A visit to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota can include a peek into the launch control center/NPS

Hard to believe, but it's been a quarter-century since the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union sat down and agreed to reductions in nuclear weapons. For a look back at the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, stop by the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota late this month.

START was signed on July 31, 1991, by President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The treaty limited the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and nuclear warheads either country could possess. The treaty directly led to the deactivation and destruction of 450 Minuteman II silos and 45 associated Launch Control Facilities. Due in part to treaty language, the U.S. Air Force worked with the National Park Service to preserve a single launch control facility and silo; today these two sites, the Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and the Delta-09 Missile Silo, can be found in Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

First proposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, the treaty restricted the United States to approximately 8,556 nuclear warheads and the Soviet Union to approximately 6,449 nuclear warheads. The START Treaty established limits on all parts of the American nuclear triad; weapons in excess of the agreed upon number would be disarmed and associated facilities dismantled. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty represented the first step back away from the potential of a nuclear-fueled Armageddon and toward a future of cooperation and security, resulting in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.

As a part of the national celebration of the Centennial of the National Park Service, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the treaty with a three-day film festival, the inauguration of a new children's program, and a commemorative ceremony followed by an anniversary cake cutting.

The film festival will run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (July 29-31), and will consist of showing episodes of CNN's Cold War documentary along with Cold War-era films, including the influential ABC movie that changed it all, "The Day After." 

The commemorative ceremony and cake cutting will take place at noon on Saturday, July 30. At 1 p.m. Saturday will be the debut of the park's new hands-on youth activity, Junior Missileer, in which kids will have the chance to build a foam "missile" of their own and launch it.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is located at three sites along a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 90 in western South Dakota. The headquarters and visitor center is located off of exit 131, Interstate 90.

Authorized by Congress in 1999, the historic site preserves components of the Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile system, interpreting the deterrent value of the land-based portion of America's nuclear defense during the Cold War era and commemorating the people and events associated with this recent period of American history.