missile silos in illinois
Peninsula Airport Commission. Some old IFC buildings in use being used by the Town of Orangeburg. Launch doors are probably sealed shut but visible along with Nike concrete launching pads. Buildings in use, no radar towers visible. Obliterated, Corps of Engineers control, demolished, Partially intact, Launch remains, serves as administration facility for Chena River Lakes Recreation Area. The site was equipped with the AN/GSG-5(V) BIRDIE solid-state computer system. Area has now become a "Academy Sports and Outdoors" distribution facility. One old military building remains. FDS. Both defense areas appear to have been manned by 2nd Battalion, 55th Artillery (Air Defense) at times between 1958 and 1964. Intact, Explosives Technology. Magazines appear intact. They are cement-block shells. IFC Redeveloped into 2 parks; no remains. The only IFC building left is a small pump house. No radar towers. Those have since been dismantled and demolished due to various nuclear arms reduction treaties. Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) missile silos. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. It was designed for manual operations, using plexiglass plotting boards and telephonic inputs. Missile assembly building appears standing, concrete missile pads deteriorated concrete. 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. She has visited half of the states, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and regularly travels home to the Hoosier State to see friends and family. Access road to highway 4 only remnants of IFC site. Light office building, parking lot, also Worcester Nike Park. The Formerly Used Defense Sites (FDS) program processed many former sites and then transferred them out of Defense Department control.[7]. HM-65 was Nike-Ajax. Site was never operational, Private ownership, four long military buildings still exist with circular access road, usage unknown. FDS. The northern missile magazine is still exposed but has been fenced off and is modified into an underground machine shop. Buildings were torn down. The IFC was located off New Lake View Road, at 2 E. Heltz Road, and is now offices for the Town of Hamburg and as part of Lakeview Road Recreation Area. No missiles were ever actually launched in Chicago. Abandoned. 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. On 18 Sep 1968, IFC-2 was designated the Palehua AF Solar Observatory Research Site, activated, and assigned to Military Airlift Command with jurisdiction and operational control assigned to Air Weather Service. Now "Nike Overlook Park". Launch site now the parking lot for the Children's Theatre of Annapolis and athletic fields. Site equipped with the AN/GSG-5(V) BIRDIE solid-state computer system. You can turn off the labels if they obstruct your view. Buildings in good shape, no radar towers. The Russian invasion of Ukraine brings back memories of the Cold War. While all of the munitions have been removed from the site, one of the decomissioned missiles is still on display in nearby Villa Park, Illinois, in front of the town's VFW hall. Ajax launch covers visible, some obscured by buildings, two launch doors for Hercules, probably welded shut. Above-ground Nike-Hercules site, missiles protected by berms. Portion of the bike trail from Tower Road to the launch complex was original road used to access the base. C-70 Naperville, Illinois. Barracks building in use, several radar towers still standing. National Park Service, Sweeney Ridge (GGNRA). Buildings in good condition, also several radar towers. San Pablo Ridge, California (SF-08 and SF-09 shared facilities). Nike Carlton: 3B/20A/12L-A Newport: 3B/18H, 30A/12L-UA, FDS Derelict, but partially intact. Used as a storage area. Heres why the US Air Force isnt concerned. Abandoned. It is home to a MNDOT radio tower. Due to its solid fuel technology, the missiles could be mass produced. Former twin magazine site, intact, now Anne Arundel County Police Training Academy. Above-ground magazines protected by berms. 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 . Magazines were sealed during environmental hazards assessment in the 1990s but were then opened and badly vandalized. Ian Frazier, Great Plains, 1989 Demolished Nov 2015 for a housing development. The National Park Service has a history of how women became missileers. Base of radar tower and control building remain S.E. Optionally, a missile may contain a single W87 475-kiloton warhead to attack a single target. On 15 Dec 1956 jurisdiction, control, and accountability transferred back to the Army. Berms around missile launch sites now around buildings erected in former missile sites. Some buildings standing, even a few radar towers. Missile site partially intact, used by City of Torrance, Torrance Airport Civil Air Patrol. Elevators cemented over. Nike launch site totally obliterated. FDS. Redeveloped. Air Defense Command/NORAD radar sites at Fire Island AFS (F-1) and King Salmon AFS (F-3) AK were integrated into the Army Nike operations. Several radar towers standing, several buildings in radar area deteriorating, and some loose concrete on site. Above ground magazines protected by berms. Sign up for our morning newsletter to get all of our stories delivered to your mailbox each weekday. Partially intact. 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. South Florida Natural Resources Center in Everglades National Park, under control of National Park Service. are the names of places, businesses, cities, etc. concrete pad inside berms partially clear. Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) W-13DC established at Fort Meade, MD in 1957 for Nike missile command-and-control functions. FDS Redeveloped into Croom Vocational High School, the launch site is identified as the auto, building trades, and grounds keeping school. Many listings will have "FDS" following either the control site or launch site heading, which means that the site has gone through the "Formerly-Used Defense Site" program and has been transferred from DoD control to another party. Appears magazines were removed and filled in with dirt. WTTW News Explains: How Does Chicagos Grid Street System Work? OHArNG, C Company, 216th Engineers. Illinois. The IFC was assigned as an off-base installation to Ellsworth AFB on 25 May 1961. Radars were FPS-93A and in 1982 the FPS-117 was installed. Construction of the Nike batteries started in 1959; becoming limited operational in 1960 and fully operational in 1961. One of the Launch Bunkers has been converted to a Cross Country Ski Chalet with a large parking lot, and the other three Launch Bunkers are used for storage. Demolition of this facility began in 2015 and is now complete. See Our Inventory. The U.S. government began phasing out Nike bases in the mid-1960s amid budget cuts. Units assigned: B/36th 96/55-9/58), B/1/562nd (9/58-12/62), B/1/71st (12/62-/65), B/4/1st (/65-11/68) and MDArNG A/1/70th (11/68-4/74). It was later upgraded to the AN/TSQ-51 "Missile Mentor" solid-state computer system. Also some used to be in Arkansasthe Titan or Atlas missilesuntil one blew its fuel loadbecause of a dropped wrenchand threw its payload quite a distance. The buildings are all new; the motor pool, up a rise slightly, has a couple of older structures, but the place otherwise has been cleaned off. Some construction on launching area, launch doors concreted over, but one of the two magazines had been converted into a gym. A large planter covering the elevator of the "B" Section and some berms is all that remains of the launch site. A missile silo in Abilene, Kansas, used to store and launch ballistic missiles in the 1960s, is on sale for $380,000. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. FDS. Some older buildings deteriorated. FDS. The site also hosts Squadron 3 of the Civil Air Patrol's California Wing. Abandoned, now known as the Rochester-Utica State Recreation Area and the Shadebush Environmental Educational Center. Until recently, Nike Missile Base C-84 near the Chicago suburb of Barrington, Illinois, served as an archival repository for Lake County; the records were stored in one of the three underground missile storage areas. Outline of fence evident in aerial photography. But the Ajax could only travel about 25 miles, which military leaders felt was not far enough to be an effective air defense. Today, partially Intact, Private ownership. FDS. Vacant land. Some military buildings being used by city as offices. For locations and views, fly in using Google Earth thanks to NikeSiteSearchers. Upgraded to above-ground Nike-Hercules and re-designated HM-03. Completely redeveloped into industrial park on W side of Calumet Ave. N of 45th St. "A nuclear missile silo is one of the quintessential Great Plains objects: to the eye, it is almost nothing, just one or two acres of ground with a concrete slab in the middle and some posts and poles sticking up behind an eight-foot-high cyclone fence: but to the imagination, it is the end of the world." Triple magazines visible, overgrown and abandoned. Geoffrey Baer joined "Chicago Tonight" for this week's Ask Geoffrey, about old Nike missile bases in Chicago. Redeveloped into single-family housing. Residential housing built in place. Is now used as the Grand Island Central School District's Eco Island Ecology Reserve. This old steel industry company town has a tradition of parking cars on the sidewalk so people can walk in the narrow streets. time knowing which ones. Northwest side of what is now Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Buildings appear in excellent condition.381723N 0895651W / 38.28972N 89.94750W / 38.28972; -89.94750 (SL-40-CS), 381611N 0895700W / 38.26972N 89.95000W / 38.26972; -89.95000 (SL-40-LS). This historic site was built as a precaution but never actually used for its potential purpose. Partially Intact, State of California Department of Health Services. On mountain peak, leveled flat for the base. Intact, Gateway National Recreation Area. FDS. Intact, Abilene Independent School District, in good shape. Missile magazines exist however launchers appear to be concreted over. Part of the facility exists to the west, with outlines of radar towers visible. Initially, New York's air defenses had been manually coordinated from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. On top of mountain ridge, under US Army control. Base and the Austin region from two Nike Hercules sites between 1960 and 1966. Buildings are mostly gone, or only standing walls remain. PennDOT training site. Partially Intact on mountain top, Fort Funston Park Picnic Area. The Map/Satellite control in the upper lefthand corner of the screen lets you choose either the normal map view or the satellite view. But some remnants and buildings still stand, including in Wolf Lake where an actual Nike missile is on display. Abandoned. An Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) was established at Sweetwater AFS, TX in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions. Now Northeastern University Marine Science Center. Some buildings remain in use, most razed along with radar towers. A few old IFC buildings in use, no radar towers. The elevator is present but the hydraulics have been removed. 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. Remains under US government control, National Institute of Standards and Technology. As of Nov 1999, it was still on the Ellsworth AFB real property books, excess and awaiting disposition. Large piles of earth on top of magazines, some vehicles parked in magazine area visible in aerial images. No evidence of launchers. The Radar towers, Generator bldg., Van pads, and connecting building foundation are all there. Partially intact, buildings, some radar towers, tourist area, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. C-50 Homewood. FDS. The map below shows the current U.S. Also being used by School District for school bus parking. Obliterated, Wildcat Canyon Regional Park. FDS. of Public Works, poor condition, being used as a storage yard. FDS. Belmont Harbors site is now a grassy area on the lakefront, as is the old Promontory Point site. Missile Base Specialists. Buildings still standing. Old FC buildings in area in various states of deterioration and abandoned. Battery 8,8th Battalion,3rd Air Defense Brigade was located on the Chinen peninsula in southern part of the island. Redeveloped, Private ownership. The missiles were decommissioned in 1974 as the Cold War came to an end, but remnants remain all around the country to this day. Site redeveloped as Bedford Middle School in 2001. FDS, now private ownership, fenced, restricted access. Undetermined purpose Site largely intact barracks has been torn down. Above-ground magazine protected by berms. Obliterated. The site is currently used as a small arms firing range and a radio tower has been built there. Redeveloped into Bethel Church and Glouchester County Christian School. In private hands. Barracks remaining. Private ownership. Thoroughly fenced in. FDS. Above ground magazines protected by berms. Above-ground site with launchers protected by berms. Barracks buildings remain intact and little altered. Abandoned IFC site. There were more active silos in the past. becomes S. State Line Rd. 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). The site today is on the North Branch Trail on a leveled-off hill. Partially Intact, Private ownership, being used as a junkyard for old vehicles. Obliterated, Coyote Hills Regional Park.