- The Quebec 01 Nuclear Missile Alert Station near Chugwater was a fully functioning part of the American nuclear missile deterrent system for more than 50 years.

Now it's part of the Wyoming State Park system.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming PBS.

This is "Wyoming Chronicle."

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- [Steve] At the peak of the Cold War, with the United States and the Soviet Union locked in a nuclear powered stare down across the Iron Curtain, the US unveiled the fearsome crown jewel in its nuclear weapons arsenal, the LGM-118 missile, known commonly as the Peacekeeper.

If ground-based intercontinental missiles were the centerpiece of US nuclear deterrents, then the Peacekeeper was the centerpiece of centerpieces, the most powerful, accurate, and intimidating weapon system ever devised in this country.

And it was deployed in one state and one state only, Wyoming.

In 2005, after two decades of operational readiness, the Peacekeeper was decommissioned under International Arms Control agreements.

Today, the Peacekeepers no longer exist, but the one-of-a-kind control station that would've launched them still does in a remote section of Wyoming prairie, west of Interstate 25 near Chugwater.

It's called Quebec 01 and it's part of the Wyoming State Park system.

Alexis Pratt is welcoming us here today to the Quebec 01.

And that's as far as my identification of the site goes.

What's the official name?

- So the official name is the Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility State Historic Site.

But because it is so long, we do shorten it to just the Quebec 01 Site, - Quebec 01.

Where does the name Quebec fit into rural Chugwater, Wyoming, which is where we are?

- As the Air Force was going through and naming all of these various sites, they stuck with the phonetic alphabet.

So alpha, bravo, Charlie, delta, echo, so on.

As they hit Q, Q in this alphabet stands for Quebec, and that is where the site got its name.

- Now you're an employee of the Wyoming State Parks Division, right?

- I am, yes.

- And what's your position here at Quebec 01?

- So my position here is superintendent, so I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the site.

- It's worth noting, at the moment, we're here in the middle of April and the site, strictly speaking, isn't open yet for its tourism season, right?

- Correct.

So we open May 1st every single year or close to, and then we are open through the end of September.

- It strikes me that nuclear missile control station is a little unusual for the state park system.

I tend to think of Curt Gowdy State Park or Six Canyon or South Pass City.

Nature or old West kind of history sites.

But this has been determined it'll be worth preserving.

- It has.

The missile mission is a pretty important part of Wyoming's history.

FE Warren out of Cheyenne is an Air Force base that has been known for that for decades upon decades now, since the 1950s actually.

And so even though it is kind of a newer mission, it is still an important mission out here in the West.

Quebec 01 was first constructed in 1962 and it was decommissioned in 2005.

- And so I think many Wyoming viewers probably know this, but are you finding that there are visitors who don't fully understand or haven't fully understood that Wyoming is a huge part of the ICBM, intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear weapons deterrence for all of North America.

- It is.

- A lot of that is headquartered about where we are now.

- Yeah, pretty much.

So, I mean, here in Wyoming and then the Dakotas are probably some of the larger, you know, missile locations in the country.

And there's quite a few reasons for that.

But it's often very surprising to people.

Yeah.

- Yeah, and so you've told us before we started there, there never was an an actual missile here, but this controlled missiles, in case the unthinkable were to happen, they would be controlled for firing and launching from an installation like this or this very one.

- That is correct.

So yes, we never had a missile physically housed here on site.

That is probably one of the common questions we get.

Folks come out to us and they say, "Well, where's the missile?

Can I go see it?"

It is not here.

So Quebec 01, as we've kind of alluded to, is a control center.

So these missiles would have been housed in unmanned silos ranging from five to 15 miles away from this centralized location.

- And although this side has been decommissioned, it operated three different missile systems during its time.

What were those?

- [Alexis] So we started as a Minuteman 1 site, moved to the Minuteman 3 missile system in the '70s, and then in 1986, we became a Peacekeeper site.

- Peacekeeper.

And my limited knowledge tells me the Peacekeeper was in the world of nuclear weaponry and deterrence.

- Yes.

- It was an awesome system, wasn't it?

- [Alexis] It was.

It was very big.

It was very powerful.

Very, very impressive.

- [Steve] But now, doesn't really exist anymore, correct?

- It does not.

So due to various reasons, all Peacekeeper missiles and their subsequent sites were decommissioned in the early 2000s.

- And that coincided with the decommissioning of this site.

Why was that determined?

- So it was determined to decommission Peacekeeper sites because Peacekeepers were only ever housed out of this portion of Wyoming.

So only Quebec 01 and four other sites and their silos ever had Peacekeepers housed within them.

Now Peacekeepers, because they were so powerful because they could house up to 10 individual warheads, during the late '90s, early 2000s, when there were a bunch of peace treaties going on between the various countries of the world.

It was determined that because the Peacekeepers could house so many warheads, but accounted for so little of the overall ICBM population, the choice was made to take all Peacekeepers offline and then go back to the Minuteman 3.

- If you're looking at arms reduction, this was an easy place to do it.

- It was, yeah.

- But at that point, the decision was made not to restore this to a Minuteman command post.

Was it because the alterations to accommodate the Peacekeeper were so different and taking a step backward is not what you'd like to do with these?

I don't mean you, but that's not what the military prefers to do, I guess.

- Yeah.

I mean, and that was part of it, I think, for sure.

I also think that because these treaties put limits on how many missiles a country could have, it was easier to just let this site and other Peacekeeper sites kind of go by the wayside.

So the Air Force took everything out, removed everything important, and then left them as is on the prairie.

- What year was that again?

- 2005.

- 2005 - Was when everything was completed.

- It was 20 years ago.

We're here in 2025.

The decision came about not long after the decommissioning to do something other than just let it sit here crumbling on the prairie, so to speak.

- Yes.

- How'd that happen?

- In a couple different ways.

So in the interim, Quebec 01 was basically left abandoned.

So the Air Force, after everything was taken out, after everything was removed, gates were locked, windows was boarded up, and they left it as is.

Now the reason that it was left as is, not like transferred back to a landowner, things like that, is because during these talks of decommissioning sites due to Quebec 01's location, IE kind of close to Cheyenne, the choice was made to eventually transfer it to state parks, another agency, to make it a historic site to showcase the importance of the missile mission in this part of the country.

- And this happened when former Governor Matt Mead was in office.

And I believe he felt he was enthusiastic about that idea.

- Yeah.

- And so, it goes from this super secure federal military site to state control.

- Yes.

- And it's right here near Interstate 25.

It's accessible to people driving by, pretty easy and accessible for tourism.

When your department comes into it, what did you do to it?

- How did we get it back to what it looks like today?

- [Steve] Yeah.

- It was a very large, very long process.

So we basically, after the site was transferred to the state, we then spent about a year or so going out to various people who worked in these sites, various locations, various other museums.

And we basically put everything back as close to as it was when the Air Force left.

So we like to call it that we went on a very large scavenger hunt for everything to kind of make it what you see today.

- So we're gonna see a lot of pretty cool stuff, especially of its time, but that originally, when the site was decommissioned, that had all been removed.

- [Alexis] It had, yeah.

Everything was basically bare down in the LCC, which we'll see later, everything was stripped away.

It was just an empty show of what it is now.

- So that's part of what state parks does.

You restore.

- Yes.

- We think of the old gold mining town or the old military ford or something.

Same sort of philosophy of work goes into this, restoring it to what it was.

- Yes.

Very, very much so.

- The tour, and it's a fascinating tour, begins with this big door here, which leads us into something that I found and I think viewers might find, is it's almost another world in terms of both history and something that few people have ever seen.

- Absolutely.

- So you open it and we'll go in here with you.

As we start down into the, what you're calling the capsule.

what was called the capsule, this big heavy lift, which it goes how fast?

- Very slow.

- Very slow.

How slow?

90 seconds to go 50 feet underground, which is where we're heading now.

- Yes.

- And just to people who like this sort of thing, it begins with these two heavy duty gates here, which were original equipment from 1962.

- Yes.

- Proceed.

See how they work.

Boom.

Okay, take us down.

- Ready?

(lift whirring) - During our test run, you told us that these signatures and other little bits of illustration and even sort of semi graffiti were made mostly by Air force personnel who are doing the decommissioning work, right?

- Yes.

Yes.

So most, if not all of the signatures, drawings, sayings you see here on the wall are from these folks and it was left for, well we just like the look of it.

If this was an active site, this would not be here.

- [Steve] Be permitted.

- They'd not be permitted.

But we like to keep it for the historical feel.

- Yeah.

It's a very authentic little bit of color here.

To remind you that people worked here.

- Yes.

- And I love that little illustration.

- [Alexis] Yeah.

There's some cool stuff.

- What a signatures.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Was it entirely military personnel who did the decommissioning or the restoration?

I guess we probably needs to get an electrician to come in or a well service or something like that too.

- So the decommissioning was done mostly by military personnel.

They did have some outside contractors as well, but it was mostly the Air force that did it.

- All right.

50 feet underground now.

- 50 feet.

- It's much cooler down here.

- Yes it is.

- All right, let's go.

- Stays about 55 degrees year-round, so very nice place to be in the middle of a Wyoming summertime.

- All right, let's go see the capsule.

- Sounds good.

The entire underground portion is what we call the capsule.

The capsule has kind of two main sections.

So the part we're about to enter is the LCC or the Launch Control Center.

The part over there is the LCEB or the Launch Control Equipment Building.

And then you have the junction which kind of connects those two sites.

- [Steve] It strikes me for some reason, I've never been on a submarine, but it sort of strikes me as what being on a big submarine might be like.

It's enclosed, it's cool, it's darker, and it is absolutely of its early '60s time, which is just preserved here just really beautifully.

And it's a increasingly interesting period of American history as time goes by.

- So the room we're in now is what we call the LCC or the Launch Control Center.

So this is where you would have found your two missileers serving their 24-hour shifts, handling various issues that come through, and then possibly launching one of these missiles if they were given the order to do so.

- So these are Air Force personnel.

What was their rank typically?

Do you know?

- Their rank would've been officers.

- So they'd come in here, they'd show up from FE Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, and they would stay here, you say, for 24 hours.

- Yes.

- They would stay in this room that whole time?

- They would.

They would stay in this room for 24 hours.

They could not leave as there always had to be at least, or there always had to be two people down here in the capsule at all times.

- Yeah, and one reason I think, and this can be kind of uncomfortable things to think about or talk about.

So if the unthinkable order came, you'd have some verification, one person couldn't just say, "Well I heard him say this," or, "I got this command."

The other would have to concur and that was part of what was going on.

About the most serious business that there's ever been.

And that's what they were prepared, trained to do if it came to that.

- [Alexis] It was.

- This is a combination of really, really elaborate, sophisticated technical equipment, but it's also very old now.

So it's metal and it's rivets and it's screws and it's toggle switches and there's a rotary telephone dial and older-style keyboards.

But this was the absolute state of the art and it stayed that way the entire time.

So this has a great 1962 look.

But up into the 21st century, this was still the look, this is still what they were using.

- [Alexis] It was.

They honestly haven't changed much of the technology.

Even if you were to go down into a modern still-in-use LCC, some of this would look pretty much exactly the same.

- There is a little rest area here.

There's a bed if someone needed to catch a few winks.

There's a restroom facility there, which is far from luxurious, but again, would accommodate.

I'm assuming they'd have to bring some food down here as well.

- Yeah, they could either bring their meals, we do have a fridge and a microwave here.

Or they could call up to the chef that was on site and the chef could bring them down food as well.

- Onsite chef.

- Yes.

- 'Cause it was a military installation.

When it was fully operational, how many personnel would be here typically on a shift?

- On average, in the entire facility, about nine to 12.

- So these two workers here, the two officers here, they got to know each other well, obviously.

And I'm assuming that needing to be compatible would be a big part of it.

Do you know if there was any consideration given to that ahead of time?

Or was it "you and you" and meeting for the first time when the door closes?

- And you know, it would actually vary.

You would always be or likely be with a different person on your shift.

So it wasn't always the same person every single time.

And they did that for a couple different reasons.

You know, mix things up in case you didn't get along and kind of, you know, keep things new and fresh.

- We've talked about how the two missileers would be here for 24 hours.

The other personnel working, for lack of a better word, upstairs, they worked a less demanding work schedule, at least in terms of the shifts, right?

- They did, more or less.

So the folks upstairs, which included a variety of personnel, they would come on shift and they would stay on site anywhere from 2 to 3 to 4 days.

They would typically do 12 hour shifts on 12 hours off, but they could not leave the facility when they were off shift.

So that's why we have beds upstairs.

That's where we have like a living area, cooks on site, all of that sort of stuff, just to kind of keep them occupied when they're not on shift.

- We'll see some of that later.

One of the things that I'm sure is really interesting, especially to visitor of a certain age, this chair is on these these rails so the missileer could slide, I presume, back and forth to get to a particular piece of equipment needed.

As you know, or do you know, would, would the person who starts out sitting in this chair be at this station the entire 12 hours, would sometimes get up and work over over there?

They would switch off.

- They would mostly stay in the same spots.

And that is because your commander, so the higher-ranking person, would be at that console.

Deputy commander would be here now.

They were a little bit cross-trained.

So if your commander was sleeping and something happened over on that console, your deputy commander would still have at least a little bit of knowledge as to how to deal with that and vice versa.

- I've never served in the military, have you?

- I have not.

No.

- I just am imagining what this particular duty would've been like.

- Yeah.

- I would say demanding.

Just because of a combination of sort of an intensity when you thought about what your mission was.

Tedium.

- Yep.

- This had to be because the missiles were never launched.

- Correct.

- In in all the decades.

It could get boring down here, I would imagine.

But you also had things to do all the time.

You're monitoring and testing and reporting, but still, a demanding kind of military duty that maybe wasn't suited for everybody.

- How would these guys pass this time when you couldn't leave?

So, and in addition to their duties, in addition to, you know, sleeping, they did have access to a TV.

We don't have a a TV on display, but they would've had a TV and a VCR.

They could have brought down books.

And then in addition to that, a lot of missileers actually earned their higher education degrees just because of the downtime that they had on shift.

- They could study while they were here.

- They could, yes.

The launch keys are obviously part of the launch process.

So after going through a whole big checklist, missileers would come to this red lock box here and they would each have their own master lock.

So your commander would get into one lock, deputy commander would get into the other lock, they would open up this box here, and that is what housed the two launch keys.

So one launch key would go right there.

So right here.

The other launch key would go all the way down here at the commander's console, this guy right down here.

Now these keys would be turned at the exact same time and you'll notice that these key insertions are located far enough away so one person couldn't try to turn both at the same time.

And that would kind of finish out the launch process.

- I think we've often seen this portrayed in popular entertainment or a movie or something where, somehow in some way some kind of mistake gets made.

You launch or miss or you're about to.

But boy, that would've been difficult based on what you've said.

Just so many different procedures that it would have to go exactly perfect in sequence with both people agreeing before you'd even get to that point, and of course, we never did.

- Yeah, there were a lot of steps to this process, as there should be.

And a lot of room in that process for, you know, if something goes wrong, the entire system does not work.

Which I am thankful for.

- Sure.

How much training did you have to go through to become the expert that you are in explaining this facility?

- Well, I don't call myself an expert.

There's always more to learn.

A lot of it is just kind of on-the-job training.

So we do have kind of a basic tour that we give and that does, you know, involve some research.

And then a lot of what I've learned is just over the years, people tell me tidbits.

People tell me, you know, this is how this was.

We've never done studies on exactly how many folks that worked here come through.

But we do, I would say weekly, we have a small handful that worked in insights like this who have that experience and have that interest level still.

And so it's always nice to kind of meet those guys and talk to them.

- One thing that struck me when I thought about going back to this difference between this as a state historic site and say, the Old Pony Express Station or the old military fort, is that there's so much more procedure and equipment that is still semi current with because people are here.

And that just makes it unique.

- [Alexis] It does.

- We've escaped from the capsule.

And an aspect of this is that it's a workplace, an office, in some respects, like others.

And there also were people who lived here, at least for short periods of time.

- Correct.

- And that's kind of the area of the facility we're in now.

We're back at ground level.

So up here, there's a pool table and there and there's a little kitchen area.

And there were places, a few bedrooms, or that's the word for it, where people could sleep, because they were here for three days at a time at least.

When you're living through something, at the time, you think, "Well, will this ever be of interest to anyone historically?"

And of course the answer eventually, always is yes.

And one of the things you have is an eight track tape player.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- I don't know how many viewers even know what that was.

To people of a certain age, it's very memorable thing.

It's how you listen to music in your car and at home a lot of times too.

And that's what, at least part of the time, they had here.

So you have that among them.

- We do.

- And it's just an interesting little bit of detail that really didn't have much to do with missiles.

- No.

- But you're trying to get those aspects of it to be authentic too.

- Yeah.

As much as we can be.

- Murray Ritland, who's a videographer with us today on our crew, he asked an interesting question when we were down in the capsule, which was what about communication to the outside in the '60s, '70s, '80s, into the '90s.

Fully active site.

Were no cell phones.

And as you mentioned, there wouldn't have been reception down there anyway 'cause the impenetrable nature of the site.

How was communication to the outside world accomplished when it needed to be?

- If you had to, you know, make a phone call, you did have access to folks top side here through, you know, telephone systems.

As far as connection to like, your silos go, it was all done with underground cable systems that were all connected throughout the area.

- You've got a degree in this field.

Correct?

- Very similar.

Museum studies is actually my degree.

- I see.

So you wouldn't call this a museum.

- It kind of blurs the lines a little bit.

So state historic site, museum, we kind of refer to them interchangeably here.

- Yeah.

I see.

And where'd you get that degree?

- So I got my degree from the University of Oklahoma online, actually.

- Online degree.

And grew up where?

- Grew up in Denver, pretty much spent my entire life there.

Went to U-Dub for my bachelor's degree.

U-Dub in Laramie, not Washington.

- Our viewers know what U-Dub means.

(Alexis laughs) What was your undergrad?

- Anthropology.

- Anthropology.

So you mentioned downstairs as sort of an offhand remark, but it's important.

You said you're using your degree?

- I am.

Yes, which I'm very thankful for.

- How'd you get started with state of Wyoming and historic in state parks?

- So I actually started as a part-time museum assistant down at the Historic Governors' Mansion assisting with the superintendent at the time with kind of what they needed help with.

And then that person went on to different things.

I moved into the superintendent position there and then got handed Quebec 01 as an additional site.

- One thing I know about a museum and you said there was elements of a museum here, it's rarely ever finished.

If we were to come back a year from now or had we been here a year earlier, would it be different or are you always trying to find more authentication if you can?

- We are always trying to find additional things to kind of fill the shelves, fill the rooms, that sort of thing.

And so we do accept donations from anyone who wants to give us our artifacts, items, things like that.

And then on occasionally, we also, you know, kind of update exhibit spaces.

We actually finished an entire new exhibit in the back of the building, which is pretty cool.

We worked with a couple different folks in different companies and different people to take out two of the bedrooms that were in the back of the building and we converted that into an entirely new exhibit space complete with an interactive portion.

New things on display, new exhibit panels.

Really cool stuff.

- A great part of my job is finding interesting people and places and history and this is all three put together.

- [Alexis] It is.

- Alexis Pratt, thanks for having us here, helping us out with this, and for being with us on "Wyoming Chronicle."

- It was my pleasure.

(bright music)