![]() ![]() Reservations can be made on-line or by phone at 86. To fully experience the park, you should visit all three sites.īeginning in October 2016, all tours of the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility require advanced reservations and an amenity fee. The two historic sites which make up the park are four miles (Launch Control Facility Delta-01) and 15 miles (Launch Facility Delta-09) from the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is located immediately north of I-90, exit 131. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is located at three sites along a fifteen mile stretch of Interstate 90 in western South Dakota. We didn’t take the chance and visited on Saturday. NPS says they are closed Monday and Tuesday, Google Maps says they are closed Sunday and Monday. We like using Google Maps because they seem to update their information more often than a lot of websites, and it gives us confirmation on the times and days these places are open. One word of warning, we saw conflicting hours of operation on the NPS website vs. Imagine getting the inside scoop about cold war history from someone who was directly involved! We were able to ask lots of questions and the Ranger was both knowledgeable and insightful. He explained a lot of fascinating information about the silo, how it worked in its day, and about today’s capabilities by comparison. We heard a presentation from a Ranger who was an actual Minuteman. ![]() Visiting the Delta 9 Silo was even more incredible and was the highlight of our visit. We learned about the behind the scenes information about the people, procedures and technology behind this extraordinary effort to protect our country. But now, looking back we realize how serious the situation really was. The Visitor’s Center’s historical film and displays brought back the memories of those times. We visited the Visitor’s Center and the Delta 9 Silo site, both free, no tickets required. One thing that we found really interesting was the fact that during the cold war (through 1968), B-52 bombers armed with thermo-nuclear bombs were kept in the air 7x24x365, ready to attack.Īlthough the cold war is no longer and technology has changed over the years, it is comforting to know that our military remain on constant alert, ready to protect us.My husband and I lived through those scary times, so we do appreciate how serious the threat was. There you will learn about the Minuteman missile defense system as well as other aspects of the cold war. Be sure to stop there first to see the maps and the movie. The ranger really made this come to life – talking about life in the control center and the drills they had, simulating the real thing! It is pretty cool to learn how these guys worked three days at a time, housed far underground, with their fingers on the launch codes. Be sure to call ahead – they only allow 6 people at a time with the ranger. There are self-guided cell phone tours, but to go into the command center you have to have a reservation on a ranger-guided tour. You can also visit the launch command center, from outside the chain fence. You can’t go in it, but there are viewing windows and a ranger on hand to answer questions. The silo is a small speck on the wide-open landscape of the flatland. About Minuteman Missile National Historic Siteįounded in 1999, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site preserves a missile silo and a launch control facility. Most have been decommissioned, but something we did not realize is that there are still 500 nuclear missile silos in the upper great plains. Over 1000 silos and 100 launch control facilities were built between the mid-1960’s and 1990’s. That meant that the silos could be geographically dispersed North & South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri. They chose the Minuteman missile because they could be mass produced and because they could be launched from miles away. About Minuteman Missilesīeginning in the mid-1960’s, the US government built missile silos throughout the mid-west – far from urban centers and away from the coastlines (and any danger of submarine attack). That’s what you will hear more about at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota. It almost makes one wish for the simplicity of the cold war where the super powers were at a relative detente, with each on constant alert, ready to “press the button” if needed. Marched towards each other shooting only finding out who won the battle once the smoke cleared and you could see the last man standing and count the dead bodies on the battlefield.įast forward to today with IEDs, drone strikes and long range missiles. Men formed battle lines, facing one another. ![]() It makes us think about how wars used to be fought… think of the American Revolution and the Civil War. When you look at the news today, it seems there are wars and conflicts all over the world. ![]()
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