Boullée in North Dakota

June 5, 2008 10:49 AM

The Safeguard system consisted of three primary components, a Perimeter Acquisition Radar, Missile Site Radar and Remote Sprint Launchers. Boullée in North Dakota [via]
posted by xod (12 comments total)

The pyramid is truncated, the eye has fallen, but otherwise exactly as I'd always suspected.
posted by imperium at 10:55 AM on June 5, 2008

Sorry if I'm ruining a punchline: Boullée is (or was) apparently an architect.
posted by DU at 11:02 AM on June 5, 2008

That's so badass. After the world goes to pot and I carve out my own little state, I'm going to line my borders with those.
posted by Science! at 11:11 AM on June 5, 2008

DU, One man's monument funéraire is another's ABM Complex.
posted by xod at 11:42 AM on June 5, 2008

October 1, 1975. The ONLY DAY the United States has been defended from DEADLY BOMB-DEPLOYING ENEMY GUIDED MISSILES!!!!!.

See for example US Defenses Against ICBMs

In the end, Grand Forks was the only US site ever built; it became operational on October 1, 1975.

On October 2, 1975 -- one day after the site became operational -- the House voted to inactivate Safeguard.

and I helped.
posted by hexatron at 11:44 AM on June 5, 2008

I was saying Bou-llée.
posted by Flashman at 11:51 AM on June 5, 2008

Well. 5 months, but whatever.
posted by garlic at 1:55 PM on June 5, 2008

I never get sick of telling this story:

I grew up in Grand Forks, and days before my parents moved there they saw War Games.

As you may recall, at some point in the movie a big map o' nuclear targets comes up. Guess what the very first city that's displayed is.

Yup, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
posted by flaterik at 2:40 PM on June 5, 2008

Here.
posted by dmd at 5:30 PM on June 5, 2008

here
posted by duckstab at 5:36 PM on June 5, 2008

The location of the Montana Safeguard facility is about 40 miles north of me; someday I plan to visit and see if there is anything at all left to see of the concrete building.
posted by davidmsc at 7:14 PM on June 5, 2008

It's probably been 10 years since I've even been near Nekoma but, if things haven't changed, that site is still awfully eerie to drive by at night. The entire complex is lit up but there's not a hint of activity.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:11 PM on June 6, 2008