James is the owner of decommissioned Minuteman silo Oscar-10 and runs a earthmoving business from the site.
Tom is an owner of site Lima-03 and uses it today as a qual restoration site.
This rural region north of Cheyenne and south of Chugwater, Wyoming is the home of the decommissioned 400th Missile Division once a part of F. E. Warren Air Force Base. From 1986 to 2005 the 50 Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles in the ground here each had 10 independent nuclear warheads armed with 300-kiloton warheads – each of which was independently targetable. (The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 13 kilotons.) Today, the land is once again in the private ownership of ranchers but some remnants and original features of these historic Cold War-era launch sites – or missile silos – still remain.
"Garner Nike" is a photo essay showcasing a decommissioned Nike nuclear missile site in Gardner, Kansas. The site, which was operational from 1959 to 1969, was one of four Nike sites near Kansas City that were designed to protect the city from Soviet bombers during the Cold War. The essay features aerial and ground-level photographs of the site, as well as images of its owner, and highlights the site's current state of being overgrown with vegetation.
The photographs are inspired by the artist’s own childhood anxiety and intrigue of the Cold War and the current proliferation of nuclear weapons, including the demise of nuclear weapons treaties and the emergence of nuclear threats from countries such as Russia, North Korea, and the United States.
The photographs serve as a reminder of a time when we were able to step back from the brink of extinction and the potential for such a thing to happen again, especially in today's world where we face multiple other existential threats.
I'm keeping the owner anonymous by request so he faces away from my camera for the “portrait”—he stands facing the three missile launch doors that opened to the horizontal storage area for the Nike nuclear missiles.
I'm keeping the owner anonymous by request so he faces away from my camera for the “portrait”. He stands on one of the three missile launch bay doors that once opened to the horizontal storage area for the Nike nuclear missiles.
Three support buildings for missile assembly and warhead storage. The half-circle berm helps to protect the missile assembly building (center bottom). A path on the ridge of the berm has been mowed by the owner for easy access.
The ridge of the berm is higher than the other buildings and creates a nice view of other parts of the former base.
Directly below the surface are three horizontal missile storage areas or magazines. And thus three visible doors for the missiles to be loaded out before each would be launched.
A stenciled message for Army soldiers at the Nike site's barracks building. Today it's protected by much overgrowth.
Visible here is the rainwater runoff which has collected and flooded the former nuclear missile storage bunker over time. The bunker is build directly below the launch area.
The half-circle earthen berm was landscaped to protect the weapons assembly building. The berm top was recently mowed by the private owner as a walking path through the overgrowth of the site.
The electric pole is original to the site and continues to carry power for the owner today.
These light fixtures were removed from the missile assembly building by the current owner when new power service updates were made.
Midcentury modern architecture for the Army. This support building was for assembling the missiles. Today the current owner maintains, secures and uses the buildings of this former nuclear weapons base.
Located just outside of Winfield, Kansas, this decommissioned Titan II property is still owned by the US government for reasons unknown to the photographer.
This body of work is currently under development.
