Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site

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Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site

Former U.S. Air Force Minuteman Launch Control Facility (Oscar-Zero) and Launch Facility (November-33) located near Cooperstown, ND and open for public tours.

Operated by the State Historical Society of North Dakota. From 1966 to 1997, personnel of the U.S. Air Force operated Oscar Zero, a Minuteman missile Launch Control Facility, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With two launch officers 50 feet below the surface and behind a 6 ton blast door, Oscar Zero was only one of many facilities tasked with maintaining part of America's nuclear deterrent force thr

oughout the Cold War. Today the State Historical Society of North Dakota invites you to tour Oscar Zero and November-33 (a missile silo) and explore the day-to-day routine of the men and women who were tasked with maintaining the overwhelming nuclear might of the Minuteman missile system.

06/07/2026

Well, we have a helicopter and we're still searching for a Peacekeeper armored truck, but we're also looking for a Mk-12A re-entry vehicle.

Did we say re-entry vehicle? Because we meant to say SNOW CONE MAKER.

A few years back we contacted the Department of Energy to see if they had any, you know, non-armed ones, they could give to a museum - such as America's finest ICBM historic site - but none were to be had. So instead of calling it an RV, our new code name for this object is a SNOW CONE MAKER as not to raise any red flags. We don't want an armed one for crying out loud, just a mock-up or showpiece.

A re-entry vehicle...SNOW CONE MAKER...contained the nuclear warhead on Minuteman missiles. It would safely protect the warhead from the extreme friction heat encountered as the SNOW CONE MAKER re-entered the atmosphere. There were a number of different types, such as the Mk-4 SNOW CONE MAKER aboard Titan-I and the Atlas-E/F series, along with the Mk-11 SNOW CONE MAKER placed atop the Minuteman II and some Minuteman I missiles. The Minuteman III, the first ICBM to have a Multiple Independently Targetable SNOW CONE MAKERs setup, featured up to three Mk-12s that sat underneath a shroud.

By the late 1970s, a new system was developed that increased the accuracy of SNOW CONE MAKERS aboard Minuteman IIIs - the Mk-12A. By the 1980s, MK-12A SNOW CONE MAKERS were initially placed aboard Minuteman IIIs at North Dakota's Minot and Grand Forks Air Force Bases exclusively - carrying the 335-350 kiloton W78 thermonuclear warhead. The heavier weight of these SNOW CONE MAKERS meant a decreased range however, which is why they were not deployed with Minuteman IIIs at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming which retained Mk-12s until the advent of Mk-21s made surplus by the deactivation of Peacekeeper missiles.

So in conclusion, we know we're in North Dakota, so why wouldn't we want a FUNNEL CAKE MACHINE or HOT DOG ROLLER instead? Because it's 90F here, so we sure could use a SNOW CONE MAKER to help make the site cooler...if you catch our drift.

06/07/2026

Into doomsday bunkers? Then Minuteman may not be right for you...

A popular misconception about deactivated missile silos across the American west includes the idea of purchasing an old site and converting it into a refuge from Armageddon...or into a vacation rental...or for building a space ship that is warp-capable (any Star Trek: First Contact fans out there?). The fact is, while some were left intact, many others were demolished.

Many former Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile sites - both the semi-underground Atlas-E and true silo Atlas-F installations along with the huge Titan-I complexes are intact. In 1965, the Air Force deactivated those early cryogenic, liquid-fueled missiles in favor of Minuteman. There were no arms agreements at the time, so often the intact sites were later sold back to landowners or others only a few short years after they were completed. A number of these have been converted into homes, at least one into underground protective shelter, and even at one point a Titan-I site was used for scuba diving training. Later some Titan-II sites have been excavated as well, although their silo sections were demolished.

Deactivated Minuteman silo sites in South Dakota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Montana (along with Peacekeeper sites in Wyoming) meanwhile were either imploded or filled in with gravel. The Launch Facilities were small anyhow when compared to Atlas and Titan sites (launch tubes were 80 to 90 ft deep and only 15 ft wide - compare this with an Atlas-F silo that is 174 ft deep and about 52 ft wide).

Pictured below is the standard look of a former Minuteman silo today, a fenced off section of land in a field with a great deal of shattered concrete and metal below - including the enclosure door that was considered too robust to practically destroy. Small lots great for storing hay bales or placing an apiary, but not for riding out any world-ending events.

(Former Launch Control Facilities/Missile Alert Facilities not preserved as museums meanwhile had their underground sections sealed off with concrete at sites in South Dakota, Missouri, Wyoming, and North Dakota. Former LCFs/MAFs assigned to the 564th Missile Squadron in Montana were demolished.)

(Below, the former Oscar-47 Launch Facility in wintertime)

06/07/2026

Normandy and The Global War - June 1944

June 6, 1944- 82 years ago today - the Allied Powers of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada land troops on the continent of Europe. While the tide of the war had turned decisively against the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy, D-Day represented the long-awaited push eastward by Allied ground armies towards the ultimate defeat of N**i Germany.

June 1944 might also be noted for events that would influence the Cold War. As the western Allies pushed east, the Soviets launched the massive Operation Bagration offensive later in the month thrusting westward - pushing into Poland and causing huge losses for the Germans. The first German V-1 flying bomb attacks against England commenced on June 13th, while a V-2 rocket became the first man-made object in space during a test launch on June 20th. Both the V-1 and V-2 would become highly studied weapons systems after World War II ended, resulting in the eventual development of intercontinental cruise missiles and ballistic missiles during the Cold War.

In the Pacific, the first B-29 Superfortress combat mission was conducted under Operation Matterhorn on June 5th, a raid against Japanese positions in Bangkok, Thailand from bases in India. The same month saw the Battle of Saipan begin - an island in the Marianas Island chain in the Pacific that also included Guam and Tinian. As U.S. Marines came ashore at Saipan on June 15th, B-29s from China struck mainland Japan for the first time since the Doolittle Raid of 1942, hitting the Yawata Steel Works with less than satisfactory results.

The logistic challenges posed by Matterhorn units operating from China ultimately proved insurmountable (with memories of the operation long-held by Strategic Air Command officers post-war). It would be from the Marianas where the B-29s would have the greatest impact against Japan. As the Marines moved forward on Saipan, Navy Seabees were close behind to ready airstrips for B-29 operations. The first of the bombers would arrive in October 1944.

It would be from Tinian in the Marianas from where the nuclear missions were launched against Japan in August 1945.

06/05/2026

SIOP-62 and the Road to Minuteman II.

As Kennedy and Khrushchev met during the Vienna Summit in early June 1961, the Cold War arms build-up continued unabated. The thousands of nuclear weapons then in the American inventory relied on careful war planning by staff at Strategic Air Command Headquarters near Omaha, Nebraska.

Nuclear weapons had been the exclusive domain of the U.S. Air Force, however throughout the 1950s, the U.S. Navy began to deploy weapons on ships as well. By 1960, the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile was entering service. Two separate war plans by two separate services meant a number of conflicts would arise during any potential war. How would the Navy know that a target was already planned for destruction by SAC bombers? Would a Polaris land on a target when a B-52 was making it's bomb run resulting in fratricide?

The Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff (or JSTPS) was soon set up at SAC Headquarters in order to coordinate a unified nuclear war plan - and this eventually resulted in the SIOP or Single Integrated Operational Plan.

The first plan, SIOP-62, would become a famous (or infamous) still-classified document of the Cold War - although a number of facts about it are now known. Specialists at SAC Headquarters, members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force (mostly Air Force) carefully calculated concepts like blast damage, required nuclear yields to ensure destruction of targets, assigning multiple sorties to ensure destruction of a priority target, attrition of strike aircraft, percentages of missiles that might not leave the ground, solving time-on-target complications, and so on. The result was a highly choregraphed and highly studied war plan.

SIOP-62 was envisioned to provide the U.S. President a number of nuclear options, but in reality this was not the case. Any option would result in the release of thousands of nuclear strike missions. Kaplan's 1983 book "Wizards of Armageddon" remarks that SIOP-62's release of American nuclear ready-alert forces, those bombers or missiles on 15-minute alert, in the event of war, might kill upwards of 175 million Soviets and Chinese via blast effects alone, not including fire and fallout effects. A total force generation might involve 3,423 nuclear weapons totaling 7,847 megatons of explosive power, and the subsequent deaths of 285 million in the Sino-Soviet Bloc.

The immensity of the rigid war plan stunned members of the newly elected Kennedy Administration in 1961, notably Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. New options were sought, including the concept of counterforce targeting - strictly engaging an enemy's military forces instead of attacking industrial complexes (and cities). The result in subsequent revisions of the SIOP meant that a few more options would become available, with the Minuteman II missile embodying the concept when it entered service in the mid-1960s. Minuteman II targets could be changed relatively quickly, increased accuracy meant that hardened military structures could be better engaged, and better protection for American launch complexes signaled to the Soviets that any surprise attack would prove useless ensuring a second-strike capability (at that time). The hope was that it would strengthen deterrence. At the same time, the Soviets committed to a massive effort to field more strategic nuclear weapons of their own. The Cold War continued.

Revised a number of times over the years, the SIOP provided nuclear guidance through the end of the Cold War. Since 2012, an evolution of SIOP by U.S. Strategic Command is known as OPLAN 8010-12 - Strategic Deterrence and Force Employment.

06/03/2026

It will be a cold winter...

In the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, new U.S. President John F. Kennedy traveled to Vienna, Austria in 1961 to meet with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviets had recently put the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, and a boastful Khrushchev approached the meeting intending to make ground on the "Berlin Question" - the possibility of the Soviets signing a separate peace treaty with East Germany, and thereby forcing out the western powers in West Berlin. Kennedy refused to budge on agreements made after World War II with the four Allied powers, and pledged that the United States would remain in Berlin.

Khrushchev, with a very nominal strategic nuclear force behind him, threatened that "It is up to the U.S. to decide whether there will be war or peace" after which Kennedy replied "Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be war. It will be a cold winter". In 1961, the United States enjoyed a massive superiority in strategic nuclear weapons systems that included B-52 bombers, Atlas missiles, and Polaris submarines to name a fraction of the arsenal.

While the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is often considered the critical point of the Cold War, the events of 1961 in many cases were no less dramatic. After returning home, on June 25th, Kennedy addressed congress spelling the dangers of the Cold War, asking for a call-up of military reservists, and asking for increased funding for civil defense.

August would see the construction of the Berlin Wall where it would remain until late 1989. Followed by dramatic escapes and clashes between police in Berlin, October saw the crisis at Checkpoint Charlie where American and Soviet tanks faced off at one another. The same month the Soviets detonated Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever fired, during a test in the Arctic.

While Atlas and Titan-I sites neared completion in the United States, the then-still-secret Nedelin Catastrophe of 1960 proved a major setback to Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile development. As the Soviets sought to catch up with the West in early 1962, the United States was already testing and building sites for a second generation of ICBMs - the Titan-II and the Minuteman.

06/03/2026

Shall we play a game?

Wishing a happy 43rd birthday to the film released in theaters on this day in 1983.

1983 also witnessed the events of Able Archer '83, the Soviet shootdown of Korean Airlines Flight 007, the ongoing drama of Operation RYaN (as conducted by the Soviets), and the decision to deploy Pershing II missiles in Europe to counter Soviet SS-20 missiles. With all of this in mind, the year might be considered one of the more dangerous periods of the Cold War. Superpower relations had soured to a dark point likely not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Other nuclear films released that year, further magnifying the dread of war, include Testament and The Day After, both grimly portraying the days after fictional nuclear attacks.

The more upbeat WarGames however is the most quoted film on our tours. The initial scene of the movie takes place at a Minuteman Launch Control Center that looks somewhat like ours in the midst of a blizzard. The film then follows the computer exploits of David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) as he inadvertently hacks into the War Operations Plan Response (WOPR) computer at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters west of Colorado Springs, Colorado. As he finds a game about global thermonuclear war left in the original programming, Air Force personnel at Cheyenne Mountain look up at the simulations believing that it is the real thing. The film also stars Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, and Barry Corbin as General Jack Beringer.

The film made $124.6 million at the box office and President Ronald Reagan was reportedly impressed by the film, subsequently seeking to improve government cyber security.

Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota is briefly shown on a map during the film, but we won't give away any spoilers.

(Below: A VHS copy of WarGames sitting near the status console within the Oscar-Zero Launch Control Center)

06/02/2026

Caught this North Dakota Army National Guard UH-60M, callsign KOTA-26, passing by today.

No doubt admiring the Blackhawk's predecessor on our helipad from afar.

We're working on updating/reinforcing the tie-downs for Blade 58 but only made so much headway in the wind today. Luckily, North Dakota is known for calm wind conditions throughout the year - so we'll get back to her soon.

06/02/2026

Telephone service may be interrupted in the event of global thermonuclear war...an evolution in strategic communications at Oscar-Zero.

The role of redundant communications capabilities tends to be a lesser-known aspect of the Cold War - although it was of paramount importance to strategic defense. During the 1950s, America's Strategic Air Command poured a great amount of effort and funding into reinforcing the communication nodes that would send Emergency Action Messages to the strategic nuclear forces then found in bombers and, by later in the decade, intercontinental ballistic missile sites, in the event of war.

In terms of telephone and teletype services, AT&T worked throughout the Cold War to create redundancies in its Long Lines network in hopes of maintaining communications during a war. Cable routes were diverted around cities in hopes of sparing them from destruction while microwave communication nodes were developed as well. AT&T bunkers that directly supported Strategic Air Command Primary Alerting System (PAS) operations were found near Lyons, Nebraska; Lamar, Colorado; and Fairview, Kansas. Some were equipped with a "Combat Ciders" capability in which EC-135 aircraft, and VC-137/VC-25 "Air Force Ones" for that matter, could tap into ground communications via ultra-high frequency radio.

As telephone and microwave communication nodes might be destroyed during an attack, the 1950s found Strategic Air Command improving high frequency radio communications to bases and aircraft alike. Single sideband, or SSB, became the radio communication standard for SAC by 1957 - then known as SHORT ORDER and later known as GIANT TALK. The problem with HF is that signals could be degraded in terms of minutes or even hours during solar events but also with nuclear weapons detonating in the atmosphere. Even with this in mind, it continues to be a robust backup if other communication systems went down. An evolution of SAC's HF system survives today in the form of the High Frequency Global Communications System or HFGCS.

It would be during the 1960s, particularly with communications testing results in hand from the 1962 Operation Dominic nuclear tests in the South Pacific, that SAC began to truly develop nuclear-resistant redundancies for communications. Ultra high frequency radio, UHF, was great for line-of-sight communications for aircraft, satellite, and ground sites. Nuclear blackout might occur as UHF signals cannot easily travel through nuclear fireballs, but it was thought to be more resistant to nuclear effects than HF. It might be said that UHF radio was a backbone for the Post-Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) that came into being during the mid-60s with first modified EB-47L relay aircraft and later EC-135s - but also with the Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) equipping Blue Scout Junior rockets in Nebraska from 1963 to 1967 and later modified Minuteman II missiles at sites near Whiteman AFB, Missouri after that point.

The other option was very low frequency/low frequency communications which operated on a lower data transmission rate compared with previous systems, but was considered the most resilient way of communicating to ICBM sites during a nuclear exchange. GREEN PINE installations in Canada could receive these transmissions as well and convert messages to UHF transmission to bomber/tanker forces heading northward from American bases. VLF/LF transmissions are not easily effected by nuclear bursts, although ground transmitter sites (once found near Silver Creek, Nebraska and Hawes, California) could still be destroyed. PACCS EC-135s and later the E-4 were equipped with long trailing wire antennas which could transmit as well. Both ground and air-based assets formed the Survivable Low Frequency Communications System (SLFCS) into the 1970s.

By the end of the Cold War, satellite communications became a critical part of America's strategic command and control system. AFSATCOM, utilizing UHF, came first, and was followed up with the Defense Support Communications Satellites (DSCS) program. One can see the impact of DSCS on tour at Oscar-Zero by viewing the ICBM Super High Frequency Satellite Terminal receiver (ISST) dome directly behind the Launch Control Support Building. While never integrated at North Dakota's Oscar-Zero, Extremely high frequency (EHF) systems utilizing MILSTAR satellites came into service later with modern Minuteman missile sites.

Today, visitors are welcomed to explore the ground at Oscar-Zero and see the various communications antennas utilized during the Cold War years and beyond.

06/01/2026

Silo-ology: Counterforce vs. Counterforce

Sitting in a launch tube 90 ft deep and only 15 ft. in diameter, and beneath a 107.5 ton enclosure door, a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was likely found at the former November-33 Launch Facility between 1972-73 until August 1997. We say "likely" due to possible modification or maintenance programs during that time.

Possessing a range of greater than 6,000 miles, Minuteman IIIs assigned to Grand Forks Air Force Base after the 1980 timeframe carried up to three W78 thermonuclear warheads rated between 335 to 350 kilotons - roughly 25 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The multiple warheads were independently targetable upon an area "footprint" about 600 miles wide by 900 miles long. They were (and continue to be) accurate, and could be used in a counterforce role against Soviet missile silos considering their 600 ft circular error probable (CEP) on a specified target.

As Minuteman IIIs in North Dakota were upgraded beginning in 1980, the Soviet Union was deploying the R-36M, or the SS-18 "Satan" missile. The SS-18 Mod 4 variant in particular began to directly threaten American Minuteman missile silos as each carried between 8-10 500 to 550 kiloton warheads with an accuracy of .92 kilometers - or about a half mile. Deployed later, a rough American counterpart to the SS-18 Mod 4 was the highly accurate Peacekeeper ICBM that could carry 10 warheads, each rated to 300-475 kilotons, with a CEP rated as tight as 130 ft.

Considering that hardened yet static missile silos became increasingly vulnerable to strikes in the 1980s, the superpowers considered other options. Both the United States and the Soviet Union studied rail-mobile and road-mobile ICBMs with only the Soviets actually deploying either type (the rail-mobile SS-24 "Scalpel" and road-mobile SS-25 "Sickle").

Near the end of the Cold War, the United States considered a rail-mobile Peacekeeper Rail Garrison program and a road-mobile Small ICBM (SICBM) nicknamed "Midgetman". Both programs were cancelled in the early 1990s, and in the post-Cold War environment, the United States instead retained the static yet accurate Minuteman III along with the mobile capability of the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines carrying Trident I and highly-accurate Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (Trident Is were later all replaced with Trident IIs).

Today, one can view a former Minuteman III Launch Facility at North Dakota's former November-33 just east of Cooperstown, North Dakota.

06/01/2026

A Happy Birthday today to Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander 1st Lt. Grouch - formerly of the 448th Strategic Missile Squadron, 321st Strategic Missile Wing, Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota.

First appearing on Sesame Street on November 10, 1969, Oscar is major fan of trash and can most often be found in his metal can. While our underground Launch Control Center is pretty clean, he'd certainly feel right at home in our metal capsule.

An Air Force-era mural of Oscar the Grouch can be seen on tour in our underground Launch Control Center, alongside Missile Combat Crew Commander Captain "Arnie" Eagle.

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Cooperstown, ND

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+17017973691

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http://history.nd.gov/historicsites/minutemanmissile/index.html

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