Nike Site Summit Tours
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REI Class: Historic Nike Site Summit at Arctic Valley
Missile Launch and Storage Area at Nike Site Summit, ca. 2009.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Member price: Free
Non-member price: Free
Group size:65
Register at Anchorage REI
OverviewDuring the height of the Cold War (1959-1979) Nike Site Summit, a missile base located high on the slopes of Mt. Gordon Lyon in the Chugach Mountains, defended the skies over Anchorage from Soviet attack. Friends of Nike Site Summit (FONSS) has been working for over a decade on restoring this historic site to its Cold War era appearance, and has been offering seasonal site tours since 2011. The event will begin with two short presentations covering required safety and regulatory information about visiting and working on the site: an Unexploded Ordnance Safety briefing presented by JBER Range Control and a briefing on working in compliance with federal regulations covering historic sites, presented by JBER Cultural Resources Manager Margan Grover. Anyone interested in volunteering to work on site during the summer. Next, representatives from FONSS will provide a brief history of the site and detailed information about how to access the site, including tour dates and prices, descriptions of the two different hiking tours FONSS offers, and the procedures required to gain access to JBER for tours. FONSS representatives will be available for Q and A.
Anchorage REI
500 E Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99503
Member price: Free
Non-member price: Free
Group size:65
Register at Anchorage REI
OverviewDuring the height of the Cold War (1959-1979) Nike Site Summit, a missile base located high on the slopes of Mt. Gordon Lyon in the Chugach Mountains, defended the skies over Anchorage from Soviet attack. Friends of Nike Site Summit (FONSS) has been working for over a decade on restoring this historic site to its Cold War era appearance, and has been offering seasonal site tours since 2011. The event will begin with two short presentations covering required safety and regulatory information about visiting and working on the site: an Unexploded Ordnance Safety briefing presented by JBER Range Control and a briefing on working in compliance with federal regulations covering historic sites, presented by JBER Cultural Resources Manager Margan Grover. Anyone interested in volunteering to work on site during the summer. Next, representatives from FONSS will provide a brief history of the site and detailed information about how to access the site, including tour dates and prices, descriptions of the two different hiking tours FONSS offers, and the procedures required to gain access to JBER for tours. FONSS representatives will be available for Q and A.
Anchorage REI
500 E Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK 99503
Friends of Nike Site Summit Endowment Fund
The current FONSS board, in cooperation with the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation (fiscal sponsor), has established an endowed fund to ensure Nike Site Summit a dedicated source of income for years to come. For more information on the FONSS Endowment and to donate to the fund, please click here.
This historic photo of the Launch Control Building shows what it looked like during the Cold War.
Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, which houses Nike Site Summit, has historical information about the Site and its operation.
The link to JBER's public access page is here.
The link to JBER's public access page is here.