Here`s an idea that popped into my head while daydreaming at the desk. Many of the obsolete missile silos are available through private sellers (expensive) and are sometomes auctioned off by the U.S. Government. Naturally, those tall, empty silos could make very nice, undergraound "tubes" for those really big telescope projects, if the local seeing was good enough. These sites also have large, underground facilities where grinding of large-aperture optics could take place in a controlled environment. Testing could be done in the silo. Maybe some Colorado club could locate a good site. I`ve seen several sites listed by "20th Century Castles" in upstate New York (didn`t know we had missiles there).