Patti-MacDonald Company, M-B Contracting Company, US Army Corps of Engineers
Architect
Leon Chatelain Jr., Spector and Montgomery Architects
NRHP reference No.
96000691[1]
AHRS No.
ANC-789
Added to NRHP
July 11, 1996
The Nike Site Summit (or just 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[2] until it was decommissioned in 1979, after which sensitive militarily equipment (including missiles, radar equipment, and launch control equipment) was removed.[3] The U.S. Army maintained the site into the 1980s before abandoning it.[4] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.[1] A local non-profit group, Friends of Nike Site Summit, is actively attempting to preserve the site.[5]
Site Summit was one of 145 Nike-Hercules sites that were built as a part of the defense network that protected the United States during the Cold War.[4][6] In 1959–60, eight Nike missile sites were constructed in Alaska. The Nike sites in Alaska, including Site Summit, served a vital defense role due to their location—being between the Soviet Union and continental United States.[7] Site Summit performed live fire tests of its Nike-Hercules missiles between 1960 and 1963,[2][4][7][8] before the launches became dangerous due to the growing population of Anchorage.
The Nike-Hercules missile, the United States military's first anti-aircraft missile capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads, was a formidable defense weapon. The United States’ Nike-Hercules sites were created in response to the rising possibility of nuclear attack by Soviet bombers. Operation of Nike-Hercules sites such as Site Summit required 125 personnel.[2][6] Despite the ability of Nike missiles, the advent of intercontinental missiles quickly made the Nike-Hercules missiles obsolete. Nike-Hercules sites began closing in 1965 and all Nike-Hercules sites had been decommissioned by 1975 except ones in Alaska and Florida[7]—Site Summit in Anchorage and the Nike-Hercules site in Key West were the last two sites to close in 1979.[4]
Friends of Nike Site Summit partnered with multiple state agencies in 2009 in order to restore the site. After three years of restoration, guided tours began in the summer of 2012.[2][4][9]
Views of Site Summit in Arctic Valley in different seasons
^ ab"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ abcd"Nike Site Summit, Alaska (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^"NRHP nomination for Site Summit". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-01-09.
^ abcde"About Site Summit". Friends of Nike Site Summit. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^"Friends of Nike Site Summit". Friends of Nike Site Summit. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^ ab"Nike Site Summit". www.jber.jb.mil. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^ abc"Site Summit (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^“Nike-Summit Trifold Brochure” Friends of Nike Site Summit, Retrieved 2018-05-19.
^"Nike Site Summit". Alaska.org. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
The Nike SiteSummit (or just SiteSummit) is a historic military installation of the United States Army in Anchorage Borough, Alaska. The site, located...
The following list of G20 summits summarizes all G20 conferences held at various different levels: summits of heads of state or heads of government, ministerial-level...
March 2015. Summit Air official siteSummit Air Fleet ATR 72 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Summit Air. Summit Air official siteSummit Air at Ledcor...
The 2023 BRICS summit was the fifteenth annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government...
The 2009 G20 Pittsburgh Summit was the third meeting of the G20 heads of state and heads of government to discuss financial markets and the world economy...
maintained by the US Army having been near the former Army (Nike missile SiteSummit) in the mountains. The name "Chugach" comes from Chugach Sugpiaq "Cuungaaciiq...
The 2011 G20 Cannes Summit was the sixth meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state in a series of on-going discussions about financial markets...
ALASKA website Nike Missile Site Bay Nike Missile SiteSummit Nike Missile Jig Launch Battery Site California Nike Missile Site LA-04 Mt Gleason CA The Missiles...
the traditional site of Camp VI. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community whether one or both of them reached the summit 29 years before...
The 36th G8 summit was held in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, on June 25–26, 2010. In this year's meeting, the G8 leaders agreed in reaffirming the group's...
reality, and mobile broadcasts. The site averages over 400 million visitors a month, according to SimilarWeb. The site was first launched in 2016 and has...
The 2000 Camp David Summit was a summit meeting at Camp David between United States president Bill Clinton, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian...
Summit Camp, also known as Summit Station, is a year-round staffed research station near the apex of the Greenland ice sheet. The station is located at...
The 2023 Vilnius summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the thirty-one members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
The AI Safety Summit was an international conference discussing the safety and regulation of artificial intelligence. It was held at Bletchley Park, Milton...
The Summit Church is a Baptist Evangelical multi-site church headquartered in Durham, North Carolina and meeting at 12 campuses across the Triangle area...
of the European Union and other invited guests. The choice of a site for these summit meetings is left entirely to the host nation. The location choices...
acquisition of the property comprising the main 10,600-acre site of what is now The Summit Bechtel Reserve. Its acquisition was made possible through a...
Vinson (4,892 m) Kosciuszko (2,228 m) Puncak Jaya (4,884 m) The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents....
professional teams, notably the NBA's Houston Rockets. It was known as The Summit until 1998, when technology firm Compaq bought naming rights and dubbed...
The Malta Summit was a meeting between United States President George H. W. Bush and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on December 2–3, 1989,...
The 49th G7 summit was held from 19 to 21 May 2023 in the city of Hiroshima in Hiroshima Prefecture. Leaders of G7 countries joined in Hiroshima to discuss...