a history lesson

Driving outside of Oxford on a road indistinguishable from every other corn-lined country road, one suddenly comes across fence topped with barbed wire. The fence stands guard over some slowly decaying buildings that were clearly victims of government architecture.

If you blink (and you're driving like I do on country roads) you miss it. If you see it, it may not even register. But what you drove past was NIKE CD 78 - a reminder of how real the cold war really was. NIKE CD 78 was part of the government's Nike-Hercules air defense system.

From Wikipedia:

Nike-Hercules Missile, designation MIM-14 (initially SAM-N-25) was a solid fuel propelled surface-to-air missile, used by US and NATO armed forces for high- and medium-altitude air defense. It could also be employed in a surface-to-surface role. The Nike-Hercules system, a follow-up to the Nike-Ajax missile, was developed during the Cold War to destroy enemy bombers and enemy bomber formations, as well as serve as an anti-ballistic missile system.

The Nike-Hercules Missile was fitted with a nuclear warhead, W31 type, or sometimes a conventional T-45 fragmenting warhead. The missile was 41 feet 6 inches (12.6 m) long with a wingspan of 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m). 145 missile batteries were deployed during the cold war. The missile had a range of about 77 miles (110 km). Because of the missile's effectiveness against certain ICBMs, it was made a part of the SALT I treaty.

I visited the property while working for Miami's grounds crews. I was told that it was given to the University as a ground to put an additional transmitter tower for 88.5 WMUB to use. A couple of times a summer, the grounds crews would go out and mow. The day I was out there, I did as much snooping as I dared - although my daring didn't go much further once I looked through a window and saw a few 55 gallon drums labeled "Dry Radioactive Waste" with the ubiquitous radioactive symbol on it. The building was locked, but it wouldn't have been harder to get into than an average house.

The EPA's commentary on the site is a little different:

Located in Oxford, Ohio, in Butler County. The installation occupies a total of 150 acres. The 14 acre launcher area constitutes the area of concern. Site CD-78 was formerly owned by the Department of Defense and was used as a NIKE-Hercules missile site for the air defense of the nearby Cincinnati area. The NIKE battery was acquired by the Army in 1959, and was used until approximately 1970, at which time the mission of the site was shifted to reuse of the property.

The site consists of two areas, the administrative area, and the launcher area. The administrative area is still owned by the Department of Defense, which leases the property to the Ohio National Guard. However, this area does not seem to contain contamination. The launcher area does contain contamination and is presently owned by Miami University (Ohio). This space is partially utilized by the University as an equipment storage area. The groundwater contaminants which are known in the launcher area are: 1,2 dichloroethane; trans 1,2-dichloroethene; trichloroethene; and vinyl chloride. No significant soil contamination has been identified.

Supposedly, the area is more extensive underground than it is above. In addition to the missile silos, the site contains a maze of underground passageways designed to withstand a nuclear attack.

I hadn't been there in years, but took these pictures on my way back from Houston woods. Some were taken while driving... hence the crookedness. I remember that while working there it struck me how real the cold war was. I would never have dreamed there would be nuclear missiles somewhere between Oxford and Indiana. It didn't seem likely. But there they were.