Minuteman Missile NHS

On our first morning in South Dakota, we visited the Minuteman Missile NHS.  During the cold war the Great Plains were home to hundreds of ICBMs.  Soldiers manned command centers ready to fire at a moment's notice.  Many of these command centers have been decommissioned, and one has been made into a National Historic Site to commemorate this time in our history.  We started our visit at the Visitor's Center where we looked at exhibits telling us about the history of ICBMs in this area of the country.  Aunt Connie had sent us National Park passports, and we were sure to stamp those. One of the most interesting things that we learned was that there are still 450 missiles that are still active and ready to go.

After leaving the Visitor's Center, we traveled up the road to tour a decommissioned command center.  This is where the missileers would live and work.  We actually got to go into the underground bunker where the launch controls were.  The tour was very interesting.  Working at a ballistic missile site is definitely a job that I would not want to have.