![]() ![]() This tour begins and ends at the entry gate to the Delta-01 compound. ![]() To protect the historic facilities and provide for visitor safety, each tour is limited to six participants and a park ranger. Other areas topside included a day room, dining area and recreational room that Air Force support personnel used while at the facility.īuilt for nuclear war, the control centre features a small elevator and a tight underground space. ![]() The building also contained a Security Control Center, where all security activities were coordinated and personnel would be processed when coming on site. They would spend the night at the nearest LCF before driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base the following day. In addition, the site had bunk housing for visitors, such as maintenance teams who were required to remain overnight at the nearest Launch Control Facility (LCF) if they exceeded 16 hours in a work shift. They worked three straight days, followed by three off. Those personnel included a Facility Manager (top ranking non-commissioned officer on-site), a cook and six security police. There were always eight people topside, all enlisted Air Force personnel who were stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, 60 miles west. Equipment such as a backup generator for auxiliary power, and environmental control provided backup support in the event of a power outage or an attack. The topside supported the missileers stationed underground in carrying out their mission. The Launch Control Facility compound includes the topside support building and the associated underground Launch Control Center located 31 feet below the plains of western South Dakota. This location provides visitors with the specific places where the people and stories associated with Minuteman Missiles, strategic nuclear deterrence and the Cold War occurred.”Įntrance to the museum at the Minuteman Missile NHS Visitor Center features a replica of the iconic blast door down at Delta-01. “This is an incredible opportunity to learn more about national defence, the protocols, and how serious this was. Generations following are fascinated and likely realize that this is still very real, and history that didn’t occur too long ago in the past.” “But if you’re of the baby-boomer generation, certainly this is a very chilling location to visit as this was the era you grew up in ‘duck-and cover’-drills, constant news and fears were certainly part of everyday life for that generation. “I think (a visitor reaction) somewhat depends on the generation that you come from, though none of the tensions and realness of this topic have ever gone (entirely) away,” Svendsen continues. It is especially eye-opening to listen to these stories directly from the people who worked here and under this pressure every day. It won’t be too much longer and those first-hand stories will no longer be able to be told. “One thing I love about visiting the facility now is many of the workers for the National Park Service are former missileers that worked at this very location. Svendsen says some visitors may find viewing the site unnerving, particularly given today’s West-Russia tensions but adds it does provide remarkable insights into strained times. The Minuteman Missile became an “iconic weapon in the American nuclear arsenal.” Great Plains, with the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site reporting that the missiles were “hidden in plain sight” for 30 years. An unarmed missile is on display inside.”ĭuring the Cold War, an arsenal of nuclear missiles was placed in the U.S. Visitors can look down through a plexiglass observation area. “At Delta-09, about 10 miles from the control facility and museum area, you can visit the site of the underground missile silo. “The sites are deactivated,” Svendsen reports. National Park Service began overseeing the site in 19 saw a visitor center/museum opened to accommodate more people than the tours of the actual control centre underground could. Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and Launch Facility (Missile Silo) Delta-09. National Park Service are now open for visitors. Two sites at the one-time military base that’s now administered by the U.S. The site includes the below-ground Delta-09 missile silo, which once contained a fully operational Minutemen Missile armed with a powerful 1.2-megaton nuclear warhead. Katlyn Svendsen of the South Dakota Department of Tourism notes western South Dakota was from 1963 until the early 1990s home to several nuclear missiles, along with other locations in the Great Plains, and today Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is open to visitors to learn about that tense time in history. South Dakota is inviting visitors to view a particularly powerful reminder of Cold War tensions which has become more poignant in the past year as Russia and the West angrily denounce each other over the Ukraine war. ![]()
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