We spent an informative afternoon Saturday on the outskirts of Cooperstown  at the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site. It’s a relic of the Cold War that is now open to the public for tours.

We started with a tour at the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility. An introductory video reviewed the history of nuclear weaponry and mapped out what was once the 321st Missile Wing and its 150 missiles buried deep beneath the North Dakota prairie.

It’s pretty amazing to think about how, out in the middle of nowhere, lay the potential to unleash warfare that would drastically change the world. (In fact, there are still active Minuteman III missiles beneath the prairie – based out of Minot AFB.)

Anyway. Back to the tour. We got to see the crew’s living quarters and learn about their different duties. Eight crew members were topside (above ground). Then we were brought down 60 ft in a freight elevator to bottomside, which includes the launch control room and mechanical room. Those two rooms are basically two sides of a big underground capsule. Each room was closed off by its own massive door. We were thankful that the doors are kept open now that the place is a tourist site. I would have felt very claustrophobic and nervous behind those doors.

While Oscar-Zero is about four miles north of Cooperstown, November-33 is about two miles east of town. At November-33, you can see the huge door (I guess huge doors are a theme with this place) that once concealed a Minuteman missile – one of 10 overseen by Oscar-Zero.

This is a newer historic site in ND – open to the public almost two years now – and I highly recommend taking a tour there.  You’ll have the opportunity to go deeper (literally!) into history.