Training grounds, remote runways, and missile silos are a strange sight now that they've been abandoned.More
Designed as a pyramid for an unknown reason, the Mickelsen Safeguard Complex near Nekoma, N.D., was a radar system intended to find and destroy missiles launched at the U.S. Inside the complex, along with radar, were 30 Spartan antiballistic missiles and 16 Sprint missiles.
Because of a treaty with the Soviet Union that limited the number of weapons complexes each country could have, Mickelsen didn't even stay in service for an entire year. The complex was deactivated on Feb. 10, 1976.
You won't find much to see when scanning a 57-acre parcel in rural Eastern Washington, but dive 155 feet below the ground and you'd find three 1960s-built silos that once housed nuclear-tipped Titan I rockets. These concrete and steel facilities with 14-foot-thick walls boast a mix of tunnels and oddly arranged underground rooms. Some were updated to host Titan II rockets, but all were eventually decommissioned as the military continued to modernize (though airmen continue to man remote silos containing Minuteman III ICBMs). These facilities were self-sufficient, including having their own water-treatment facilities, food, and fresh air supplies.