When you exit I-90 to head to Badlands National Park, you find the Minuteman National Historic Site. We didn’t know anything about this place, so we stopped to see what it was all about.

During the Cold War era, the US built 150 Minuteman missile silos and 15 control centers in South Dakota. These facilities remained on alert for almost 30 years until 1991 when the US and the USSR signed the START treaty, which required that the US decommission and destroy the silos.

One silo was preserved (with a glass cover so that satellites could verify that it was empty) along with one control center, and placed under the care of the National Park Service. Thus our newest National Historic Site was created.

There is a visitor’s center, where you can view a video and various displays on how the silos were built, how the control centers operated and what life was like working there.

It is possible to tour the control center and silo. However, they were still on their Winter schedule, so we missed the tour for that day. Maybe next time…

A few more miles down the road we see the Badlands. One minute you were driving through rolling prairie then the next it was as if we were on the Moon.

The Badlands were formed by water and wind erosion. They say that the formations loose one inch a year of soil.

In spite of the barrenness, humans have lived in the area for 11,000 years. Native Americans hunted the plains and homesteaders attempted to eke out a living farming the plains.

Today, the Badlands National Park contains the largest expanse of natural prairie in the US, over 64,000 acres. It is home to the endangered black footed ferret, prairie dogs and buffalo.

A Buffalo standing in the rain

Like most National Parks, the campground has no water or electrical hookups. However, being early in the season, we had the place almost to ourselves.

Our campsite at the Badlands National Park