In 1962 the United States constructed 12 Atlas F missile silos in the mountains of upstate New York to strike Russia in the event of nuclear war, including one in Lewis, New York. The Lewis silo, fifty-two feet wide and 176 feet deep, was a superhardened installation built to withstand a 200-pound-per-square-inch blast; it originally descended seven floors, contained 2,000 square feet of space, and had ground access through a forty-foot tunnel. It remained in active operation until 1965, when most sites were closed and enclosed within a five-acre boundary and an eight-foot chain-linked fence topped with barbed wire. In 1980, two men were caught and arrested for trespassing inside the Lewis silo. Since government closure, some silos, including this one, have been purchased by private owners. Lewis also contributed men to several wars: forty-five men under Deacon Levi Brown served in the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812, most from September 2 to 16, 1814; more than 110 soldiers from Lewis served in the Civil War when the town's population was 1,774; in 1917 there were 28 veterans from Lewis from World War I; in 1941 there were over 120 veterans from Lewis during World War II, when a tower near the old Grange Hall on Route 9 and Osawentha Drive watched for planes; and in 1969 there were 16 veterans from Lewis from the Vietnam War. The Lewis silo is now owned by Australian architect and designer Alexander Michael, who has spent more than eleven years restoring it into livable space, one of only a few such sites in the United States and around the world now used as living space, and he occasionally offers tours.