Visiting Minuteman Missile: The Prairie Cultural Landscape Tour

The South Dakota landscape hides former missile silo sites in plain sight - many of them can be found in-between Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Interstate 90, and Badlands National Park. Once you know where to look, these remnants of the Cold War are easily found.

This activity is a vehicle-based driving tour beginning at the visitor center, and visiting all eleven locations that made up Delta Flight. Follow in the path of Air Force personnel and travel the South Dakota back-roads to visit the ten silos and control center of Delta Flight, which once kept 12 megatons of destructive power constantly on alert.

Gaze Armageddon in the face with a visit to the Delta-09 missile silo. The viewing enclosure over the silo allows for visitors to gaze directly down at a Minuteman II missile. Consider the meaning of 1.2 megatons of destructive power hidden in plain sight.

For every 10 Minuteman nuclear missiles (know as a Flight) there would be a Launch Control Facility that housed Air Force personnel. Delta- 01 occupies an open, grassy tract of land approximately one-half mile north of Interstate 90. Approaching the site from the Interstate, it looks like a lone ranch house in the open grassland. Over the years, most travelers probably did not give the site a second look or even know what military capabilities lay hidden within.

Learn what it was like to have the awesome responsibility of thermonuclear war at your fingertips. The thirty-minute guided tour of the control center at Delta-01 begins with a walk through of the grounds and topside support building. Visitors then descend via elevator 31 feet underground to the Launch Control Center to see the electronic consoles used by missileers to control ten Minuteman II missiles. To provide for visitor safety, each tour is limited to six participants.