where the guy would have sat when he was operating this thing and I'm just gonna give you like a a panorama of what I am seeing okay first of all there's another seat next to me I'm sitting here in this seat and then there's a second so I guess there was like two drivers Gunners I'm not sure you would call and then there's just control panels and stuff all the way around us we're kind of like in a little I guess rectangular cubby there's some information that might be useful to you guys done air defense Artillery self-propelled I see huh turret I see [Music] interesting so that's what's right behind me and then there's all these I don't even know what else like what was this handles on it but it doesn't move or open or anything so I'm not sure what was in there and why it has those weird lines on it and then there's more like moving arms and hoses I don't know what this was connected to it's no interesting and then directly in front of me this looks to me like look warning do not reach in to feed system know what it was feeding but Wow so you definitely don't want to put your hands or feet in there and then oh look here's some kind of a scope I guess like this is what you looked through I suppose to see where you're going me oh it says TV trainer sorry about the leg so I guess you look through this me see if I can actually see anything do you know like the camera doesn't see anything let me see what I see no I don't see anything either nah maybe it's blocked with debris or something well and then this guy that was sitting in this chair next to me he has some kind of a site here that he can look through and then he's got a guidance control system then he's got this next to him look made by Westinghouse interesting and it looks like he's got some electrical controls over there high voltage stuff this is pretty cool holy crike and then look at this he's got like a little a mirror so I could check his makeup make sure his mascara wasn't smudged nice they thought of everything in this tank radar processor Wow mother could have hand all of it man none of that stuff moves I don't fit just like too heavy for me I'm too weak or if it's rusted or bolted or what the deal is okay now let's look down below us so this is below my seat it keeps going down down down I'm not sure what was down there I suppose I could climb down and check it out I guess I can likes it looks kind of scary thankfully it's a really cold it's winter so there won't be any rattlesnakes hiding in here I hope okay now I'm down in this creepy shaft down here pretty solid so we're gonna go all the way down in here but as we're going down I'll show you a few other things I noticed there's some kind of a control for a summer and winter and it's set on winter which it's definitely winter weird huh no this side go as we go down there's one on this idea summer winter it's some kind of a hose I'm not sure oh okay nope keep going down down down oh wow look there's another steep barrier I mean it's all busted but I guess movie there was another guy who sat down here because look that looks like it used to have some kind of a gun on it and there's some kind of like a gas or a brake pedal there and then those look like tanks for some look and then those controls for the clutch and the turret override holy Craig then look at this though it's kind of creepy there's always sticks and twigs like little living things have been making their nests in here creepy and they look on this side there's more control there's like a shifter oh look nine hundred psi park brake pressure limit yikes more this tanks like it was a smoke generator that was turned on wow this is kind of claustrophobic down here I wouldn't want to be the dude when to sit down here underground crazy I wonder what this thing was look I'm gonna weird button Wow there's a serial number and then it was overhauled back in 84 September of 84 oh wow warning close driver's hatch during during lazing and gun firing oh I guess lasers huh okay so this is the dryer I guess I make sense a pietà gas pedal and a shifter so this was the dude who was driving it down here wow this little cubby got padding like styrofoam padding on it we wonder what was in there hmm close it back up I know that looks like it was just a little pedal to step on maybe to get it up and down from out of here yeah just some more like old Krusty controls down here but Wow hug think okay so the guy down here was driving and then these two guys up here this is where I was sitting at first I was on that seat and then there's a team these were the guys with the guns I guess like two man lifts huh I know nothing about tanks I've never been in a tank before but boy howdy so interesting okay wow that was really cool being down in the cockpit of this tank I'm really need experience but there's so much other cool stuff here that we got to go check out let's go look here's like the old stone ruin of a I don't know what this was look like it was an old storage building or something crazy I mean somebody had a little green storage building here but now look at it another tank let's go check it out okay this tank is all camo'd out look at this Wow same kind of a well it looks a little bit different up top baby I don't know no I guess that was the same radar dish thingy and then that's where the two cannons would be oh wow look somebody's shoes yikes they don't look that old someone's been here fairly recently okay we're just going around the exterior of this tank this one's like listing badly I wonder what happened climb up and see if we can see anything cool up top wow look somebody painted a red star on it up here it's like a old red army tank I don't think so not much just be graffiti okay look I climbed up on top of it and we can see down inside I think it is kind of just like that first one that we went in okay I'm down inside the tank same as in that first one I'm sitting here there's a seat next to me but look how shiny the knob is on this thing hearing was like brand-new I guess cuz it's inside here you can trust oh wow it's like a crank I guess what if I ejected myself right I don't know what that was and then look here I don't know it's really hard to see it at such close quarters but there's this little maybe that's just like no place to write notes or something I don't know golly yeah it looks pretty much the same as that last or that first one that we were in and then let's go down one more level to see the driver's seat okay this is actually kind of cool in this one because you can see the driver's seat and the pedals and the controls and the steering wheel is still in it and it's open to the sky so I could actually get in there let me crawl over there and check it out up close okay this is really close quarters but I kind of scrum pulled myself up into the driver's seat here I didn't want to sit on the driver's seat because it's a real dirty but I'm in the I guess the cab or whatever you would call it of the tank and this is what you'd be looking at there's your gauges and then there's your other controls there then straight ahead of you there's the steering wheel I'm not sure what these things are for and you got some other little switches and controls over here fresh air event boy you would need it winter in summer interesting is your shifter oh well look at this it's all kind of stuff on this sorry it's really a tight squeeze in here if you've ever been in the service and driven intake you know what I'm talking about it you would definitely not want to be claustrophobic and drive this thing like here's some more some more information that might be useful to us does that mean anything to you guys so interesting this stuff is just out here by the way this is public land and anyone can come out here and explore this stuff but it's really really far out in the middle of nowhere no I don't think most people would could be bothered well look there's kind of a throttle or something there Wow this is a trip okay now because this thing is open to the air I guess sorry about the light there was like a rubber gasket or something there so I guess this was a hatch back in the day so the driver had Joey good all right pop up and peek out which you know he could be looking out at Germany back in the 40s France or Afghanistan Iraq God imagine the different views that people saw poking their head out of this tank I mean again I don't know anything about the age of this tanker wouldn't wear and when it was used but interesting to think okay just to give you some perspective that's where I just crawled out of this is the front of the tank and that hatch there protected by all of this steel I guess it's steel well look at these three crazy vehicles okay that one on the left looks like some kind of a troop transport vehicle and then that one on the right is some kind of a truck obviously but then this one in the middle is like a flatbed tank okay so first let's check out this I think it's not a troop transport vehicle again I know nothing about military vehicles so you guys are probably all laughing at me and I'm going to hear about it in the comments but like I said I did grow up sort of on an army base so it's not like I'm a complete idiot about this stuff but uh-huh Wow look at this thing can you imagine the troops it carried by the tires aren't even really in that bad of shape considering look in the cab well it's not bad upholstery is still pretty solid driver seats missing though oh look at the steering wheel shifter knob look at this creepy old glovebox close that up look at that yeah well the hoods I wonder if I should flip the hood Downers I would piss people off [Music] there we go now we can see out the front window look at the front window it's all broken wow this is cool man I was willing to sit that cab on one of these taken my troops down to hamburger hill so they can all get killed it's terrible okay I better close it back up I like to leave things the way I found them although I did put that hood down that's not the way I found it okay here's the let's go around the backside Wow look at this here's where all the poor troops would have sat on their way to whatever miserable place that were being sent can you imagine look camo netting camo netting is not cheap either but that's all shredded up so hey it wouldn't be ethical to take it and be it's kind of too destroyed really to be of any use alright that was pretty cool okay now here's this other truck let's check this one out this looks like it was just meant to carry supplies I guess looks like kind of like a typical big rig to me okay now let's go see you inside cab oh he returned required okay it's probably really loud in here well look at all these all the directions are all just printed on the little labels it's interesting gear shift in directions well and then look at the glass it's all shot out now I don't know again I think I said this earlier I'm not sure if that was shot out because this was meant to be a practice target for the pilots that are flying a red or if people just came out here and shot this stuff over the fun of it but okay now we're gonna check out this flatbed tank I think I have never seen anything like this and what's funny is from the front it almost looks like it has a face I needs those car eyelashes oh my friend thinks this is an amphibious vehicle that's a good idea because yeah look at the front it almost does look like a boat maybe this was meant to go in the water huh like we can go over in the back I like a trustee that treads are is that what you call those things treads I'm not even sure Wow look okay so here's the back of it climb right up in it Oh see ya these do kind of look like a little watertight portholes four of them on here I don't know I mean these are like benches along the side I guess to carry troops onto the beaches of Normandy or something like that okay so climb it up into the cab alright now we're up in the cab we can see a little bit closer maybe what's going on oh I'll look even the old seat belts are still here kind of cool hearing protection required in this one too I don't know it's just kind of all looks like basic engine stuff so I'm not sure there are any clues as to what the heck this was for you guys will let me know in the comments though I have a feeling oh wait look okay here carrier can sync personnel can be drowned do not forward water deeper than 40 inches so you basically it couldn't go into water deeper than three and a half feet so I guess it wasn't really truly amphibious okay so it's really just kind of a tank that could go through a bit oh look Red River Army Depot our best nothing list has gone into the rebuild of this vehicle so they rebuilt it at the Red River Army Depot is that in Texas hmm and then it ended up way out here interesting okay here's some even more abandoned vehicles just sitting out here so it looks like there's another one of those amphibious type things and a truck but then look at this this is a looks like an old Jeep that's kind of cool I mean it's totally thrashed but might be kind of neat to check out you can see the engine just sitting out there baking away in the Sun I mean this is the desert so I don't think even though there's snow on the mountains back there I don't think it comes due to this elevation much I mean that being said it is in the 30s today so maybe it does snow here and that would account for some of the rust but aside from that it's generally a pretty favorable conditions for stuff to just decay and sort of slowly and gently that we can enjoy them look at this Jeep wow I mean back in the day I'm sure it was it Butte but not anymore well I guess you could argue that it has a strange sort of beauty now there I go again talking my liberal elitist art school talk I'll stop that right now so that you can enjoy this the real American patriotic way this won't open stuck on the brain that's weird design flaw look this was the hood you can see the controls wow look at that gear shift boot installed crusty I guess I'll leave the hood over people left it that way because they like to see this what you call them spark plugs is that what those are is that a straight eight I don't know anything about engines I'm just guessing somebody will probably tell me in the comments okay here's this truck now this truck is a lot more busted up than the other one we looked at yeah yeah it's really cool I'm out here exploring with two girls two other women finally found some other women that like to do this stuff with me they both are into still photography of abandoned places so it works out great I shoot my videos they shoot their stills we all try to stay out of each other's way so far it's worked out great see you here Wow look how cool it's broken glass cuz its blowhole yikes oh here we are maximum speed 50 hold couldn't go too fast in this look at these controls anybody watching ever drive one of these and the service bring back memories on can you imagine if you drove this back in the Vietnam War you're listening to well I guess there probably wasn't a radio so you couldn't be listening to any music wow look at the controls to open the front windows it's funny why would you want to open the front window wouldn't that just get dust in your face that's weird I don't know you see if this door opens maybe we can actually go in shut bummer okay there's one more vehicle here to check out and it looks to be another one of those well what we thought was amphibious such a funny design I loved it but I'll say this these things are solid when I was climbing around on those tanks and grabbing onto the handles you really get a good grip you don't have to worry oh I'll look at the winch on the front of this thing cables still intact there's the winch directions just yet kind of had to spell it out alright so looks like we could probably climb up into the cab on this line because the doors open oh dang something built a nest in the cab actually I think bald eagles might nest out here wouldn't that be sick if a bald eagle was nesting in this old military vehicle oh hey look at the roof in the cab like it was some kind of a turret or something interesting it had a gun mounted in it Wow go around to the driver to the passenger side and see if we can get in that side man this is like Disneyland for if you're into abandoned military vehicles out here Oh carrier cargo full tracked so it was a full track cargo carrier I'm still curious about this porthole on top let me back up from a distance and look at it yeah it does look like there was some kind of maybe gun mounted on it wow that is intense okay wow this place was amazing I mean you can see my friend and my car's back there we could probably drive around for another three months and still not see all the amazing abandoned military vehicles out here but yeah leave this creepy place now but wow what a trip this place was

Channel: Wonderhussy Adventures

Views: 235,354

Rating: 4.729331 out of 5

Keywords: abandoned, abandoned tanks, abandoned military, nevada abandoned, nevada military base, secret base nevada, secret military nevada, urbex, urban exploration, abandoned tank, abandoned army vehicle, dixie valley nevada, wonder hussy, wonderhussy, nevada urbex, nevada urban exploration, fallon tanks, fallon urbex, northern nevada, weird nevada, odd nevada, abandoned military base, abandoned military installation, roadside nevada, nevada travel, nevada desert weird

Id: 269MUbU1zm0

Length: 29min 58sec (1798 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2018