In the 1950s, the United States designed and built two competing offensive nuclear missile systems, Atlas and Titan. Here’s what these Cold War relics look like today, inside and out.
history under ground
Tunnels
Atlas & Titan Nuclear Missile Bases
Cramer Tunnel
Northern Minnesota
Cramer Tunnel connected LTV Steel’s taconite mine and concentrator with its ore dock at Taconite Harbor. It served from 1957 to 2001, when LTV declared bankruptcy for the last time.
Draining Zenith City
Duluth, MN
The underground history of some of Duluth’s most notable sewers, drains, and substreet creeks.
Duluth’s Lost Silver Mine
Duluth, MN
In mid-1880s, a few men began tunneling under downtown Duluth looking for a fortune. Now there’s no trace of their labor under the Point of Rocks, is there?
DWP’s Short Line Tunnel Ely’s Peak Duluth, MN
It started as a rumor, then I heard it over and over–there was an abandoned train tunnel outside Duluth.
Ford’s Twin Cities Plant & Sand Mines
Saint Paul, MN
On December 16th, 2011, the last Ford Ranger standard truck left the assembly line and paint shop and not long afterward the doors were chained and locked. Then it was my turn.
Lost Soo Line Tunnel
Duluth, MN
In 1910, after three years of digging and blasting, workers finished their giant tunnel from West End right into downtown Duluth. It’s still there, hiding.
Melchior House
Brewery & Caves
Trempealeau, WI
125 years after the fire that destroyed it, this early steamboat stop has its underground brought to light.
Schmidt Brewery
Saint Paul, MN
After 150 years of digging, brewing and burning, Schmidt Brewery still rules the West Side. Here is a story of new beginnings, starring a cave and a castle. It starts in Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1855…
Selby Streetcar Tunnel
Saint Paul, MN
The Selby Tunnel extended 1,500 feet under a chunk of downtown Saint Paul and some thought it was lost. It isn’t. Here’s what it looks like today.
The Eagle Zinc Mine
Gilman, CO
Left hand, grip the left rail. Right hand, grip that other one. Feet, for God’s sake remember how to crabwalk; we have a cliff to descend. Come with me into the tunnels under a Coloradan ghost town to see what was once the world’s largest zinc mine.