After a somewhat underwhelming day exploring some of the memorials in the Black Hills, we decided to head back eastward to spend a whole day in the Badlands National Park.
On the way out, we spotted a visitors center on the highway exit right across from the entrance to the Badlands. As an aside, highways in South Dakota are fun because the speed limit is over 80 in most places! Really helps to get past the long featureless miles...
Back to the visitors center in question, curious, we pulled into the parking lot and found it to be the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site!
What is this National Historic Site doing out here in the middle of nowhere?
Back in the 1960s, the cold war with the USSR was in full swing, and in particular, the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union had developed powerful, if not particularly accurate, intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, which were capable of delivering nuclear warheads to targets all over North America.
In response, the United States outfitted the Atlas rockets developed originally for space exploration to carry nuclear warheads, but these systems were found to have too much downtime to be able to provide a sufficient deterrent. So, the smaller, more maintainable Minuteman was developed, which could theoretically respond to a nuclear threat as quickly as a pizza might be delivered:
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| They had several old propaganda films on display - duck and cover! |
After checking out the museum, which was quite fascinating (which was a little too crowded for social distancing), we drove about 15 miles further to the east to visit one of the actual missile silos!
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| These signs are everywhere in South Dakota - fortunately, we didn't see any snakes on the whole trip... |
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| A training missile |
So, why South Dakota, of all places, to arm hundreds of small nuclear ICBMs?
South Dakota was selected, somewhat morbidly, due to its very sparse population. Washington reasoned that as a target, the loss of civilian life would be somewhat minimal. But aside from that, there is another scientific reason - it turns out that of all the locations in the US, the Dakotas are actually physically among the closest to Moscow, the way the bird flies over the North Pole!
After our educational romp through the missile fields, we made our way towards the Badlands once more.
We started at the prairie dog station nearby:
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| They're so cute!!!! And soft, too! |
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| Rare white prairie dogs! |
After playing with the prairie dogs, we finally headed into the park proper.
We saw some great vistas:
And then we went for a legit rock climb at Saddle Pass trail, a 1/2 mile round trip trail that goes straight up the terrain. It was definitely strenuous, requiring hands and knees to maintain balance in several legs, very likely dangerous, but lots of fun and with great views!
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| Very proud of the kids for making this tough climb! |
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| The view from the top! |
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| That's where we were! |
Finally, as the day wound down, we drove through the rest of the Badlands Scenic Route, stopping by to view some wildlife and interesting rock formations:
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| Pronghorn Antelope |
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| Bighorn Sheep |
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| Yellow Hills |
Stay tuned for Episode 6!
