Nike Missile Launcher Area 1958 - 1968

· Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules defense missile launchers located here 1958 - 1968  

· Two missiles on display at Selfridge Air Force base museum 

Transcript 
Are you feeling a little shiver? Perhaps it’s a ghost of the cold war!

What sat at this site from 1958 to 1968 had Detroiters sleeping a little more peacefully than before. That’s because this was home to a Nike missile launch base, poised to destroy any communist aircraft that threatened our great ‘Arsenal of Democracy’. At the program’s peak in the early 60s, there were 18 such missile sites scattered around metro Detroit. Here, a U.S. Army base containing a dozen missile launchers stretched from the parking area up to the lighthouse ahead. Two types of missiles were prominent here - the Nike Ajax and, later, the Nike Hercules. Authentic examples of both are on display at the museum on Selfridge Air Force Base to the north.

As official government documents state, this facility was “obliterated” by demolition crews in 1968.