Badlands, Wall Drug Store and Minuteman Missile Site

 Sometimes being silly is just fun!  When we arrived at the Prairie Homestead there were costumes that we could wear as we toured the 1906 sod house, root cellar, barn and hen house.  It was located very near the Badlands, and I can only imagine what the family must have thought as they wagon-ed across the badlands to reach their new 160 acre farm. The family who moved here came when they were in their 50's and lived in the house and addition for 30 years!  YIKES!  Thank you Danny for not asking me to move into a place like this!

Sod house with its addition at far right, root cellar at center

"Paw and Maw Craddock"

Here are Danny and Linda looking at the inside of the sod house.

In the barn we found an old model T Ford.  Don't we look cute?

The sod house was our first of many stops on this Beautiful June day.  Next our drive through the Badlands was mesmerizing!  How strange to see these barren dirt formations in the middle of lush prairie land!

Following the Badlands Drive, we had lunch in the Cowboy Art Cafe at Wall Drugstore in Wall, South Dakota.  This drugstore was made up of a lot of stores joined together. Most of them were filled with  tourist merchandise, but it was a fun place to eat and tour.  The drug store was having trouble making a go of things until they began placing signs - similar to Burma Shave signs - along the highway advertising FREE ICE WATER!  Travelers began to stop for the water immediately and the store's popularity grew and grew.  The ice water is still free and a nice cup of coffee is only 5 cents.  Quite a deal and we enjoyed a few cups!

The afternoon was filled with a Minuteman Missile Site launch control tour.   WOW!  Very interesting! The tour consisted of only 6 people and the National Park Ranger.  She took us through the living quarters of the military personnel who worked at the remote site.  This launch center controlled many missiles in the area which were 3 to 15 miles away.

Recreation and Dining Room for the military personnel
who worked at the missile site

This door closed off the command center which was
31 feet below the living quarters.  Only 2 persons at a
time were allowed in this command center and they
stayed shut up in there behind this door for 24 hours at a time.

This was the actual command center.  One of the two keys for the
launch was on the panel at the right.

This key hole was 12 feet away from the second key hole so that
no one person could launch a missile as the keys had to be turned at
the same time. There were many, many checks that had to be
completed before an actual launch could happen.

If a missile had been launched, it could have reached Russia
in thirty minutes!  Amazing.  There were a couple of close
calls in our past, but thankfully they were both averted through the
checks and false alarms were indicated.

This is the launch command center.  There was a bed to rest,
a small kitchenette, and a rest room area.

What a great day of touring!  Long but rewarding!