Object description

The Nike Site Summit is a historic military installation of the United States Army in Anchorage Borough, Alaska. The site, located in the Chugach Mountains overlooking Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, is the location of one of the best-preserved surviving Nike-Hercules missile installations in the state. The site's structures include a battery control area, a missile launch area, and several magazines. Units of the 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, USARAL Artillery Group, United States Army Alaska, would have garrisoned the site. The site was built in 1957-58 and equipped with missiles in 1959. The site was in active service defending the United States from the threat of Soviet air strikes until it was decommissioned in 1979, after which sensitive militarily equipment was removed. The U.S. Army maintained the site into the 1980s before abandoning it. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. A local non-profit group, Friends of Nike Site Summit, is actively attempting to preserve the site.