A History of the Nike Missile Base at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, Illinois

by

John J. Dunphy

Author’s Note: There’s a chapter on this Nike base in my book Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois.

Pere Marquette State Park, located just outside of Grafton in Jersey county, well deserves its reputation as the finest state park in Illinois. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, its 6,000 acres feature several hiking trails that lead to McAdams Peak, a lookout point with a truly awe-inspiring view of deep woods as well as the Illinois River that flows past the park. Even the briefest sojourn at Pere Marquette Park infuses visitors with the kind of peace and tranquility that only nature can impart.

It seems beyond belief that a place of such breathtaking beauty placed a vital role in our nation’s Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. Yet, such was the case.

From 1960 to 1968, Pere Marquette State Park was the site of a Nike missile base that was capable of shooting down any enemy aircraft that menaced the St. Louis and Metro East area. The motto of U.S. Army personnel who staffed Nike bases across the United States was, “If it flies, it dies.” The men who served at these bases will attest that this was not an empty slogan.

The Nike missile saga began at the conclusion of World War II when the U.S. Army realized that conventional anti-aircraft artillery would be ineffective against jet aircraft. Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1945 issued a paper titled “Anti-Aircraft Guided Missile Report” that envisioned a two-stage, supersonic missile that could be guided to its target by a ground-based radar and computer system.

Projectiles fired by anti-aircraft artillery follow a predetermined, ballistic trajectory that can’t be altered after firing. The course of a guided missile, on the other hand, can be altered from ground control so that it finds its target, regardless of any evasive action taken by the pilot of the enemy aircraft. The program for the development and deployment of the U.S. Army’s guided missile program was named Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory. The world’s first successful guided missile program, it rendered anti-aircraft artillery obsolete.

The Nike program acquired critical importance in 1949 when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. Washington and the Pentagon worried that the USSR might construct a fleet of long-range bombers that could rain nuclear weapons on major U.S. population areas as well as strategically important targets. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 provided further impetus to develop the Nike program and get it in place.

Nike missile bases were charged with the mission of providing a last-ditch line of defense for selected areas. These anti-aircraft missiles were to be launched in the event that the long-range fighter-interceptor aircraft of the U.S. Air Force failed to destroy enemy aircraft. Accordingly, Nike bases were constructed in defensive rings surrounding major urban and industrial areas. Some missile sites were located on government land, such as military bases. Others, however, were built on land that had to be acquired from reluctant owners. The federal government often had to go to court in order to obtain the necessary property. Ultimately, about 250 missile bases were built across the continental United States during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The first Nike Missile was successfully test fired in 1951. This missile, the Ajax model, was a two-staged guided missile that reached a maximum speed of 1,600 miles per hour and could destroy a target at altitudes up to 70,000 feet. The Ajax was armed with three high-explosive, fragmentation-type warheads located at the front, center and rear of its missile body.

But the Ajax possessed a serious drawback that could have proven fatal to the United States in the event of an enemy attack. Its effective range was only 25 miles. The army seriously considered compensating for this liability by arming the Ajax with a nuclear warhead. Instead, it was decided to build another missile that had a greater range — as well as the capacity to carry a nuclear warhead.

The Hercules missile, successor to the Ajax, possessed a maximum range of about 90 miles and reached a top speed in excess of 2,700 miles per hour. It could destroy a target at an altitude of 150,000 feet, which was over twice that of its predecessor. Like the Ajax, the Hercules could be equipped with a high-explosive, fragmentation-type warhead, which was designated T-45. Still, it was its nuclear warhead that made the Hercules such a tremendously lethal weapon.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of approximately 15 Kilotons. The Hercules nuclear warhead, designated W-31, was available in three yields: a 3 Kiloton low-yield; a 20 Kiloton medium-yield; and a 30 Kiloton high-yield. A single W-31 warhead stood capable of annihilating a closely spaced formation of enemy aircraft in addition to destroying any nuclear weapons aboard those aircraft.

The Hercules was a surface-to-surface missile as well. Deployed within western Europe, it would have been used in the event of war to destroy concentrations of enemy troops, armored vehicles, bridges and dams. Hercules missiles located on the coasts of the continental United States would have been fired against enemy ships and submarines.

The army’s decision to build a Nike missile base near the River Bend should have surprised no one. In addition to providing that “last ditch” defense for a relatively-large population, the area contained industries that would have proven critical during a war. East Alton was home to the Olin Corporation, while Wood River, Hartford and Roxana contained oil refineries. McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing in neighboring St. Louis produced aircraft. The River Bend and St. Louis might well have been priority targets if the USSR had gone to war with the United States.

While locating a missile base here might have been a logical choice, it was also a controversial choice. Area residents treasured Pere Marquette State Park and some worried that the construction of a Nike missile base would destroy its beauty and place much of the park off-limits to the public. A conservation-minded couple who lived on Levis Lane in Godfrey wrote and distributed a pamphlet in 1959, while construction of the base was still in progress, that contended Pere Marquette Park was being ruined.

Ninety-five per cent of the park was now closed to the public, the pamphlet claimed, and an estimated 50 acres of the park have been devastated beyond recognition. Homer Studebaker, park superintendent, and A.A. Ostermier of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the charges. Studebaker insisted that the base wouldn’t interfere with the public’s use of Pere Marquette State Park and camping would resume on schedule in June of 1959.

Ostermier, speaking for the Chicago District of the Corps of Engineers that was building the base, told The Alton Evening Telegraph that the base would cover only about 25 acres. This figure, according to Ostermier, included 6 acres for the control area, 9 acres to provide housing for staff and 10 acres that would be used for the launching area. Philip Pusateri, resident engineer in charge of construction, stated that the base should be completed in May of 1959, although installation of the missile-launching mechanism would take longer.

The environmentalist couple printed and distributed several thousand copies of their pamphlet to warn area residents about the purported threat to Pere Marquette State Park posed by the Nike base. To no one’s surprise, however, the U.S. Army prevailed. Southwestern Illinois got its Nike base.

Lt. Robert G. Smits, acting commanding officer of the base, announced on Friday, July 17 that between 10 to 15 men were scheduled to arrive on July 20 to begin operations at the site. The men would serve as administrative personnel, he noted. Smits stated that the base’s full complement would be approximately 110 men — over 90 enlisted men and eight officers. He expected the base to be at full strength by October.

Smits conceded that only the administrative section of the base had been completed. This section included the barracks as well as the personnel headquarters. Like Ostermier, he noted that the base contained three sections, although he designated them somewhat differently. According to Smits, they were: the administrative area, launching area and fire-control area. There were three launching sites, and each site was capable of firing four missiles. The fire-control area, situated two miles from the rest of the site on the highest point of ground in the park, consisted of three types of radar that located and tracked the target and then tracked the missile fired at that target.

The army realized that many area residents were extremely apprehensive about having a Nike missile base in their collective back yard. Smits attempted to allay their fears by stating that there would be no test firing of the missiles. Drills conducted at the base would incorporate only a mock preparation for a launching. The Hercules missiles would never be launched, except in the event of an enemy attack during wartime, Smits insisted.

The base became fully operational and formally began its active service in May, 1960. Area residents gradually accepted its presence in Grafton as part of the naturally order of things, while some even welcomed its location in their midst. After all, these folks reasoned, Nike missiles were intended to comprise a last-ditch line of defense for specific American regions, and this vicinity was fortunate indeed to have been selected as such a region.

The author recalls a conversation with an area couple who told him about some local residents who went to Pere Marquette State Park during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when it seemed that war between the United States and the USSR was a terrifyingly real possibility. These residents evidently believed that, should the Soviet Union attack our country, the Nike base made the park one of the safest placed to be. The couple quoted one of those residents as saying that, before everything was destroyed in a nuclear war, he at least wanted to see those missiles fired since it surely would be a grand sight!

The world’s two superpowers almost going to war and the role this military installation might have played in such a conflict gave River Bend residents a keen appreciation of the base’s importance in our nation’s defense. What once had been regarded as a simple curiosity or an environmental catastrophe in a much-beloved state park was now regarded as a vital component of the community and even a source of pride. Some residents took to boasting to out-of-town relatives and friends about the base’s presence.

This pride was further enhanced when the base acquired a reputation for excellence in 1965. Lt. General Charles B. Duff, commanding general of the Army Air Defense Command presented the Robert Ward Berry Memorial Award to D Battery of the 1st Missile Battalion, which staffed the base, for demonstrating the highest degree of proficiency in the Army Air Defense Command annual technical proficiency inspection, short-notice annual practice and maintenance-management inspection. The battery’s score for short-notice firing — referred to as a “snap” score — was 98.7, Duff noted in his address. The battery’s readiness evaluation was equally outstanding, he said.

Lt. John G. Meiger, battery commander, accepted the award on behalf of D Battery. Other military figures at the presentation ceremony included: Brigadier General H.E. Michelet of the Army Air Defense Command; Colonel Frank Bates, St. Louis Area Defense Commander; Colonel James L. McGarvey, commander of the First Missile Battalion; and Captain John Leach and Lieutenant Elton P. Ahauf, both former commanders of D Battery.

The Alton Evening Telegraph included the missile base in a 1965 series of articles about people who worked on Christmas. An army private, designated the vanguard, always occupied the ready room on the base. The vanguard on Christmas of 1965 was Ollie C. Dalton. The article noted that, even when other personnel were enjoying a special Christmas dinner, Dalton would be seated alone in the fire-control area as he monitored the all-important radar screen. The person closest to Dalton during his lonely vigil would be a sergeant in a room that connected with the ready room by a long hallway. This sergeant, the feature observed, would be able to see other personnel and carry on conversations — but not Dalton.

Dalton told the reporter that his parents and six siblings lived in Reynolds Station, Kentucky, which was about 300 miles from the base. But he hadn’t even bothered to apply for Christmas leave because “I knew somebody had to stay.” Dalton’s patriotism didn’t entirely preclude homesickness, however. “Maybe I can get home right after Christmas,” he told the reporter.

The army recognized the importance of cultivating the goodwill of the local population. Consequently, the Marquette Park base occasionally held open houses that allowed the public to tour selected areas of the installation. One such open house occurred from noon to 4 pm on Armed Forces Day of 1967. The event drew a sizable crowd comprised of single adults, parents with children and veterans from all branches of the military.

It’s important to realize that this open house occurred during the Vietnam War, America’s longest and most controversial conflict. Anti-war rallies were flaring up across the country, and military installations were frequently picketed by protesters. This Nike base had become such a source of pride for area residents, however, that it could host a well-attended open house with nary a protester in sight. That era’s hostility toward all things military — a hostility that would play a decisive role in closing Alton’s Western Military Academy in 1971 — did not touch the Nike base.

Then again, perhaps the base would have been impacted by America’s anti-military bias if it had remained operational a bit longer. Just one year after hosting that open house, however, the Nike base was closed.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR realized that manned aircraft sent to bomb the United States would be overwhelmed by American interceptor aircraft armed with rockets and missiles. The few Soviet bombers that managed to elude these aircraft would be destroyed by missiles fired from Nike bases, such as the one at Marquette Park. The Kremlin decided that the Soviet Union should devote its resources toward developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), against which there was no effective defense at the time.

Aircraft bombers still played a crucial role in warfare. Indeed, when the Marquette Park base was closed in 1968, the United States was bombing North Vietnam. But the era of the intercontinental aircraft bomber was over. America’s Nike bases with their Hercules missiles were no longer vital to our nation’s defense. By 1974, every Nike base had been closed.

All military equipment was removed from Marquette Park’s Nike base by 1969, and the land once occupied by the site was again in possession of the park. The base’s buildings were made available for park use, although they remained on army inventory until about 1990. At that time, ownership of the buildings was formally transferred to the state of Illinois.

Much like the Hartford Castle, the old Nike site became a destination for adventurous young people who wanted to explore the area. Scaling the fence that surrounded the main entrance or finding other ways to enter the base rivaled hiking the park’s trails in popularity. Humorous tales abound regarding this phase of the base’s history. The author recalls an area resident’s story about exploring the site with a friend one night. The two companions discovered some teenyboppers and decided to give them a fright. The area resident’s friend focused the beam of his huge flashlight on the teenyboppers while bellowing, “This is the military police! You are all under arrest for trespassing on a restricted military area! Remain where you are until further instructed!” The panic-stricken teenyboppers fled in all directions.

The old base was the scene of a major demolition operation in 1993. Independent contractors removed the hydraulic lifts that raised and lowered the 30-foot missiles, demolished the silos and then filled them with gravel. Terry Widman, whose father had helped construct the site, noted that the walls in each control room were 2.5 feet thick with watertight doors weighing about five tons each. “We demolished them all,” he said. Widman referred to Missile Silo №3 as a “dinosaur grave” and remarked that his team had worked almost 70 hours a week for three weeks to fill in the three huge silos with gravel.

Visitors to Marquette Park today can see the dilapidated sentry box at the old site’s entrance. According to Richard Niemeyer, director of natural resources for Marquette Park, a few buildings yet remain beyond the fence that encloses the site. One of the barracks was spared demolition. In the silo area, a gutted building that formerly contained the generator remains. Four or five gutted buildings that housed radar equipment still stood when I last visited the site.

Perhaps this section of the park will someday be opened to the public. Visitors with a knowledge of history will ponder the irony of picnicking on grounds that once harbored nuclear weapons while dedicated servicemen watched the sky for Soviet aircraft.

Bibliography:

Binder, Donald E. “The Nike Missile System: A Concise Historical Overview,” Accessed 12/03/19

“Denies Nike Base Ruins State Park;” The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, March 20, 1959.

Ed Thelen’s Nike Missile Web Site, accessed January 5, 2020

“First Troops Due At Grafton Monday;” The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, July 17, 1959.

“Road to Nike Base Widened;” The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, January 3, 1961.

“Sees Long Life For Nike Base;” The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, September 25, 1963.

“He Sits Alone At Silent Nike;” The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, December 22, 1965.

“Open House Set Saturday at Missile Base; The Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, May 17, 1967.

Dunphy, John J. “The Nike Missile Base at Marquette Park;” Springhouse Magazine, (Volume 25, Number 4).

Hurly, Sue. “Then and now, work on Nike missile base was a family affair;” The [Alton, IL] Telegraph, June 16, 1993.

Niemeyer, Richard. e-mail to the author; May 9, 2008

— . e-mail to the author; May 12, 2008.

Nike Historical Society, accessed 1/24/20

• John J. Dunphy is the author of Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois, Lewis and Clark’s Illinois Volunteers, From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois, Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials. He is also the author of the following collections of poetry: Old Soldiers Fading Away, Zen Koanhead, pagan rites, Stellar Possibilities, Dark Nebulae, Bullet Cluster and Touching Each Tree.