Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

While driving north on state road 240, on our approach to Interstate 90, after our visit to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, we passed this building and did an about turn to visit it. I knew that Minuteman Missiles had been positioned throughout the prairies and plains of the western states during the Cold War, but I never dreamed I'd see one so close to a major highway!

We entered the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site visitor's center which was located off Interstate 90, exit 131, beside the Conoco station. The visitor center is the starting point for all tours to the site of the missile which is a short distance away. The visitor center also includes exhibits and a park orientation video which places the Minuteman in historic context. All my photos of the informational placards were taken there.

It was a short drive from the visitors center to the actual missile site, which is seen in the photo above. A dirt road off I 90 leads to the site, and it is fairly well camouflaged by the vast empty rolling plains. From the road you might see a chain link fence and a few antennas in the corner of your eye, and think that it might be a transmitter, or some sort of a well. I would never think it was a weapon of mass destruction capable of destroying civilization! This missile site was decommissioned after 1991, so it no longer holds a Minuteman Missile II, but only a model. The site became a historic site, open to the public, as part of an effort to educate and inform.

All photos can be clicked on to enlarge for easier viewing

If you enlarge this informational placard, located at the visitor's center, you can see a map of the location of this missile near Interstate 90 along the route to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. More than a dozen nuclear missiles were located along this route!

Minuteman Missile sites were established in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Missouri during the Cold War era of the 1960's, often placed in private ranches and farms.

This chilling placard shows how a Minuteman Missile II would be able to reach the Russian Kremlin in 30 minutes with destructive power equal to 60 percent of all the bombs used during World War II. The Great Plains of the USA were considered far from the oceans and submarines that could have destroyed a missile if it was launched, and they were also less populated so that launching them would cause less collateral damage. Of course I am relieved that none has ever had to be used, and I hope none will ever be used! I remember growing up under the fear of nuclear war during the Cold War years. and the many times our country was on the edge.

A close up of the silo. A glass viewing window now replaces the former 90 ton enclosure door that would be blown off into the field if the missile was deployed. The missile stood in a submerged reinforced concrete launcher inside. The missile was ready to be launched remotely 24 hours a day by "missileers" who would be several miles away.

The following italicized quotes are from the Minuteman Missile web site:

"Although the phrase "finger on the button" has become common, there was no button used to launch an ICBM ( Intercontinental Ballistic and Cruise Missiles) Launch required proper authentication codes and two keys, turned simultaneously by two officers in the underground Launch Control Center (LCC). At the same time, two officers in another LCC had to also turn keys to successfully launch a missile."

Local citizens in western South Dakota grew up in the shadows of the missile field, and many organized to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons.

A model of the missile within the silo at the historic site. It is frightening to think there are many like this that are still hidden away in other states.

"Each Minuteman II carried a 1.2 megaton warhead. This singular weapon could wreak devastation upon a target, also making it a technological terror. A Minuteman II warhead had 120 times the explosive capacity of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II."

You can watch two interesting short films about the Minuteman Missile on the National Park Service web site at this link.

Nuclear arms reduction began in 1991 with the signing of START - The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

"Under the terms of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed by American President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, the United States and Soviet Union began to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear arms.
The treaty did not eradicate, but did limit the number of nuclear warheads each nation was allowed to deploy. Minuteman II missiles in South Dakota had been given minimal upgrades over the past two decades and were costly to maintain. Thus they were among those selected for deactivation."

Although there are no longer any active Minuteman silos in South Dakota, 500 updated Minuteman III nuclear missiles are still deployed in the upper Great Plains. They are a reminder that, although the Cold War era has ended, our nation's defense systems must remain on alert against the security threats of today.