NPS Website; Local Website
WHAT IS IT?A nuclear missile control center and silo that was deactivated in 1993 as a result of the START nuclear disarmament treaty.
BEAUTY (2/10)
No beauty at all. The Site’s appearance is everything one would expect from the eerie and complete madness of nuclear warfare. The control center is completely visible from Interstate 90. You may have passed buildings with the same purpose anywhere in the Midwest. From the outside, it looks like a ranch house, except for the barbed wire, the numerous antennae, the two-ton modified truck (the Peacemaker) and the elaborate entry gate.
The insides are EXACTLY as they were the day the control center was decommissioned. Except for maybe a lot of dusting. The same books, magazines, notes on the refrigerator, couch and its stains, bumper pool table, bunk beds, etc… Everything in the building is an original.
The most striking and simultaneously disturbing part of Site are the pictures and photographs on display. They are without fail second-rate art, the kind you get in frames and then throw out. Pictures of waterfalls, sailboats, wheat fields and mountain vistas. The living room is adorned with a 30 ft. long by 10 ft. high wall hanging depicting an autumn nature scene replete with meandering deer. Every picture is meant to portray a feeling of calmness, tranquility and peace in a place where nuclear Armageddon could initiate.
As for the silo and its cocked-for-action unarmed nuclear missile, it is like looking at Hell.
HISTORICAL INTEREST (10/10)
It is hard to overestimate the significance of this site and the remaining 35 active sites like it in the United States. If the world were to end, the end could have started here. Everyone working at the site understood his or her role. Orders were to shoot to kill anyone attempting to enter the underground control room alone. Those in the control room never knew where the minute men missiles were targeted. And they never knew which missiles contained live warheads and which contained blanks. Much like soldiers of a firing squad. The Cold War at its coldest.
Our Ranger told us of a time when everyone on duty was called to attention and told that the President of the United States was on the phone.
“Hi guys. This is President Jimmy Carter. I’m here visiting the base and I wanted to see how this phone worked so they let me use it. How’re ya doing?”
Can you imagine the cold sweat and immediate relief felt by each person in that room? Can you imagine working three day shifts, each day waiting for that call?
CROWDS (9/10)
Everybody who visits Minuteman Missile has made desperate attempts to see the Site. We traveled a few hundred miles out of our way. The effect is that the tourists in our group were incredibly excited and very knowledgeable. Our group included an Air Force retiree and his wife, a National Parks enthusiast and an engineer. Questions flew from all involved. We all visibly realized that we were witnessing something very new, a private tour without cordons and other barriers. We were very lucky.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (1/5)Plan ahead. Plan way ahead. Minuteman Missile NHS is not officially open to the public. Tours are available by reservation, but you probably won’t be able to get a spot for the remainder of 2004. Two tours are given daily, at 9:00am and at 1:00pm. Six people are allowed per tour. The Site had planned to give tours this year only through August, but demand has been so high that they have extended the tours until late October.
Cancellations are rare. While in the area, we awaited a cancellation for a few days in late June. We were unsuccessful but determined. We booked a spot in late August and found our way back.
The Site’s headquarters is located just south of Interstate 90, Exit 131. Be careful, you might miss it. Headquarters is in a poorly marked trailer just next to the BP gas station. Back in June, we tried to use the Badlands NP newspaper to find the Minuteman Missile NHS Headquarters. The only info the newsletter said was that it was off Exit 131. We drove right past it and ten miles down an unpaved road. Then we used the cell phone for proper instructions. Ooof.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (1/5)
There is no bookstore as of yet. The Site’s 300-page development plan sits at a desk in the trailer’s waiting area. It is a fascinating read and is available in full online.
COSTS (4/5)
The Site, in its present-day incarnation, is free for tours.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Presently, a Park Ranger leads the two-hour, six-visitor tour. You car pool to the both the control center and the missile silo, following the lead of the National Park Service hybrid vehicle. One Ranger, six people. Perfect.
Once the Site opens, we learned, guided Ranger tours will be no longer. This may change but the current plan revolves around self-guided exhibits and a comprehensive Visitor Center. We were fortunate to see the Site before its pared down, less tourist-friendly edition.
TOURS/CLASSES (9/10)
Our guide deluged us with information along a number of historical themes. He immediately (and convincingly) drove home the concept of Front Yards to Front Lines. Why on earth would the people of the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska voluntarily put their wives, children and loved ones on the front lines of a horrifying nuclear war? It was their patriotic duty. We do not know if we would be able to make that same sacrifice.
We also learned about the day-to-day lives of the soldiers on the base as well as the broader context of the Cold War itself. No attempts were made to sugar coat the insanity of nuclear war and the missile’s disgusting power to kill. The Ranger tried to separate Cold War reality from the Hollywood films that have come to define our understanding. Strangely, our imagination was not much different from what we saw. Of course, the Cold War soldiers’ life was extreme monotony disrupted by moments of extraordinary stress and panic. They were normal human beings asked to preside over sickening things.
Through the tour, we found astonishing day-to-day heroism in the Air Force soldiers as well as the citizens who OK’d these destructive forces in their background. We found no heroism in the people who imagined these weapons, those who upped their construction rates and potency and all who continue to make this terror a part of our lives.
FUN (9/10)We felt like we were part of an elite group. A small but dedicated lot who have been trying like mad to get to see this site. The evening before, we discussed our anticipation for the site. After waiting months and traveling hundreds of miles, was there any way it could live up to our overblown expectations? We reminded ourselves to keep an open mind and just enjoy the tour.
These caveats were completely unnecessary. Everything about this place was right – the crowd, the research, the presentation. Everything.
Things will be very different when the Minute Man Missile NHS moves towards self-guided rather than Ranger led tours of the areas. Hearing a person talk about the horrors of nuclear warfare is very different than glancing at interpretive panels. This doesn’t translate into “fun.” But it does translate into a very meaningful, information-packed day. We are very glad that we made the trip back to South Dakota.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (10/10)
Yes. Call them right now and reserve your spot. This is history in the making. Not only will you get a sneak preview of a site that is still being developed, you will witness a historical site whose history is not yet in the past tense.
TOTAL 60/80
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