Take the Kids to See a Nuclear Bomb at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

You can visit the remnants of the front line of national defense during the Cold War in the middle of no where along I-90 in South Dakota. The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, run by the National Park Service, offers a pretty out of the ordinary tourist attraction of a nuclear missile silo with a missile you can peer down on. It also offers a tour of a U.S. Air Force missile launch control center from more than 50 years ago.

The main visitor center is located on the north side of exit 131, which also is the main exit to visit the Badlands National Park. The center has an exhibit explaining the role of the nuclear missile fields in North and South Dakota during the Cold War with the Soviets. The displays in the museum explain the policy of nuclear deterrence through mutually assured annihilation, how the silos and missiles worked, and how the American public was prepared for the possibility of nuclear war and what they could do to be ready. There is a small gift shop as well, in case you need a reproduction fall out shelter sign or a restricted area sign that says deadly force will be used if you cross into a missile silo property.

There is a film in the visitor center theater that gave a pretty good, concise overview of the Cold War. My kids knew nothing about the Cold War and learned some take away messages from the film, even being ages 5 and 7. It sparked conversations in the car about what it was like living through the Cold War when I was a kid.

The visitor’s center has a Junior Ranger program for visitors with kids. My girls learned how to make their own missiles out of paper and tape and launched them using an air pump. They received junior ranger badge with a nuclear missile on it and a cool looking missile manual that offered more information of the silos and the history of the Cold War.

At the visitors center, you can arrange a tour of the nearby Delta-01 missile launch control center. You need to be fit, because you have to climb a ladder down into the underground control center bunker, and numbers of the tours are limited due to tight spaces. This part of the tour is located at Exit 127, west of the visitors center.

Most of the underground missile silos were destroyed as part of an arms control treaty with the Russians 30 years ago, but one was preserved as part of this historic site. Missile Silo Delta-09 is located at Exit 116 before you get to Wall, South Dakota. You can park outside the original fence and walk into the preserved silo area. It includes the blast door for the silo in the open position with thick glass you can peer through down into the silo. There is a preserved Minuteman nuclear missile in the silo as it would have appeared when it was in operation, at the ready to launch at a moment’s notice in case of a Soviet attack.

The site also has a preserved communications antenna capable of surviving a nuclear blast and high-tech 1980s surveillance equipment that helped protect the site with sensitive motion detectors. The park ranger there the day we visited said he was in the Air Force and protected this and other nearby silos when they were in service. He said they received regular alerts from the surveillance system of movement in the restricted fenced areas at these silos, because rabbits would burrow under the fences. Signs explain the equipment and the silo can be visited as a self-guided tour.

The silos and the launch centers were hidden in plain sight. In the wide open area of the Great Plains, these sites just look like part of the cattle ranches in the area and are very nondescript. It would be easy to drive by and not notice either of the preserved sites just off I-90.

It is an interesting stop at any or all three of the exits that make up this historic site. It is an extra attraction if heading toward the Black Hills, Rapid City, or nearby Wall Drug or Badlands National Park.