Words like “unique” and “exceptional” are to be expected at National Park sites. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site takes these two words to an entirely new calibre. Yes, there actually is a missile silo national park, and it’s right off Interstate 90.
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A Park Like No Other
Minuteman Missile NHS is the first national park dedicated to telling the story of the Cold War Era. More than that, the park actually features a complete Nuclear alert facility. The park’s three units include an outstanding visitor center, a high-tech missile launch facility, and a complete underground missile silo.
Here’s a quick take on this remarkable “missile silo national park” and the geopolitical events that built it.
Front Line of the Cold War
The Great Plains have long been known as America’s heartland, a place of quiet farms and simple living. However, this same area was the front-line of the Cold War for over thirty years. An arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles stood at constant alert in underground silos located throughout the Great Plains.
The M.A.D. World
“The Cold War” is the name given for a fifty-year struggle between the United States and The Soviet Union. The two countries had radically different views on government and human rights, and tensions began almost immediately after WWII ended.
The US began the Cold War with a nuclear advantage, being the first nation to invent the atomic bomb. It wasn’t long, however, until the USSR successfully created its own atomic weaponry and surpassed the United States in space technology.
What is M. A. D.?
The United States lacked the means of detecting and intercepting an incoming nuclear warhead. Therefore, the US government adopted a strategy known as M.A.D., “Mutually Assured Destruction”.
The United States committed to never initiate a nuclear attack on the USSR, but remained armed and ready to retaliate to any act of nuclear aggression. The hope was that the certainty of nuclear devastation would prevent a nuclear attack from happening in the first place.
The Minuteman Missile Program was the ultimate result of the MAD policy of nuclear deterrence. 1000 Minuteman missiles stood ready in their silos, prepared to launch at a moment’s notice. Each missile carried a nuclear payload equal to eighty atomic bombs.
Delta Wing: The Context for Minuteman Missile NHS
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site gives a window into the American nuclear arsenal and the chilling significance of the Cold War. The Park preserves a segment of the Delta wing, one of six Minuteman Missile bases.
The Delta Wing supervised 3 squadrons totaling 150 nuclear missiles. The Park’s Delta-01 launch control facility controlled ten of those missiles, one of which is preserved in the Park’s Delta-09 Silo.
Today visitors can explore the visitor center, tour the Delta-01 Launch Facility, and visit the Delta-09 Missile Silo to get an inside view of Cold War History.
Where to Go:
Three separate locations comprise Minuteman Missile NHS. All three sites are located in South Dakota along a short stretch of Interstate 90, near Badlands National Park.
Minuteman Missile NHS Interpretive Center
Ok, so there are parks where you can afford to skip the visitor center. This park is not one of those parks. The Cold War is a sophisticated (and scary) subject.
Thankfully, the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center has a power-packed exhibit that guides you through the ins and outs of the Iron Curtain, the arms race, MAD, and disarmament treaties.
The center also provides insights into what it was to work with or live beside nuclear warheads on a regular basis. You get a personal side to this history when you listen to the stories of the Missilleers who tended the warheads, and the farmers who had them in their fields!
Educational resources
The Visitor Center is an ideal way to see a park. Our brief visit not only gave our children the introduction they needed, but also furnished them with Junior Ranger resources that they could use while visiting the park.
We’ve even found that souvenirs have a place in amplifying the educational experience. We couldn’t spend a day at the park this time. We could provide our children with an informational booklet that they could read and explore over the course of the road trip. Our Minuteman Missile NHS mug and bumper sticker provide additional reminders and opportunities to discuss the park and its history.
Delta-01 Launch Control Facility
The big draw at “Missile Silo National Park” isn’t the missile silo, but the advanced Launch Control Facility. The Delta-01 compound was one of fifteen Delta Wing launch control facilities, each of which supervised 10 Minutemen Missiles. A nondescript support building guarded the entrance to a sophisticated, underground communications center.
The state-of-the-art launch facility could detect an incoming ICBM ten minutes before it arrived in the US mainland. Air Force personnel were prepared to launch a counteroffensive of Minuteman Missiles before the Soviet warheads arrived. The computer guided Minuteman missiles could devastate Soviet cities within thirty minutes or less.
The Delta-01 compound consisted of a launch control capsule. The complex, pill-shaped communications center was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. A massive blast door protected the facility both from wartime explosions or the ever-present threat of sabotage.
Delta-01 designers created a host of precautions to prevent an accidental launch. The Minuteman Missiles could not disengage or self-destruct once the launch process began.
These are the kind of intricacies that make the Delta-01 underground tour unlike any other tour in the United States. Little wonder that this place has become such a hot-ticket NPS location.
Delta-09 Launch Site
The Delta-09 Silo is the place to see the Cold War’s iconic weapon. The underground silo is the last of ten that were supervised by the Delta-01 underground launch control center.
A visit to the Delta-09 Missile Silo truly brings home what an achievement it was to build the Minuteman sites. The secret, effective armament of 1,000 nuclear missiles hidden in plain sight is one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century.
We enjoyed entering the gated facilities and exploring all around the surface of the Delta-09 Silo site.
The silo’s 90-ton blast door has been partly opened and covered with a glass roof. You can peer down the long silo and see the missile for yourself.
The Cold War came to a close when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. The United States, Russia, and the International Community took diplomatic steps to substantially reduce Nuclear arms. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and those treaties that followed it brought closure to the Cold War Era policy of MAD.
The US Government decommissioned and destroyed most of the Minuteman sites. Intercontinental ballistic missiles continue to play a strategic role in the defense of the United States. However, they are no longer the primary means of maintaining world peace.
What to Know about Visiting the Missile Silo National Park
Check Your Spelling
Be careful not to confuse Minuteman Missile National Historic Site with Minute Man National Historical Park! The former is a Cold War Era site located in South Dakota, while the later is a Revolutionary War site in Massachusetts. Make sure to set your GPS to the right park!
You Won’t Get Close to the Nuke
The Minuteman Missile ICBM is the superstar of this National Park. So it’s probably surprising to learn that the missile silo national park tour doesn’t include a walk inside the missile silo. You can peer down at the silo and its occupant at the Delta-09 launch site, but that’s it.
Advanced Reservations
Tours of the Delta-01 launch control facility are hard to come by. Access is provided through ranger led tours of six people or less. The nuclear-war facility was not built for group gatherings. Delta-01 is located around 35 feet underground and can only be reached through a small elevator, so tour groups are kept small to ensure visitor safety.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles draw a lot of attention, so these tours are popular. The park does not accept same-day tour reservations, but permits you to reserve a date within three months of your visit.
Limited Accessibility
This underground Cold War-era missile station wasn’t designed to be accessible to all ages and abilities. Unfortunately this means that some people are not able to visit Delta-01. NPS describes the 45 minute tour of the Delta-01 Compound as “moderately strenuous”. Tour participants must have the ability to climb two 15-foot ladders unassisted.
You’ll also need to be relatively comfortable with heights. The basic elevator has an open grate door. That means that you will be aware of the fact that you’re descending 35 feet underground.
Any children on tour must be at least 40’’ tall, be at least six years of age, and be accompanied by an adult.
The Delta-01 Facility does include surface-level buildings but these buildings aren’t yet ready for public display.
Go Audio
Minuteman Missile NHS does provide a tour that doesn’t require a reservation. The park’s cell phone tour provides information on both the Delta-01 Compound and the Delta-09 silo. You can access the audio tour by dialing a phone number provided at the visitor center.
We found the audio tour to be super useful in making the most of our quick stop-in. The children followed the posted signs at Delta-09 and responded to the prompts to learn more about what they were seeing. We could even listen in as we drove in the car.
Limited Parking
Minuteman Missile NHS isn’t a huge park. The parking areas are on the smaller side and could fill up fast in the summer season.
Watch Your Feet
Rattlesnakes live on the South Dakota prairie. We also saw some big, bad cow pies. Poison and poop are reason enough to stay out of grass at Delta-09!
Plan Your Route Carefully
Minuteman Missile NHS is located in the famous Black Hills. The name “The Black Hills” is somewhat misleading. We tend to think of hills as being bunched together, in close proximity.
In reality, “the Black Hills” is a region that covers Southwest South Dakota and Northwest Wyoming. Devil’s Tower National Monument, Mouth Rushmore, Rapid City, Wind Cave National Park, and a number of state parks and national parks are grouped into this name.
Think of The Black Hills as if you’re going to another popular region: “Southern California.” Both regions are popular, both are full of attractions, and both are larger than you think they are.
A drive from Minuteman NHS to Mount Rushmore will be at least an hour and 19 minutes if you’re only going there. It will take another two hours and 16 minutes of ideal family driving to get from Mount Rushmore to Devil’s Tower National Monument.
The Black Hills are full of good stuff- so much good stuff that it can be overwhelming. Get everyone together to look at the options before you arrive, so that you can get the most out of your experience.
Stay Tuned
Minuteman Missile NHS is still a developing park. The park anticipates that more of the Delta-01 facility will become public through continuing renovation work. Additional Cold War Era sites will likely become national historic sites over the coming years.
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© Copyright Brian A. Warren 2022
Looks like a great place to visit… especially with kids 😍 Great work!
Thank you!
This is quite an interesting place and scary at the same time
Absolutely agree… it made for a lot of serious thought.