Listen: Was Minnesota home to nuclear missiles during the Cold War?

Curious Minnesota podcast host Eric Roper discusses the 1950s initiative to install missile sites around the Twin Cities.

May 6, 2021 at 3:16PM
April 15, 1962 Periodical maintenance surveys are made of equipment at each of the four Nike- Hercules sites. Above, two St. Bonifacius technicians check a missile Minneapolis Star Tribune; Minneapolis Sunday Tribune
Two technicians at the St. Bonifacius site check a Nike-Hercules missile in 1962. (File photo/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Fears of a Soviet attack during the 1950s spurred the federal government to install four missile sites around the Twin Cities. The "Nike-Hercules" nuclear warheads stored in those bunkers stood ready to take down Soviet bombers headed for the Twin Cities.

Curious Minnesota host Eric Roper discusses the topic with reporter Michelle Griffith, a former Star Tribune intern who now works at the Fargo Forum newspaper.

Further reading:

about the writer

about the writer

Eric Roper

Curious Minnesota Editor

Eric Roper oversees Curious Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune's community reporting project fueled by great reader questions. He also hosts the Curious Minnesota podcast.

See Moreicon

More from No Section

See More
FILE -- A rent deposit slot at an apartment complex in Tucker, Ga., on July 21, 2020. As an eviction crisis has seemed increasingly likely this summer, everyone in the housing market has made the same plea to Washington: Send money — lots of it — that would keep renters in their homes and landlords afloat. (Melissa Golden/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT58
Melissa Golden/The New York Times

It’s too soon to tell how much the immigration crackdown is to blame.