One and A Half Acres:
Portraits of America’s Decommissioned Minuteman Missile Silos
Click images to enlarge.
To see what a future without nuclear weapons might look like, we can gaze thirty years into the past when the world’s super-powers stepped back from the brink through massive nuclear weapons cuts. Today, once more on the brink of a new arms race, it seems incredible that the nuclear threat has returned. Once again we will need to convey the urgency of this development. My way of addressing the issue has been to realize this project.
My One and a Half Acres series tells the tale of what America’s decommissioned Minuteman missile silos look like 30 years after peace broke out and destroyed the silos and their missiles following the end of the Cold War.
The series title One and a Half Acres (equivalent to approximately 4,000 square meters), offers a poignant reference to the average land area enclosed by the security fence at each Minuteman site. It underscores the significance of the mass-produced uniformity (i.e. 1000 active sites up to 1991) and constrained space within these sites, shedding light on the ease with which the U.S. armed forces could incorporate them virtually anywhere they deemed necessary.
These two opening images show how the sites in Missouri look today and—by extension—all 600 decommissioned Minuteman sites throughout South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Their consistent rectangular geometry frames the stunning 30-year absence of these once terrifying weapons.
Below, curious dividing lines unite both Charlie-03 and Lima-04 – but for different reasons. Charlie-03 has been sited across two properties. Its north side hosts a residential property (out of frame) and, inside the fence sits a lone dog house. On the site’s south side we see a farm with hay-bale storage.
Lima-04, however, is a single property with a cattle feeding pen (north) and hay-bale storage (south). Several cows can be seen in the lower left corner of the site.
Lima-02, below, shows how the site has been used in two different years, 2020 and 2022. In 2020 it had a lot of daily activity because it is located near busy Missouri Route 7. The farmer who owned the site leased it in 2020 for storage for a utility company’s utility poles and “cherry-picker” trucks. But in 2022 the utility poles have made way for the First Baptist Church of Garden City’s 4th of July fireworks stand.
The color and clean lines of Echo-07 and November-05, below, make this pair almost completely abstract. The setting sun in South Dakota’s Echo-07 site reveals the Army Corp of Engineers’ landscaping common to all Minuteman sites. The November-05 site shows a fresh layer of Missouri snow from the night before.
Below, working businesses define both Hotel-10 and Oscar-10. Hotel-10 reveals agricultural grain bins and augers; Oscar-10 is home to an earth-moving operation.
Removed security fences help both Lima-20 and Hotel-02 to transition their way back to nature. North Dakota’s Lima-20 still shows the gravel added during the decommissioning process. Hotel-02 has become a fenceless public space which is part of Missouri’s prairie conservation effort. Only the old access road cuts through the Army Corp of Engineers’ landscaping whose original shape is still faintly visible.
Missouri owners of decommissioned Minuteman sites are prohibited to this day from digging more than 24 inches into the soil of a former site. This is because of PCBs, lead paint, and asbestos from the 1960s building materials. Thus, India-11’s simple shed is acceptable for site use. But Mike-09’s Kingsville Seventh-Day Adventist Church has been built directly east of the site so its deep foundation does not imping on site property.
Agricultural work ties this pair together. Mike-07 shows a loader and dump truck actively working while the fog and snow blanketing Lima-03 reveals a recent delivery of three hay bales from the site.
The uniform southern access roads and the opposing colors of the land make these sites a pair. Echo-07 is part of a state conservation effort and shows a recent prescribed field burn. Its security fence has been removed leaving only a pitted earth perimeter on the west side. Kilo-08 shows an abundantly overgrown security fence and a lush corn field.
Extreme contrast unites Mike-11 and Alpha-06. Mike-11 is defined by some 30 years of overgrowth while all traces of Alpha-06 have been completely erased on a snowy winter day.
Each of these decommissioned sites retain more original elements than most others. Wyoming’s Quebec-07 was home to an MX Peacekeeper missile and its decommissioning (one of 50 in 2005) curiously seem to have left more original elements intact, such as lighting poles and sealed silo opening. You will not see such elements in Missouri, South Dakota and North Dakota sites.
The November-33 North Dakota site was written into the START Treaty with a provision for its preservation and is today part of a North Dakota historical museum. It is the only decommissioned Minuteman site that appears almost exactly as it would have been 30 years ago and it is very close to the look of the current 400 active Minuteman sites. Note that it is prohibited to fly a drone above active missile sites so this view is rare.
Four selected images from Looking for Hope
This series offers a closer view of the decommissioned Minutemen sites and another perspective of what a future without nuclear weapons might look like.
Four selected images from Living With the Land
In the portrait series, I acknowledge the landowners of these decommissioned sites by making an effort to show their connection to the land. These people (mostly farmers) have never had a voice in the siting of the ICBM properties on their land. They also had no control over the disposition of miles of underground communications cables throughout their fields. Nor did they have any say in the paltry sums of money paid them from sites sold back to them after decommissioning.
Even today—30 years after decommissioning—each Missouri landowner is in touch with a joint task force made up of the EPA, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the Air Force whose job it is to keep tabs on site-related environmental concerns as well as what they can or cannot do with their own land. This is due to the fact that these sites were built before the environmental protection laws of the 1970s with materials like lead paint, asbestos, and PCBs.
Minuteman Decommissioning: A Brief Historical Overview
Following the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I) signed by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, the demolition process of Minuteman sites began. Of the 1000 active Minuteman sites at that time, 450 were systematically demolished in Missouri, South Dakota, and North Dakota. These sites underwent a thorough process: they were deactivated, missiles were removed, warheads were destroyed, and throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the launch components at these sites were completely demolished.
Explosives were used to destroy the silo chamber with the heavy silo door open. The resulting cavity was filled with rubble, the heavy silo door was pulled over the top, and the site was smoothed and covered with gravel. Upon completion, accessing any part of the missile silo became impossible. Thus if today any of these sites were to be dug into, only rubble would be found.
As part of the Minuteman decommissioning process and the agreement with Russia, demolition craters were kept open for a period to allow Russian satellites to verify silo destruction. This historical period is still visible in archived Google Earth imagery by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Each of the following Minuteman site examples show:
A black and white 1990s satellite image showing the open demolition crater
A recent satellite image of the same site for comparison
Charlie-08, Smithson, Missouri
In this first example, a 1997 satellite image of Charlie-08 displays a visible crater in the southwest corner. This is where the silo was. In contrast, the 2020 image reveals only the footprint of the site left intact.
Foxtrot-06, Lincoln, Missouri
Another example is a 1996 satellite image of Foxtrot-06, featuring another noticeable crater in the southwest corner from the demolition process. The 2012 image illustrates how, under private ownership once more, the site underwent extensive reduction. What’s left is only the access road entrance, two leftover utility poles, and a faint "ghost" image marking the site’s long-standing presence.
November-04 Higginsville, Missouri
In the final example, the 1997 satellite image of November-04 again reveals an open crater used for Russian satellite verification. By 2021, the site had transformed into a fenced property amid crop fields, with a newly-constructed farm credit bank across Missouri Route 13.
*The decommissioning history of Minuteman is different from its predecessor ICBM programs Atlas, Titan I and Titan II which were decommissioned due to technical obsolescence and are sometimes repurposed by private owners for living spaces.
Detail of Charlie-03, Boonville, Missouri
Detail of Mike-11, Centerview, Missouri
One and a half acres Project Inception
My journey into documenting decommissioned nuclear missile silos began with two pivotal childhood events that shaped my perspective and thus this photographic project. My parents, in opposition to the Vietnam War, served in Nigeria as educators, leading to my birth in Africa. This instilled in me the importance of demonstrating one's beliefs.
Then during the 1980s Cold War, I became acutely aware of the significance of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and how consequential those could be for both my community and the world.
Later in my adult years, a 2015 road trip through western Nebraska exposed me to active ICBM silos, sparking my curiosity about the state of our nation's ICBM forces. The following year, Donald Trump's presidency ushered in a turbulent period of foreign policy and arms control, reigniting my Cold War-era anxieties and driving me to delve deeper into the subject.
My anxiety transformed into a passionate interest. Over the next few years, I immersed myself in books about Minuteman missiles and our nation's near-miss encounters with nuclear weapons. I also sought information on the locations of this country’s Minuteman ICBM sites, discovering both 400 active missile sites and 600 decommissioned sites across the Great Plains region of the US, which includes the 150 sites in Missouri, just a 45-minute drive from my Kansas home.
As I examined Google satellite images of the decommissioned sites in Missouri, the concept for my project took shape. In 2019, now equipped with a drone camera, I began my process: researching online maps and land ownership records, embarking on trips, engaging with locals, capturing images, and refining my message. This cycle led to multiple small gallery exhibits.
While most of my journeys centered on rural Missouri, I also undertook longer trips to the Cold War museums in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming, all once missile alert facilities. At these museums I would experience the underground bunkers where Air Force personnel were stationed with their launch codes and keys. But most importantly, I also saw and photographed decommissioned missile sites associated with these former military installations.
With my project gaining momentum, I began applying for arts funding and entering photography competitions to broaden my reach. My efforts faced frustration until 2021 when I received an invitation to Vienna, Austria, as a top-five medalist at the Global Peace Photo Awards. This experience bolstered my confidence and emphasized the importance of submitting my work to audiences that would appreciate it the most.
Thus, this ongoing journey includes seeking membership to the Atomic Photographers Guild, underscoring my dedication to my belief: that by delving into our history, we can imagine a future free from nuclear weapons.
Artist Statement
We’ve managed to escape extinction so far. Perhaps by sheer luck.
I grew up in the American Midwest during the Cold War culture of the 1980s. My home was within sight of an ammunition plant, and—though I didn’t know it at the time—a short drive from 150 U.S. Air Force ‘Minuteman’ intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) silos. Locally, it was common knowledge that in the event of an attack, our town would be wiped out in an instant by Soviet Union ICBMs. This wasn’t just the stuff of movies I’d seen (like The Day After, which captured this very scenario unfolding and was actually filmed where we lived) – This was very real life. The threat of potential nuclear war was literally all around me and overwhelmingly clear: A frightening and compelling backdrop to my childhood.
The following years would bring major shifts in geopolitics. The Soviet Union ended in 1991 and in the same year, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed by the United States of America and the USSR, removed and destroyed our nearby 150 nukes. In 1992, the Army decommissioned the ammunition plant that neighbored my home.
Today, in my adult years, news of increasing nuclear armament and faltering nuclear treaties rekindled my childhood anxieties and intrigue. Chaotic Trump Administration rhetoric and foreign policies for Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have resurfaced uneasy feelings all too familiar from my youth.
This project helps process these emotions.
Ready access to online satellite imagery, paired with new technology in consumer aerial (drone) photography, allow me to explore in-person the former nuclear sites that occupied my imagination as a child and were the root of my anxieties and fascination.
This work investigates what occupies these former ICBM spaces today and in doing so, highlights what is obviously absent: the weapons themselves.
In a time of increasing nationalism and global instability, my work contemplates how we have so far avoided the existential threats from our past and provides a cautionary work about how we consider our collective future.
Project Completion
I consider One and a Half Acres conceptually complete. However, I do plan to continue adding more photos to the collection for as long as I am able. This is because I think the collection as a whole becomes more powerful the more I add to it. My goal is to overwhelm the viewer with the number of decommissioned missile sites that exist as well as the active sites that still exist.
Project Milestones
Since the project’s inception in 2019, this work has enjoyed a steady amount of solo exhibits in Kansas City area galleries.
In 2021 I traveled to Austria to accept the 2021 Alfred Fried Peace Medal — also known as the Global Peace Photo Award. I was one of five medalists.
I am also currently in the process of preparing and submitting a book proposal to the University of Missouri Press in Columbia, Missouri with essayists Dr. Gretchen Heefner (author of The Missile Next Door) and Dr. Jeffery Lewis (an authority on nuclear weapons non-proliferation and disarmament). Both have tentatively accepted to contribute essays pending a book deal.
Project Future
My wife cringes when I talk about this, but I ultimately plan to travel to Ukraine and Russia to photograph the remnants of the Soviet ICBM site equivalents to the US Minuteman sites. This way I can display together both the US/NATO and Soviet Bloc sites side-by-side to complete the idea of what anti-nuclear weapons treaties have done for humanity in the past and thus can do again for our future.
About the artist
Nate Hofer is a husband, father, graphic designer, photographer, and musician who draws upon his midwestern upbringing during the Cold War in the 1980s to create documentary photographs and solo performance sound/music pieces.
He was born in Africa to Mennonite conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. He received BFAs in both painting and graphic design from The University of Kansas.
Nate resides in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife, Anne, their two sons, Graham and Reid, and their two cats, Kiki and Bob.