A Visit To The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Trip Reports, ,
a warning sign on a chain link fence
While visiting South Dakota I heard about the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and had to try to fit in a visit. The site houses a missile silo which could’ve been used during the Cold War in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union.
a gated area with a sign

a long shot of a building

We had a busy day planned so our visit to the Delta-09 missile silo was very quick.  The site has a Minuteman II training missile inside.Unfortunately I had to skip the tour of the Delta-01 Launch Facility. It sounded really cool – you get to visit the underground launch control center. Oh well, maybe some other time…

a sign with text on it
Some safety info
To get to the site we pulled off the highway and drove a few minutes down a dirt and gravel road. I found it hard to believe that there was anything down the road and just hoped we were going the right way. We soon spotted the site and saw a couple of other cars in the parking lot. I guess we weren’t the only ones pulling over to check out the site.
a round structure with a glass roof
Protective cover over silo
a blue roof on a road

There wasn’t much information at the site so it was hard to figure out what we were looking at. We thought that a park ranger would be on-site to share some information.

a man taking a selfie
Looking into the silo
a rocket inside a spaceship
Lucky for me there was another visitor to the site that seemed to know quite a bit about the Minuteman missiles. He explained to me how the site worked.
a metal structure with a metal roof

If the orders were given to launch the missile, the protective cover would slide back on the track shown above. This would open the silo for the missile launch.
If an immediate launch was necessary, the whole cover could be blown off allowing for the missile to take off within a split second.

Find out more details about the Minute Man Missile National Historic Site HERE

2 thoughts on “A Visit To The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site”

  1. I worked at Delta 9. I was at Ellsworth AFB for 20 years, and been to all the LCC of the 44th SMW.

    I had a great time in the Air Force and the 44th SMW.

    Reply

    1. We also visited Ellsworth AFB during our trip. The collection of old planes on display was amazing as was the tour on the base.

      Thanks for serving our country in the military!

      Reply

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