Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

My family and I visited the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site today. It's a Minuteman Missile Launch Control Facility (LCF) Delta-01 and Launch Facility (LF) Delta-09 that used to be part of the 44th Missile Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base at Rapid City until the wing was deactivated in the mid-90s. Now they've been preserved so that people can come and see a part of history from the Cold War.

The tour starts at Exit 131 off I-90 near Philip, South Dakota. You then caravan to Delta-01 where you get a guided tour of the above-ground facility where the living, eating, showering, etc. facilities were, and you get a tour underground from where the missiles would have been launched in the event of nuclear war.

After that, you caravan to Delta-09 and see the Minuteman missile still in it's silo (sans nuclear warhead, of course). There's a glass cover over the top of the silo, with the huge concrete blast door retracted, so you can look down at the dearmed missile. There's also an old Security Police Peacekeeper armored vehicle by the silo (they're tough, but not fun to ride in--I spent a little time in those things when I was in the service, though not in the missile field).

The first pic below is from the underground control facility at Delta-01. The plastic-covered key slot on the panel to the left of the phone is where one of two keys was inserted and turned in order launch the missiles (the other key slot was manned by another person about 12 feet away, so no one person could launch the missiles).



















This one is the glass cover over the missile silo at Delta-09.



















And this is looking down at the Minuteman missile at Delta-09



















You have to reserve a tour a long time in advance (ours was booked 2-3 months in advance), but it's worth it. You'll need about 2 hours, but it's very fun and informative. The two guys who led our tour used to work in the missile field, and one was one of the launch control officers who manned the keys underground, so they have a lot of stories to pass on.