Please share your experiences and photos with us below in the comments. Site was never operational, Private ownership, four long military buildings still exist with circular access road, usage unknown. The mountain between the launcher and the IFC was "notched" in three places to allow the Missile Tracking Radar to acquire the missile while sitting on the launcher. Largely intact and listed on the. Some buildings standing, used by the Twin Pines Council of Governments as a Police Firing Range. D-15DC was integrated with the USAF Air Defense Command/NORAD Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense radar network as Site P-20 / Z-20 The Air Force ceased radar operations when the Army no longer needed radar support and the AADCP was inactivated 1 Sep 1974. They could also be remotely controlled from Launch Control Centers miles away from the actual silos, allowing sites to be dispersed over a wide geographic area. FDS. There were more active silos in the past. It is also owned by the Michigan DNR. Site was both an AN/FSG-l Missile-Master and later AN/GSG-5(V) BIRDIE Radar Direction Center. We are eager to share our knowledge and expertise to assist you with purchasing your own Largely redeveloped, although several old IFC buildings still used. Location now a parking deck. Cambria Municipal offices, appears to be converted into maintenance storage yard. Today, the buildings are still in use, some buildings still standing. Destroyed by fire, former LA County Probation Department work camp. Redeveloped as Bristol County Development Center, no remains. Private ownership. As the sites were decommissioned, they were first offered to federal agencies. Inside the bunker. The launcher Area has about 7 launch pads with 3 underground bunkers and 1 barn with rails, about 80% finished when construction halted. Doors probably welded shut. Fenced and gated above-ground magazines protected by berms. Fenced. The Shutter Nike Missile Base is tucked away behind a gated fence near the Monroe County Village of Hecker Illinois with a population of about 500. Today, a few foundations of buildings visible, launch area exists, condition unknown probably filled with water. St. Louis Defense Area (SL): The Chicago District of the Corps of Engineers oversaw the design and construction. The northern missile magazine is still exposed but has been fenced off and is modified into an underground machine shop. Also used as police firing range for the City of Gary, with former assembly building berm as the back stop. Private ownership, Old Army building still standing most in good condition, along with the roads. Obliterated, High-end single-family housing, no evidence of IFC. The markers are color-coded by flights. intrusion detection mechanisms. Site PR-99 at North Smithfield stayed in operation until 1971 while PR-38 at Bristol held on until 1974. Obliterated, Athletic Field of Rio Hondo Junior College. Private ownership. The people who work in the Missile Alert Facilities are called missileers. Green Hills Area Education Agency Central Office. The blast and thermal effects within a dozen miles or so of each of these silo's will be deadly, and the fallout radiation will spread hundreds of miles downwind. Many buildings standing, some razed. It was inactivated on 1 Oct 1980, declared excess on 15 Dec 1980, then reactivated on 12 May 1981 and remained in use until the closure of Loring Air Force Base in 1995. The AADCP was inactivated in Sep 1969. No radar towers showing in aerial imagery. This way all Thule batteries could yet be nuclear armed. Never operational. The elevator still works in one magazine and is used at times to move the larger equipment. Geoffrey Baer joined "Chicago Tonight" for this week's Ask Geoffrey, about old Nike missile bases in Chicago. View waymark gallery. Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, Sacred Granaries, Kasbahs and Feasts in Morocco, Monster of the Month: The Hopkinsville Goblins, Paper Botanicals With Kate Croghan Alarcn, Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva, Reading the Urban Landscape With Annie Novak, How to Grow a Dye Garden With Aaron Sanders Head, Making Scents: Experimental Perfumery With Saskia Wilson-Brown, The Frozen Banana Stands of Balboa Island, The Paratethys Sea Was the Largest Lake in Earths History, How Communities Are Uncovering Untold Black Histories, The Medieval Thieves Who Used Cats, Apes, and Turtles as Accomplices, file:///C:/Users/msk51/Documents/misc/What%20Happened%20to%20Nike%20Missile%20Sites%20Around%20Chicago_%20_%20WBEZ.html. C-70 Naperville, Illinois. Built to oppose Soviet air attack, this complex and those in Great Falls and Lorton were three of thirteen Nike sites that surrounded Washington and Baltimore. On that date, jurisdiction, control, and authority was transferred to the California Air National Guard. L-85's housing area was taken over by the Air Force after the IFC was closed by the Army, and was redesignated as Loring Family Housing Annex #3. Partially Intact, FEMA Agency Region X HQ and US Army Reserve Hooper Center. The Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons. are the names of places, businesses, cities, etc. Three years later, the U.S. Army Air Defense Command deactivated the remaining missile batteries. Obliterated, Wildcat Canyon Regional Park. Double above-ground magazines, on top of mountain ridge, under US Army control, Both Nike launch facilities overgrown with vegetation, abandoned. The cost of a new ICBM is going up. Since that time there have been hundreds of Atlas, Titan, Minuteman and Peacekeeper sites constructed all the way from Texas to North Dakota, New Mexico to Montana. No evidence of IFC site. Launch site relatively intact, magazines visible however appears launch doors concreted over. Above-ground Nike-Hercules pads within protective berms. No signs of radar towers. Much broken concrete lying around site. Cleveland Defense Area (CL): Headquarters facilities were located at the Shaker Heights Armory and in Cleveland. FDS. Travis AFB Defense Area (T): Established to defend the USAF Strategic Air Command, later Military Airlift Command base. Some are now private residences. Obliterated and abandoned, Department of Energy. Assembly building is still present. Some buildings exist, launcher area intact. Only a few are intact and preserve the history of the Nike project. The former crew barracks are now used for county fire station personnel and the old launch bays appear to be used for storage. During the cleanup, the magazine elevator doors were sealed with asphalt for safety reasons.395216N 0745253W / 39.87111N 74.88139W / 39.87111; -74.88139 (PH-32-LS), 395145N 0752545W / 39.86250N 75.42917W / 39.86250; -75.42917 (PH-67-CS), 402901N 0800950W / 40.48361N 80.16389W / 40.48361; -80.16389 (PI-71-LS), 403138N 0800344W / 40.52722N 80.06222W / 40.52722; -80.06222 (PI-93-CS). Private ownership, berms still in evidence in aerial imagery. Redeveloped into USAR Center. In private ownership. Launcher area now motor pool for military vehicles. FDS. Partially intact, buildings being used, no evidence of radar towers. Concrete slabs and some wooden curb stops remain, but all buildings have been removed. After being inactivated by the Army, BA-09C was taken over by the Air Force sometime before 15 September 1967. FDS. Partially Intact, Las Trampas Regional Park and microwave communications facility, Redeveloped, TRACOR Aerospace, Expendable Technology Center, Las Trampas Regional Park Office. FDS. 3) Far Away From Population Centers - Minuteman sites on the sparsely populated Great Plains meant less lives were directly at risk from nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. The Air Force ceased radar operations on 30 Sep 1969, and the AADCP was inactivated on 1 Sep 1974. In private ownership, buildings appear standing. Largely obliterated, now Massachusetts Audubon education center. Complete with radar towers, in use, use unknown. East side of what is now Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The site's housing and administrative complex was sold to a private owner and is currently being used as a residence. Each flight is a group of 10 missile silos controlled by a Missile Alert Facility (MAF). A one-armed veteran of the Battle of Waterloo lies in a cemetery for one in the middle of a Chicago scrapyard. LS completely removed. IFC was operated by B/71st (7/54-9/58) and B/1/71st (9/58-11/62), Redeveloped into "Great Falls Nike Missile Park", FDS. Buildings used for storage/support in good condition, rest of site has been razed and sold off, now single-family housing, no evidence of radar towers. 384744N 0894758W / 38.79556N 89.79944W / 38.79556; -89.79944 (SL-10-CS), Private Ownership Purchased 7-12-14 by Ron Mertens of Smithton IL. Also being used by School District for school bus parking. Private ownership. 94th ADA Group, headquartered in Kaiserslautern for most of the Nike-Hercules period had four battalions as follows, with locations: - In Pforzheim (Hagenschie/Wurmberg), in Baden-Wrttemberg there is a missile launch site operated by the US-Army until April 1985. The Integrated Firing Control Site buildings & radars (formerly located at the end of Hutschenreuter Road in Fork were removed sometime in the early 1980s, and the property is now in private hands. Although silos are unattended, they are monitored with video and other Known as Orange Air National Guard Station. On mountain peak, leveled flat for the base. It was inactivated on 1 Oct 1980, declared excess on 15 Dec 1980, then reactivated on 12 May 1981 and remained in use until the closure of Loring Air Force Base in 1995. Please respect private property and observe these sites from the road. Later re-used as an Aerojet facility but now abandoned. Obliterated, paved over for tractor trailer parking lot. At some later time it transferred to Military Airlift Command, and on 1 Jun 1992 transferred to Air Mobility Command. The USAF radar site at Murphy Dome AFS, AK (F-2) was shared with the Army for Nike missile-defense system. Intact, located off North Locust Street just north of Denton, Texas was converted for use as an astronomical observatory of the University of North Texas after decommissioning. Offer subject to change without notice. America built 107 missile bases around the country during the arms race in the 1960s, including the Atlas F Missile Silo located about 130 miles north of Albany. Buildings in good condition, no radar towers. Anchorage; drug & alcohol rehab center. Site appears unused. It was organized into a Missile Group (the overall staffing); a Support Wing (tech and log support), and 2 (9th and 13th) Missile Wings, each with 4 subordinate units. Now US Forest Service facility. . Its new purpose is utilized regularly, and you can enjoy it too. Researchers are encouraged to review the appropriate finding aids at the National Archives at Chicago for additional records. Totally obliterated. Buildings in good condition, magazine being used as tractor trailer parking and storage site. On 1 May 1961 PH-64DC was integrated with the USAF Air Defense Command/NORAD Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense radar network as Site RP-63/Z-63 Nike operations were inactivated on 30 Sep 1966. Redeveloped as multiple-family housing. Figure3shows a Google Maps street-view of the entrance to a MAF. FDS. The Map/Satellite control in the upper lefthand corner of the screen lets you choose either the normal map view or the satellite view. Redeveloped into Nike Park Sports Complex on Diehl Road. "[28], Both magazines were unroofed and backfilled with earth. Many Nike sites are now municipal yards, communications, and FAA facilities, probation camps, and even renovated for use as airsoft gaming and military simulation training complexes. In use, some buildings still standing. Launchers appear to be concreted over. Used by the Elizabeth Forward School District. Bay doors and elevators still work and are still in use by owners. The security gate to the MAF is 968 feet from the road. Partially intact. Intact, abandoned. Manned by D/71st (7/54-9/58), D/1/71st (9/58-9/59) and VAArNG B/1/280th (9/59-3/63). It was inactivated on 1 Oct 1980, declared excess on 15 Dec 1980, then reactivated on 12 May 1981 and remained in use until the closure of Loring Air Force Base in 1995. Nothing remains of the IFC except the MTR and TTR towers. It was formerly under private ownership, used as an Airsoft gaming facility, most notably by the Minnesota Airsoft Association. Above-ground Nike-Hercules site. The site was initially an AN/FSG-l Missile-Master Radar Direction Center. Used by the Independence Local Schools. Site obliterated, little evidence of IFC, overgrown. Chicago Art Curators Stumbled on a Mystery. The buildings appear to be in use and in good condition. Buildings torn down, foundations remain. The Minuteman III has an inertial navigation guidance system that is entirely internal. Magazine exists, concreted over. Redeveloped into single-family housing. Today's W78 warheads are 23 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Now open to the public for tours by National Park Service staff. If you were driving by and you didn't know it was The concrete area around magazines, in good shape, appears to be used as a storage yard. Above ground magazines protected by berms. 262 just outside the town limits. Launched from a Montana silo, a Minuteman III would take about 20 minutes to reach Moscowits speed is not constant along its flight path. Originally established during World War II as Camp Wolters. As of 1959 the Italian commanding unit was: The IFC is mostly burned (prior to the fire, the IFC was used as a minimum security prison). Property given to North Allegheny School District. Locked gate and fence; however, launch facility is abandoned and deteriorating all buildings are standing, but they are in bad shape. ". Appears to be largely intact underneath vegetation overgrowth; old access road entrance at Ave J & 133 Street largely obliterated. Severely overgrown with vegetation. It was later equipped with the AN/GSG-5(V) BIRDIE solid-state computer system. Formerly used by the RIANG, 281st CCG, 282d CBCS. A few buildings overgrown with vegetation, some streets heavily overgrown. The launch batteries and magazines were on the east edge of the Jackson Park Lagoons (facing east), about 3/4 mile away from the IFC radar site. China is building a second field of missile silos in its western deserts, according to a new study, which researchers say signals a potential expansion of its nuclear arsenal . C-92 Redeveloped into Vernon Hills Athletic Complex. Redeveloped into Marine Mammal Center. CTANG(CT Air National Guard), Communications/Radar site. FDS. All rights reserved. Redeveloped into Croom Vocational High School. Largely intact, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department, Bossier Parish SWAT field training site. Intact but decaying and falling apart, NPS-GGNRA, camp site, YMCA facility. Land was transferred to the Municipality of Anchorage, and has been converted to a park. Light office building, parking lot, also Worcester Nike Park. Large piles of earth on top of magazines, some vehicles parked in magazine area visible in aerial images. Redeveloped into Gardner Unified School offices. Elevators cemented over. Strategic Air Command. Privately owned, abandoned and overgrown, surrounded on north and east by a new subdivision. Abandoned, in private hands. Map showing the location of the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center, Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and Launch Facility (Missile Silo) Delta-09. FDS. Fenced-in area, redeveloped with new landscaping. Largely intact, however the forest has just about won the battle to reclaim its former areas. L-58's housing area was taken over by the Air Force after the IFC was closed by the Army, and was redesignated as Loring Family Housing Annex #2. For example, "2AK/18L-H" means the site contained two Nike Ajax magazines (A), located above ground (K), with eight launchers (8L) being converted to Nike Hercules (H). YouTube footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYAtR-XgTI, This list is sorted by state. Buildings in use by company, magazine area visible being used as storage yard. Fairbanks Defense Area: Sites were installed to replace Anti-Aircraft guns defending the Fairbanks area, which included Fort Wainwright and Eielson AFB. FDS. All buildings at the site were demolished in 1977. High-end housing development, nothing remains. Gloucester Township, IFC is a vacant lot with woods, some old roads. LA-45DC was integrated with the USAF Air Defense Command/NORAD Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense radar network as Site RP-39 / Z-39 The AADCP was inactivated 1 Sep 1974 along with the remaining Nike Hercules sites. Small part US Army Reserve center. Berms still quite visible under vegetation. Roads in fair condition, both magazines appear to be concreted over, large gravel pile on them, generally badly deteriorated. Magazine launch doors removed; site appears to be filled in, with vegetation covering fill sites. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. It was one of four "backyard" missile sites that formed the St. Louis Air Defense System, a protective ring of firepower that operated for nearly a decade -- from mid-1959 to early 1969. The lower righthand corner of the Google Maps display has a plus sign and a minus sign that controls zooming. Portion of the bike trail from Tower Road to the launch complex was original road used to access the base. In private hands, appears in good shape. Oakland Community College. ICBM History lists all the past and present ICBM silos and displays a map of them. Site and unit moved to HM-40, with this site abandoned in June 1965. Launch site looks abandoned, buildings in deteriorated condition. The most common sites have been the Minuteman. of Public Works, poor condition, being used as a storage yard. Lancaster (town) Police Department and local government office. The site, known officially as 550th SMS Site 2, was constructed in 1961 and decommissioned on June 25, 1965. Initially operating both Nike Ajax and Hercules but later on only Nike Hercules, the Norwegian Nikes were only conventional armed with the T-45 High Explosive warhead. Municipal complex storage yard. Heres How to See the Dazzling Duo, Vallas and Johnson Headed to Chicago Mayoral Runoff, Lightfoot Denied Second Term, Indicted Ald. Buildings in poor condition, some roofless, some not. US Forest Service Insect & Disease Lab. Each MAF normally commands the missiles in 10 silos but any one MAF may control 50 silos if needed. Dyess AFB Defense Area (DY): Installed to defend the SAC bombers and Atlas F missile silos stationed at and around Dyess AFB. A few old IFC buildings in use, no radar towers. Magazines visible, condition unknown. Township of Lumberton and private owner. The IFC was assigned as an off-base installation to Ellsworth AFB on 25 May 1961. John Reece, Chicago. The CPS-6B radar was removed in July 1958, FPS-8 removed 4Q 1960 until the Nike sites were inactivated in 1971. GRAFTON The last remnants of a U.S. Army missile base that defended American skies during the Cold War can still be spotted by sharp-eyed visitors to Pere Marquette State Park. Pittsburgh Defense Area (PI): At first, three active Army battalions manned the ring around "Steel City". Missile launchers asphalted over but some doors still visible. Magazine area is used for earth moving equipment training. Redeveloped into City of LA Department of Airports, Jet Pets Animal Services, Playa del Rey/LAX, California (Shared with LA-70). A semi-circular embankment protecting the fueling area remains. Intact Launch remains, no use known. FDS. Magazine area has been partially filled in, severe cracking of concrete, abandoned. Used as City of Rancho Palos Verdes storage area. Missile silos are scattered across such vast expanses so that potential adversaries would have to target each missile individually. 392119N 0765102W / 39.35528N 76.85056W / 39.35528; -76.85056 (BA-79-LS), 384611N 0764351W / 38.76972N 76.73083W / 38.76972; -76.73083 (W-35-LS), 383917N 0765120W / 38.65472N 76.85556W / 38.65472; -76.85556 (W-44-LS), 384315N 0771441W / 38.72083N 77.24472W / 38.72083; -77.24472 (W-64-CS), "During the Cold War a ring of Nike anti-aircraft missile sites defended the nation's capital, reminiscent of the perimeter of forts that protected it during the Civil War. The site was an AN/FSG-l Missile-Master Radar Direction Center. Was in use by Army Reserve and PA National Guard. Hong Kong CNN . Abandoned and overgrown. Concrete around magazines severely cracked both Ajax and Hercules doors. IFC site operated by B/602nd (9/55-9/58) and B/4/5th (9/58-8/60), Still under US government control, Naval Surface Warfare Center. Launch site in good condition. Private ownership, mostly returned to agricultural use, single magazine is about all that is left. Both defense areas appear to have been manned by 2nd Battalion, 55th Artillery (Air Defense) at times between 1958 and 1964. Some IFC buildings still in-use, part of site also used by "Rolnick Observatory" also using old IFC buildings. As in several other states, during the 1960s the National Guard assumed a greater role in operating the sites. Some old roads still exist in the abandoned part of the facility, but no evidence of radar towers. Sites CL-02, CL-ll, and CL-69 were converted to fire Nike Hercules missiles. 421331.44N 0875653.52W / 42.2254000N 87.9482000W / 42.2254000; -87.9482000 (C-94-LS). Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) D-15DC established at Selfridge AFB, MI in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions. Site razed in 2006; now a vacant lot with visible concrete debris piled up in several places. Above-ground Nike-Hercules pads within protective berms. Even the signs listing the bunker's rules can be read decades later. A large planter covering the elevator of the "B" Section and some berms is all that remains of the launch site. Intact, Communications Facility Partially. This historic site was built as a precaution but never actually used for its potential purpose. Some IFC roads exist, no structures. Thoroughly fenced in. No evidence of former IFC site. The missiles were decommissioned in 1974 as the Cold War came to an end, but remnants remain all around the country to this day. Administrative offices built over Missile magazines and sleeping quarters circa 1991. Partially Intact, East Ramapo School District. Vacant land. Fort Monroe, HQ Training and Doctrine Command. The following are considered the three major ones: No evidence of LS. AADCP inactivated 1 September 1974 and dissolved as part of the 1988 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Site DY-10, located at Fort Phantom Hill and site DY-50, located southwest of Abilene, remained operational from 1960 until 1966. This urban drawbridge gained eternal pop culture fame when the Blues Brothers jumped it while it was raised. Nuclear missile launch sites were installed across the country during the cold war in the 1950s and 1960s, and some were placed in illinois. Montrose Harbor was the radar and command center that controlled a battery of missiles located right next door at Belmont Harbor. Most of site has been obliterated, fenceline visible in aerial imagery. You can turn off the labels if they obstruct your view. Record Group 21 Record Group 77 Record Group 291 Record Group 21, Records of the United States District Courts (2 civil cases) U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Chicago, Civil Records, Civil Case Files, Case 71C2016, Chicago Indian . The missile launchers were in a large bermed compound on the other side of the lagoons adjoining the Edens Expressway, about a quarter of a mile south of Dundee Road. All Belgian Nike sites were in the 2 ATAF part of then West- Germany. to defend this nuclear industrial complex. However, the army also deployed nike missiles to europe as part of the nato alliance, with sites being operated by both american and european military forces. Some IFC buildings in use. Housing area intact, in private ownership. One radar tower standing. Private ownership. Magazines visible and fully functional. Mostly redeveloped, magazine area in poor condition, used as storage yard and parking lot. Obliterated by new construction. Sites at (S-13) Redmond, (S-61) Vashon Island, and (S-92) Bainbridge Island were upgraded to launch Nike Hercules missiles and survived until 1974. Afterwards, the Army Air Defense Command Post was moved to King Salmon. During the Cold War there were an additional 500 silo's for a total of about 1,000, which were in South Dakota, Missouri, and North Dakota. Fort Monroe, HQ Training and Doctrine Command, Buildings in good shape, magazines covered with earth. The sign simply says M1. Do you have a question for Geoffrey? Access road to upper control site (IFC-1) inaccessible due to decades of vegetation growth taking back the road up to the top.
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