West Quest Part Deux - Day 19

In the Badlands

Back to Day 18

Sunday, 28 August 2022

Badlands National Park is truly a crown jewel of our nation’s park system. The scenes you see here remind me of looking up at the stars on a moonless night. It’s too much to take in fully and it overwhelms the senses. Scenes like this:

You can almost hear God chuckling a bit as he laid down the colorful layers for our future enjoyment!

We started the day off by driving to the Delta-01 Minuteman II Launch Control Facility just off of I-90.

The number of missile silos that dotted South Dakota during the Cold War is simply staggering. Just as Badlands National Park overwhelms the senses, to ponder the thermonuclear destructive power of all these missiles that were once on alert does the same.

Hidden in plain sight, the launch of the ten Minuteman II missiles of Delta Flight would have been initiated here:

The Launch Control Facility and the ten missiles in each flight were separated by enough miles that no one Soviet nuclear warhead could take out more than one target. And even if they were hit, the fire control center is far enough below the basketball court behind us above that it would survive. The missile silos were of course also hardened.

We then drove about 20 miles to the Delta-09 missile silo, otherwise known as Launch Facility Delta-09.

From this location in South Dakota, this missile could have destroyed Moscow just 30 minutes after launch, with launch taking only one minute from the order to fire.

The blast door covering the missile is designed to survive everything except a direct hit. The glass structure over the door is what covers the dummy missile as part of the public display.

The antennae in the foreground in the next photo was to receive an alternate fire signal from the airborne Looking Glass aircraft in the event the Launch Control Facility was destroyed and/or unable to initiate launch. These aircraft flew 24 hours a day during the entire Cold War.

Overall, a sobering but remarkable historical monument that is a ‘must see’ if you are driving through South Dakota on I-90. It’s expecially interesting to know that dozens of Minuteman III Launch Control Facilities and hundreds of Minuteman III silos still dot remote areas of the United States and are on alert today as part of our nation’s strategic nuclear triad.

A few miles further west of the Delta-09 silo is Wall where we had to do the obligatory tourist stop for a roast beef sandwich and 5-cent coffee.

After that, it was back to the Badlands National Park, this time working our way east through the west entrance at Wall.

Not a sign you see every day.

Tatanka and prairie dogs.

I could post dozens more photos but they simply do not do the park justice. You absolutely must visit yourself if possible.

On a final note, the mystery crop from yesterday’s post is apparently sorghum. Thank you to friends who helped identify it for me.

Go to Day 20