From Belle Fourche, we continued east to Wall, SD. About the only thing in Wall, is Wall Drug.
If you have never heard of Wall Drug, you can read about it here walldrug.com.
For those that have travelled I-95 on the east coast, approaching Wall was like approaching South of the Border! For 40 miles, there were signs announcing all the great things that you need, just waiting for you when you got to Wall!
The best part about Wall, but seemingly a little known one, is that it makes a great base camp to see the numerous National Parks, Monuments, state parks and other areas of interest within an hour or so drive from Wall. The map below shows the options of areas to see around Wall.
The Minuteman Missile sites (Delta 9, Delta 1 and the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center) were really cool to see. Looking at the missile still in the ground, was very eerie. This feeling was heightened when we looked at the map that showed where these silos were. The number of them was staggering to me.
The signage at these locations told the story very well.
This is the actual missile in the underground silo.
Each red dot on this map was a minuteman missile silo. This map only shows the ones in South Dakota. Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana also had hidden Minuteman missile silos.
This picture shows what is below ground at Delta 1. This was the command center that monitored and had the ability to launch the 10 missile in the Delta Flight. This building is still there today. You can take a tour and go down into the actual control room. Unfortunately, the time slots were all booked when we were in the area.
The visitor center had numerous exhibits showing how the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union escalated over the years. There were many stories about near misses, where false launch alarms from the Soviet Union and the United States nearly caused the missiles to be launched. Had this happened, total destructions of wide areas of the world would have ensued. Seeing these exhibits was very interesting, yet at the same time, very sobering. There were over 1000 missile silos in America’s heartland. There are currently 400 active Minuteman III silos disbursed throughout the Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
Very Cool!
Wow. Very interestin
Wow, I never knew about all the missile silos. Very interesting
Very interesting – I now have a good reason to visit North Dakota to add it to my states visited list. Only have 3 left and was struggling with why in the world I would want to go to North Dakota other than to just say I had!! Thanks for all your posts, really enjoy reading them.
Glad that you are enjoying our adventure along wit us!
Wow – I didn’t know either…