![]() ![]() Pretty impressive considering the space program was still pre-Apollo. Flying at more than 15,000 mile per hour, the missile could deliver a nuclear warhead to a range in excess of 6,000 miles. The missile’s diameter is 6′ at the widest, standing some 53′ 8″. Known as the LGM-30A, the missile’s first test flight was in February of 1961. The Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile was designed by the Boeing Corporation in the late 1950s. The missile silos you can visit today are located in the green field labeled D-1. The silos are spread out around Ellsworth AFB, however most of these were deactivated during START and other nonproliferation and arms reduction treaties. Area of missile farms controlled by the 44th Missile Wing, encompassing the 66th, 67th, and 68th Missile Squadrons. Like the tour, let’s begin at the Minuteman Missile Museum. I’ll be mixing displays and photos from the two to narrate the story of the Midwest Minuteman I missiles. The Minuteman Missile Museum site did not have as many displays as I would have liked, but fortunately the SD Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB provided the missing pieces. Tours to the silos start here, but there’s only two tours per day, with 6-10 people maximum per tour. Minuteman Missile National Historic Monument Museum and admin building near Wall, SD. In 1980s nuclear apocalypse movies, inverted colors like this were commonly used as effects to denote the detonation or radiological aftereffects of nuclear weapons. ![]() Hyper-color retouch to highlight the clouds and lighting. I’ll try to make this post educational as well as showing off some cool Cold War history. ![]() In May 2015, the attraction was Ellsworth Air Force Base for the SD Air and Space Museum and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Monument. Now that geopolitics have changed and many nuclear weapons and sites are obsolete, it’s thrilling to survey these once off-limits spaces.Īt any rate, when traveling I try to take in roadside attractions related to the nuclear age. These weapons and installations were long kept hidden, away from the average person’s eyes. There is also a feeling of seeing under the veil of military high-security and secrecy that dominated the Cold War. As such I enjoy the technical and legal aspects of nuclear weapons as much as the visceral emotions they engage. My academic education contained a strong focus on international treaties related to nuclear nonproliferation, an outgrowth of my youth Cold War paranoia. Terrible weapons of unspeakable power, nukes should be the ultimate taboo yet because sanity prevailed and the great bulk of the world’s nuclear arsenal has remained unused, these weapons are ‘safe’ to fawn over like a rabid fanboy. By the late 1980s nukes had become so commonplace, along with the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, that people resigned themselves to living quietly in the shadow of these great weapons of war in a state of lingering, simmering fear and malaise rather than panic. Perhaps growing up during the waning years of the Cold War when hysteria far outpaced fact after 50 years of threatened nuclear annihilation sparked my fascination. Nuclear weapons are fascinating objects that dominate my interest. Gail Carter on Ghost Town: Hammond, Mont…
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