A Nike Missile Base Where the Cold War Never Ended

Last weekend Telstar Logistics dropped by an old Nike Hercules missile base just as the sun was setting gracefully over the Pacific Ocean nearby.  The base, in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, is still known by its former military designation: SF-88. It's a former Nike missile battery that's been restored to near-original condition.

Built during the 1950s, Nike missiles were anti-aircraft weapons designed to shoot down Soviet bombers before they could drop their deadly payloads on American soil. The missiles themselves were equipped with either nuclear or conventional warheads, and a total of more than 300 Nike batteries were erected around America's major cities, where they operated until the early 1970s. In the Bay Area alone there were two dozen Nike sites scattered around the region, but SF-88 is the only one in the country that remains more or less intact.

Operated under the auspices of the National Park Service and maintained by a staff of devoted volunteers, SF-88 retains most of the equipment and hardware that was used when the battery was operational.

Apart from several of the old missiles, the underground missile storage facilities are also restored, and visitors can even ride up and down the elevator that carried the rockets into firing position. Wheeee!

This historic video shows what it was like when a Nike missile went into action:

Elsewhere on the SF-88 grounds, right alongside a pair of radar antennae, sit the two innocuous-looking trailers that were used for target tracking and launch control. The equipment inside is pristine:

If you live anywhere near a major American city, there are probably a few abandoned Nike missile sites tucked away in the more desolate parts of your local subrubs — if you know where to look. (HINT: try this Nike missile treasure guide!) Those sites will probably be wild and overgrown, but if you go, try to remember a time when they all looked kind of like SF-88: Poised to repel a Soviet airborne invasion that never came.

LINKS:
Nike Missile Base SF-88 (FLickr photoset from Telstar Logistics)

National Park Service: Nike Missile Site (Official website, with visiting hours)

The Nike Historical Society (Nike alumni site with technical details)

Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site (Ridiculously comprehensive enthusiast site)

Nike Missile Sites of the San Francisco Bay Area (Survey and maps by Jef Poskanzer)

PREVIOUSLY:
Turning the Launch Key Inside a Titan ICBM Missile Silo

(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics; Nike operation graphic via nikemissile.org.)

Comments

[The Idiot]

Great tour!

Next time you get back to Jersey, see if you can make time to visit Sandy Hook (NE tip) to check out Fort Hancock. My dad took us there to see the Nike sites, but what I liked was Battery Richardson-huge crumbling shore defense fortifications.

[chromal]

That's seriously sweet. I wonder what made the military abandon this one in place rather than strip and decommission it. Or was it actually reconstructed. Either way, I look at all that purpose-engineered and built hardware, and its advanced nature for its day, and am impressed.

[Jeremy]

The various disarmament treaties allowed each side to keep a certain number of designated sites decommissioned but intact as museums. The Marin site is one of them, and has been carefully maintained by volunteers who've been replacing any missing non-classified equipment rescued from other sites, people's personal collections, etc. A volunteer I spoke to said the internet has made it much easier to track down stuff than it was 10-15 years ago, when it was all rumour and word of mouth as to who had what.

[Telstar Logistics]

@idiot, there's a great "Weird NJ" video about the New Jersey Nike facilities here.

[striatic]

I checked out the treasure guide, and as it turns out, I've already seen a Radar and Missile master site!

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=fort+lawton+WA&ie=UTF8&ll=47.658107,-122.41212&spn=0.002323,0.005981&t=h&z=18&g=fort+lawton+WA

That's at Fort Lawton in Seattle, which is largely abandoned now.

[Steve R]

Thanks for the post!

For those with an interest in Cold War readiness, check out this link:
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/

Lots of interesting stuff incl. a photo tour of a decommissioned Nike site in Texas.

[The Idiot]

I followed the video link (thanks!) and found a related WeirdNJ link to the Atlantus, the famous concrete ship beached off the coast of Cape May. As a kid, I sat on the beach and stared at that wreck, thinking it was the strangest story I'd ever heard.

[johnny0]

There was one on Mount SUTRO??? Damn.

[Matt]

I visited SF-88 with the Boy Scouts, it was great! We spent the night in one of the many underground bunkers that was part of the "Iron Triangle" awesome memory. If I remember correctly, the hydraulic doors and lift were working when I visited.
I would like to extend a special thanks to all involved in restoring/maintaining and educating the public about these cold war treasures.

[John Konrad]

Reminds me of the Walton family bunker!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcCfkKziWa8#t=1m8s