News

Actions

Location of former missile silo now has interpretive site in Tucson

Posted at 7:08 AM, Nov 17, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-17 09:20:02-05

The Bureau of Land Management has a new interpretive site in the Arizona desert where the U.S. Air Force formerly had an underground launch silo for a nuclear-tipped intercontinental missile during much of the Cold War.

An interpretive site being dedicated Thursday by the BLM and the Air Force is located on the Ironwood Forest National Monument at a location northwest of Tucson where one of the Titan II missile silos was located.

The 18 missiles that formerly ringed Tucson were removed and most of the silos deactivated and demolished in the 1980s. A surviving silo near Green Valley south of Tucson houses a museum.

The new interpretive site includes panels outlining the history of the former missile installation and the national monument, which was designated in 2000.