Climate Change and Parks
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“A game. . . The only winning move is not to play” – War Games, 1983.
When I was 11 years old, my fifth-grade instructor put on an instructional video for elegance on how to prepare and then live in a bomb shelter under her house. She didn’t give any specific explanation why this movie appeared, nor did we. Then we have a verbal exchange about the history of the Cold War. The instructor has just shown this black-and-white film narrated through a quiet guy who explains to the viewer things like climbing on the most sensitive part for short periods of time to retrieve cans that are not yet stored in the shelter and cleaning those cans to dispose of radioactive waste before opening them for consumption.
If you were born between the 1950s and 1990s, you and your parents lived through a time of intense tensions and rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union that began after World War II. Both countries possessed the nuclear capability to annihilate each other entirely. Because of the “trash rhetoric,” neither side intended to take on the threat of launching an attack because of the equally destructive counterattack that would result. This strategy, known as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), had a deterrent effect on an all-out war. nuclear war.
Fast forward to the day of the offer. As you make your way down Interstate 90 east or west toward the network of Wall, South Dakota, you may notice a sleek brick-and-glass construction situated just off the road, all alone, surrounded by vast prairies. The Minuteman National Missile Historic Site Visitor Center is one of three other spaces that make up this national historic site that commemorates a “perilous time in global history,” according to the National Park Service.
Minuteman/NPS Missile National Historic Site Map
It’s understandable that you might think it may simply be a stop on the way to or from one of the other South Dakota sets in the national park system. Why bother? After my own visit, I can tell you that it’s worth stopping to be informed about a vital part of American and global history, to be informed about the body of workers who worked around nuclear weapons, and to revel in the fatal and devastating force of a single nuclear explosion.
Map of (red) and in (black) Minuteman Missile Fields, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site/NPS file
A here will make you think.
Visitor Center Lounge, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile National Historic Site
Enter the spacious lobby and head to the theater to explore the history of Minuteman missiles and the reasons for attacking “a vast arsenal of nuclear missiles” beneath the prairies and farmlands of the Great Plains of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Learn about those vast missile fields “hidden in plain sight,” with their nuclear payloads, the “missiles” that occupied the launch facilities, and how the American civilian population prepared for a conceivable nuclear attack through the practice of “ducking. “and covering” training in schools, and construction of bomb shelters for homes. This era fueled the expansion of science fiction and Cold War movies, and even comic books that “stoked or alleviated fears. “
After watching the park’s movie, tour the small museum filled with memorabilia, posters, short videos, and anecdotes from the Cold War.
When the Home Front Becomes Frontline, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile Historic Site
Roads, Bomb Shelters and Family Basements, Minuteman Missile/Rebecca Latson National Historic Site
Life Magazine Cover, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site/Rebecca Latson
Page through a workbook showing the projected extent of destruction resulting from the explosion of a nuclear bomb in major cities across the United States.
Projected destruction from a one-megaton aerial explosion in San Antonio, Texas, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile Historic Site
Projected destruction range of a megaton aerial explosion at Seattle National Historic Site, Washington, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson missile
Megaton Bomb Destruction Range Explained, Minuteman National Missile Historic Site/Rebecca Latson
Before you leave the museum, upload your own mind and that of others.
Visitor Comments, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile National Historic Site
Back in your vehicle, continue your exploration of this National Historic Site and drive about six miles west of the Visitor Center toward Exit 116 toward the Delta-09 Missile Silo, where you can see out a window of a missile in position (without a nuclear weapon). . warhead, of course).
After parking and before crossing this fence of twine mesh and barbed rope to reach the silo area, stop for a moment to practice this solitary-looking landscape. The only noises are heard (apart from the occasional vehicle passing by on the nearby interstate). They are the constant wind and the chirping of crickets.
Delta-09 Missile Silo, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile Historic Site
Near the glass-enclosed missile is a sign with a number to request an audible excursion to the missile silo.
Delta-09 Missile Silo Site Tour Audio Panel, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile National Historic Site
On Your Marks, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile Historic Site
Return to your car and drive east toward the guest entrance. Turn off at Exit 127 for a tour of the Delta-01 launch control facility. The tour is limited to 6 more people at a time and reservations are “harder to come by than “A ticket to Broadway,” according to our ranger guide. On this tour, explore the release facility on the surface, then take an elevator 31 feet underground, past an open eight-ton steel blast door to enter the release control room, a narrow pod provided with toilet and sink, a single bunk bed, and piles of 1960s computer gadgets, as well as some keys that allowed missile launchers to have the ability to launch an attack or counterattack with thermonuclear missiles.
Delta-01 Launch Facility, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile Historic Site
The eight-ton blast door at the Delta-01 Launch Facility, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile National Historic Site
Interior ground-level view of the Delta-01 launch site, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Historic Site
Underground Launch Facility Control Room, Minuteman/Rebecca Latson National Missile National Historic Site
If you have a reservation for the Delta-01 tour, my recommendation is to make a stop at the other two spaces before your layover at to get a full feel for the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. These places remind us of a time when two nations were on the verge of destroying each other by turning two keys.
If you don’t plan on visiting this National Historic Site anytime soon, you can still watch the Visitor Center video here.
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