Sam Bowser's research team (and dive-tenders) diving to collect foraminifera at New Harbor, Antarctica.

Tags:   New Harbor Sam Bowser foraminifera diving ice dive-tending Antarctica The Scientific Method science research sampling

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Tags:   Lake Bonney ice bubbles candle ice detailed views Dry Valley Dry Valleys McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER Long Term Environmental Research ephemera ephemeral lake ice ice cracks stone Dry Valleys LTER textures Antarctica http://orebody.com

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Badlands National Monument
View-Master Reel Two


Images I've digitized from my husband's vintage View-Master slides (a memento from his own childhood trip to the Badlands in the summer of 1969).

"VIEW-MASTER Reels add the realism of stereo to the beauty of color to make pictures COME TO LIFE! Each Packet contains three 7-scene Reels -- or twenty-one full-color three-dimension pictures!"

Tags:   Badlands Badlands National Park Artist-in-Residence NPS AIR Scenic, SD Cactus Flat, SD White River Badlands South Dakota viewmaster http://orebody.com/WRIT A Book Made of Soil

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October wrapped up with a week and a half of "interesting" weather: rain, fog, gale-force wind, and finally: snow. Throw in some frogs and it would have been biblical!

Tags:   yellowdog winter cabin camp MI

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Just north of the Badlands, at Cactus Flats, there is a small National Historic Site, dedicated to an eerie reminder of the Cold War: missile silos. In South Dakota alone, there were 150 nuclear-tipped Minuteman Missile silos "planted" in ranchlands. Several of these sites (Delta and Bravo units -- each with a Launch Facility and 10 missile silos) were just north of the Park's boundary. There isn't a real "Visitor Center" yet, but that will soon be built. Tours start with a short movie, providing history and context regarding the Cold War, then everyone proceeds up the interstate --- first to the Delta Launch Control Facility, which can easily be viewed from I-90 if you know what you are looking for, and ultimately to a missile silo further up the interstate. Yes, there is a sign at the bottom of the exit ramp now that reads

<— MISSILE SILO

Although buried, the silos were never exactly "hidden" but for most citizens I think the adage "out of sight out of mind" applies. Who wanted to think about nuclear annihilation? The Minutemen Missiles were deactivated as part of the START treaty. In most cases, it seems that the military removed the missile and then dynamited the silo facility before returning these imploded sites to ranch-owners with long list of prohibited uses and limited reusability. Through Minutemen Missile NHS, visitors can see the one silo that has been preserved in situ, like a terrible fossil worm, with the warhead removed, some internal parts filled with cement and components of the launching mechanisms welded together, rendering them "dead" but plenty realistic. It is also a powerful experience to stand in the underground control center, which is like a buried spaceship, where two men would have needed to insert their two keys simultaneously, to activate the launch sequence....

Putting the "bad" in Badlands.

This interesting-but-eerie site is located spitting distance from the interstate, with the menacing teeth of the Pinnacles visible in the distance.

For more information, including a movie, panoramic photographs of rarely-see sites, history and maps of minuteman missile silo locations, see:

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
www.nps.gov/mimi/index.htm

Tags:   Badlands National Park Badlands NPS Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Cold War warhead nuclear missile Artist in Residence AIR South Dakota SD Big Badlands Cactus Flats Wall hiking overlook Brule Formation geology erosion sediments A Book Made of Soil Launch Facility Delta Big Badlands Overlook

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