Between 1955 and December 1958, The U.S. Army
operated this site as one of a couple hundred across the nation as part
of the cold war defense effort. Designated
H-52, this Nike missile bunker pair was controlled by a radar system
on the top of nearby Rattlesnake Mountain. The north and south bunkers
each contained 10 type A missiles (Ajax, conventional warheads) that
could be loaded onto one of 4 launchers per bunker. Hydraulic lifts
moved the assemblies to the concrete platform on the surface where the
launches would be performed. Additionally there were 2 type B missiles
(Hercules, conventional warhead) positioned on the surface in their own
launch systems. There is a non-profit
organization dedicated to the Nike air defense system. The site was
later converted to an emergency operations center and designated
building 6652L (L for launch). Later still it was converted to the Gravitation Physics Laboratory.
The location was initially chosen to defend the Hanford
Nuclear Facility. Hanford has since produced 2/3rds of the
nation's plutonium metal used in manufacturing nuclear weapons. In fact,
Hanford plutonium was used in the first atomic bomb test conducted at
Alamogordo, NM in July 1945 as well as the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped
on the city of Nagasaki, Japan in World War II. The land has since
become a wildlife preserve under the
auspices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bunker is located at
46.39084N, -119.53494W, +385m according to our local GPS unit.
An almost completely reconstructed Nike missile site is
located in the Golden Gate
Recreational Area near San Francisco, CA and is open for public
tours.