The Washington Post: “The nuclear missile next door”

Ed turned the TV off and looked out the window at miles of open prairie, where the wind rattled against their barn and blew dust clouds across Butcher Road. Ed’s family had been on this land since his grandparents homesteaded here in 1913, but rarely had life on the ranch felt so precarious. Their land was parched by record-breaking drought, neglected by a pandemic work shortage, scarred by recent wildfires, and now also connected in its own unique way to a war across the world. I wonder sometimes what else could go wrong, Ed said, as he looked over a hill toward the west end of their ranch, where an active U.S. government nuclear missile was buried just beneath the cow pasture.

Do you think they’ll ever shoot it up into the sky? Pam asked.

I used to say, No way, Ed said. Now it’s more like, Please God, don’t let us be here to see it.

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It was known to the government as Launch Facility E05, one of 52 active nuclear missile sites on the old homestead farms of Fergus County. The government had chosen to turn the lonely center of Montana into a nuclear hot spot in the 1950s because of what was described then as its relative proximity to Russia, and also because the region could act as what experts called a “sacrificial nuclear sponge” in the event of nuclear war. The theory was that rather than unloading all of its missiles on major U.S. cities, an enemy would instead have to use some of those missiles to attack the silos surrounding Winifred, Mont., home to 35,000 cattle and 189 residents whose birthdays and anniversaries were all printed on the official city calendar.

Eli Saslow

It must be a surreal experience to spend your entire life in the vicinity of a nuclear missile silo – goes to show how much people can adapt to the presence of constant, low-level threats, and still go about their daily lives as if everything’s normal. A lesson perhaps for those fearful of having nuclear plants nearby, even though they’re much safer than being the potential target of a nuclear strike.

A deactivated Minuteman missile in the county seat of Lewistown symbolizes the ties between Montana’s Fergus County and the military. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post

What I find odd about the situation is that the US government is planning to modernize and continue operating these immobile silos well into the future, despite having more flexible and better concealed launch options, such as stealth bombers and nuclear submarines. I assume the notion of using well-known silos as decoys for incoming attacks is still very much in effect…