Nike Missile Site HM-69 — The Cold War in a Wetland
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Transcript
A nuclear-capable missile site inside Everglades National Park sounds contradictory until you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Nike Hercules Site HM-69 was built in the 1960s as part of South Florida’s air-defence network. Its missiles were intended to intercept Soviet bombers, and the location reflected the strategic anxiety created by Cuba only about 160 kilometres away.
The site was later decommissioned, leaving launch structures and support buildings inside a landscape better known for alligators and sawgrass.
HM-69 is valuable because it breaks the illusion that national parks sit outside national history. Cold War military planning reached directly into protected land. The Everglades have been wetland, homeland, development frontier, conservation project and defence infrastructure—sometimes at the same time.