Now here’s the real reason we based out of Grahams Island
for the week. There’s an abandoned military base in northeastern ND. Called The
Pyramid of North Dakota, the Stanley R Mickelson Safeguard Complex, built at a
cost of over six billion dollars, was fully operational for less than three
days before being shut down.
The facility is not open to the public. You get a photo from
outside the fence and that’s it. Parts of the facility and grounds have been
sold throughout the years. A Hutterite community purchased a lot of the land
and is using it for farming. Most recently, a bitcoin mining company has
purchased the buildings with the intentions of building a data center. As the
governor noted in his announcement, the climate in North Dakota is conducive for
reduced cooling costs.
Harold’s Navy buddy, Kevin, drove over from Minnesota with
his father-in-law. After the photo outside the Pyramid fence, it was an hour
and a half drive to Cooperstown and the Ronald Reagan Historic Missile Site. You
can tour the Minuteman Missile launch control facility, including the
underground capsules. Then you can drive over to the nearby preserved missile
silo site.
Harold and I were both a bit surprised at the differences in
the capsules between this site and Quebec-1 in Chugwater, WY. This capsule
seemed much larger.
As an aside, both the Ronald Reagan and Quebec-1 sites are
much easier to tour than the popular Minuteman Missile site in Interior, SD. We
have yet to see that one since we didn’t plan far enough in advance to get
tickets. Maybe someday we’ll get to see that one.
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| Pyramid in the prairie |
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| So where is that security camera? |
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| We were here |
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| Soon to be a data center |
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| Oscar Zero Command |
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| It takes two keys to launch |
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| Missile site |
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| Missile Doors |
Where Are We Going Next?
