A docent explains how the Nike Hercules missile sites in Alaska worked during the Cold War.
The Nike Summit site in Arctic Valley as seen from Rendezvous Pass. In addition to the bus tour in Arctic Valley there is one in Kincaid Park in Anchorage, where other Nike Hercules missiles were placed defend major military installations in Alaska during the Cold War.
Target-tracking radar at the Nike Site Summit in the Chugach Mountains. Bus and hiking tours of the site are available.
Mount Gordon Lyon is in the Chugach Mountains about 14 miles northeast of Anchorage. You can see it with the naked eye. Look closer. See the steeply ascending slash across the entire mountain, from the bottom left to the top right? That is the road to the top. Very narrow, a largely useless guardrail when there is one at all, not for the squeamish. It leads to where they stationed the nuclear weapons.
Perched on the very top of the mountain, also visible to the naked eye, are two white domes, one taller than the other. These are former radar towers left over from the days when there were 14 nuclear-tipped Nike Hercules missiles up there. More about that in a moment.
But if you still can't identify the mountain, surely you have seen the lighted star on the side of Mount Gordon Lyon in the winter. Originally built by a few bored soldiers stationed at Nike Site Summit in the late 1950s, it has become a tradition ever since. You can see it from all over Anchorage because it is as big as a football field and lit by 300 LED bulbs.
Mount Gordon Lyon used to be taller until the 1950s when the military blasted off the top 60 feet, removing 25,000 cubic yards of rock to make it flatter. They did that to build a Nike missile base on the nice new flat-topped mountain. And why do that? The Cold War, of course.
The military envisioned hordes of Soviet bombers armed with nuclear weapons swarming toward the United States, flying right over Alaska on their way to the Lower 48. As a result, Alaska was home to three batteries of Nike Hercules missiles designed to blast commie bombers out of the sky. Each missile was 41 feet long and weighed about 10,000 pounds. It traveled 3,000 miles per hour, could climb to more than 100,000 feet, and had a range of about 75 miles. It typically carried a 20 or 40 kiloton warhead-up to three times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Site Summit (B Battery) was located on top of Mount Gordon Lyon in the Chugach Mountains. It was home to 14 nuclear-tipped missiles and all the necessary infrastructure.
And here's the best part-you can go up there for a tour. You'll see guard posts, the dog kennels where guard dogs lived, bunkers where nuclear weapons were stored, other bunkers where Nike Hercules missiles were at the ready to be launched in minutes when needed, and buildings that housed the electronics that controlled radar systems.
Of course, the star of the show is a genuine Nike Hercules missile in its "cradle" on the floor of the bunker right in front of you. Go ahead, touch it. Finally, if you are not surrounded by an impenetrable, ominous fogbank, you'll see fantastic views of Anchorage and environs.
The entire site is a restricted military area. Park at the Arctic Valley Ski Area parking lot where you board a bus for the final leg up the mountain to the Nike complex. The buildings are spread around the top of the mountain, so the bus carts you around to the different points of interest. Every facility you visit has one or more docents, often guys who were stationed there when the site was active. They give you the real scoop about what life was like on the mountain year-round.
The docents tell you stories that maybe you would be just as happy to have not heard. For example, each missile was stored in a horizontal cradle ready for raising to an almost perpendicular attitude prior to launch. Every day a man would run his hands all over each nuclear warhead, kind of like an enthusiastic greeting of the family dog. But his purpose was different, a bit more sinister. He was looking for warm spots which he fervently hoped he would not find. They would indicate the beginning of unwanted nuclear reaction.
Like to see the old Nike site for yourself? Here's how to do it. Visit nikesitesummit.net where you will find detailed information about the site and about how to sign up for a tour. Alternatively, you can call 907-717-0117, or visit Facebook: Friends of Nike Site Summit. Participants should wear sturdy shoes with good ankle support and bring appropriate clothing for ever-changing weather at Arctic Valley.
By the way, they tell us the site is fully decommissioned but, ummm, if I were you I wouldn't press any buttons or pull any levers. Just saying.
