The U.S. government is considering the sale of Plum Island, famous as a site for biological weapons testing and all manner of disease study. It’s home to a defunct government lab, a light house and a beach, but you could easily picture zombies and super soldiers strolling the grounds.

The sale of Plum Island, located near Long Island, New York, is being spurred by the government deciding to move its operation to Kansas. The new lab will cost something to the tune of 650 million. The old one? Why, Plum Island could sell for as little as $50 to $80 million, U.S. Rep. Timothy Bishop told the AP. For something like a top secret research site — still bristling with security checkpoints, cameras, radar, locks, fences and the like — that sounds kind of cheap.

Plum Island itself has inspired more than a few mysteries of its own, including a book of the same name written by Nelson DeMille in 1997. It’s kind of like New York’s Area 51, though more is known about the research that goes on there to protect American agriculture.

The other option on the table, beyond selling the island off, is turning it into a nature conservatory, something which DeMille himself advocates: “The most obvious thing to do would be to make it into a federal park and nature preserve. You could turn the lab into a visitors center.”

Via Boing Boing