Of course, being around 3-5 years old, I knew nothing of military missiles.
In my eyes, this thing was an honest-to goodness SPACESHIP!
I was quite convinced that the little access hatch on the side of the rocket was a door for miniature spacemen!
I was also completely unaware that, at the time, a group of people in nearby Denver, and even in my home town of Colorado Springs were quite busy laying the groundwork for a model hobby involving missiles, rockets, and spaceships.
Not to mention that a mere dozen or so years later, I would be deeply immersed in that hobby myself!
Or that another 40 or so years hence, I would still be deeply immersed in that hobby.
So, just the other day, I was thinking about that Nike Hercules missile which sparked my imagination so many years ago. I knew that the vehicle had disappeared from display sometime in the late 1960's, and I wondered whatever became of it.
A quick search on the Wonderful World Wide Web revealed that there is a Nike Hercules currently on display at the Peterson AFB Air and Space Museum in Colorado Springs. I wondered if this could be the same missile.
I found a website for the Museum, and shot them a quick e-mail inquiring if this was the same vehicle.
I got the response this morning....
"Mr. Mitton,
You are correct, our display Nike Hercules was presented to El Paso County in July 1959 by the US Army Air Defense Command, headquartered at Ent Air Force Base, and on display in front of the El Paso County Courthouse (now the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum) for a number of years. It came into our possession in the late 1970's when the North American Air Defense Command established a Visitor Center on then-Peterson Field in 1976. The NORAD Visitor Center was replaced with the Peterson Air and Space Museum when the museum was established in 1981.
I've attached a photo of the bronze plaque that was part of the Nike missile display when it was located downtown."
Cool!
Here is a picture of the plaque...
and of the Nike Hercules itself on display at the museum...
Cheers!