Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is located at three sites along a fifteen mile stretch of Interstate 90 in western South Dakota.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is the only National Park Service unit specifically designated for the Cold War. Congress stated in the park’s enabling legislation that Minuteman Missile’s purpose is “to interpret the historical role of the Minuteman II missile defense system as a key component of America’s strategic commitment to preserve world peace and in the broader context of the Cold War.”
The structures and landscapes at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site serve as an ideal location to explore the people, places and stories that illustrate the experience of Air Force personnel, local landowners and residents of the Great Plains who worked at or lived around Minuteman Missile sites for the last three decades of the Cold War. The historic resources at Minuteman Missile that tell this story are protected and conserved to the highest professional standards for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
MMNHS protects two facilities that were once part of a Minuteman Missile field that covered the far western portion of South Dakota from 1963 through the early 1990s. There were 15 Launch Control Facilities that commanded and controlled 150 Launch Facilities (Missile Silos) holding Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The park preserves two of these facilities in their historic state—Launch Control Facility Delta-01 with its corresponding underground Launch Control Center and Launch Facility (Missile Silo) Delta-09. These two sites, along with the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center, comprise Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.
During the Cold War thousands of Air Force personnel in Minuteman Missile fields throughout the Great Plains worked and lived around nuclear weapons that held unprecedented destructive power. It was these nuclear weapons that constantly threatened devastation of any aggressor nation that might consider launching a nuclear attack against the United States or its allies. This threat of destruction acted as a deterrent to enemies while paradoxically preserving an uneasy peace.
One of the most serious responsibilities during the Cold War was to be part of a missile crew with the ability to initiate the use of nuclear weapons from a Launch Control Center. These crews were ready to respond at a moment’s notice. At the same time, maintenance and security police ensured that the sites were totally secure and always functioning.
The missile field was operational, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 365 days a year, for thirty years. Despite the searing summer heat and brutal winter cold of South Dakota, operational status of the missiles was maintained at all times. Meanwhile, local landowners and members of small towns in the central and northern Great Plains lived literally side by side with nuclear weapons. In the background to all this, were the American people who enjoyed unsurpassed freedoms and prosperity yet also knew that their way of life could be destroyed in a matter of hours by nuclear war. This same harsh fact was true for nations all around the world. The democratic capitalist system of the United States and its allies vied with the communist totalitarian system of the Soviet Union and its allies. The Cold War was fought through economics, politics, culture and indirect military confrontation. The Soviet Union eventually collapsed, but not before the world had come close to destruction on several occasions.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site’s purpose is to tell the story of Minuteman Missiles, nuclear deterrence and the Cold War. Delta-01 and Delta-09 are striking examples of the alert status of United States nuclear forces during this time period. These sites, along with the exhibits in the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center, help visitors understand the story of one of the most important eras in both American and World History.
The park presents an opportunity to reflect on a peaceful prairie that once held the power to destroy the world, serving as a public venue for examining the challenges and paradoxes of Cold War. Exhibits share stories of the technology that made it possible, service men and women, citizens near and far who feared the worst, the call for civil defense, and leaders at home and abroad who led the world to the brink and back.
The Minuteman changed the northern plains, but the missile system was one small moment in the region’s far broader natural history. Western South Dakota is a land rich in geological and natural features.
Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and Launch Facility (Missile Silo) Delta-09 are on the American Great Plains, which farmers and ranchers have historically used to graze cattle and cultivate crops. Intermingled with the farm and ranch lands is the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, which is managed by the United States Forest Service. As a result, the open landscape surrounding the missile sites is broken only by changes in topography and a few low-profile buildings. Tall vegetation is sparse.
The Western Plains of South Dakota are part of the Great Plains and are the least populous section of the state. Landforms in the Great Plains are unglaciated and retain soils formed by shallow seas that covered the region approximately seventy-five million years ago. The other major geologic region, in the area is known as the Black Hills. These were formed by pressure from the earth’s tectonic plates that forced subsurface rock upward to create a sixty-mile-wide and 125-mile-long region known for its natural beauty.
The seas that once covered South Dakota’s Western Plains deposited limestone and sandstone overlain by soft Pierre shale. As the shale eroded through water and wind action, the rolling terrain in the Western Plains emerged, leaving short-grass plains mixed with eroded river valleys. The Badlands lie within the Great Plains. The striking landscape of the Badlands emerged from the process of erosion caused by water and wind, which created tall spires of sedimentary rock and exposed rich fossil deposits.
Delta-01 and Delta-09 are within the northern Great Plains physiographic province, which is characterized by rolling mixed-grass prairie. Elevations range from about 2,550 feet to 2,700 feet.