Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, SD.

The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site consists of three units along a 15 mile stretch of route I-90 that I was taking home to Illinois, near Wall, SD. By the time I arrived at the site in late September, tours had been terminated for the year and I could not take the elevator down into the silo. There was no one stopping me and others from opening gates into the fenced in Minuteman sites on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, so………………………..

From MAD to START:
By the 1950’s the United States and the Soviet Union had enough nuclear power to obliviate the other side! This was known as the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD): both sides knowing that any attack upon the other would result in devastating to them also.

The US had over 1,000 Minuteman sites. I never realized that there had been so many silos hidden among ranches, prairie grasslands and forests I drove by when driving through Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Missouri, in 1986.

In the 1980’s both countries wanted world peace without the looming threat of nuclear war. Arms reduction began in 1991 with the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

The treaty retired these Minuteman II missiles which led to the establishment of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The treaty removed 80% of all these strategic nuclear weapons.

Control sites were destroyed, silos were blown up and fenced in. Many South Dakota ranchers now use these fenced in areas to store hay and farm equipment.

"Minuteman-land is eerie. On the surface, no weapon is visible. But beneath the empty prairies and forested hills gyroscopes are eternally spinning …. each ready to steer holocaustal destruction to a pre-selected target." --- John Hubbell, 1962

Click to view the 2021 National Parks Uncle Jack visited.

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