The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, nestled along North Dakota’s remote northern border, is one of America’s most fascinating examples of military waste.

It’s a pyramid-shaped missile silo that was part of the Safeguard program, an elaborate missile-defense system meant to protect the U.S. from Soviet ballistic missiles. This bizarre building was to be the first of 12 such sites scattered across the country.

The Safeguard program began in the late 1960s as a method of protecting America’s ability to strike back against any attempt to disarm Washington’s nuclear capabilities. Safeguard would detect any incoming threats to the Minuteman missiles.

It was a missile system to protect missile systems. A multiphase-array radar would lock onto any ICBM entering Earth’s orbit … and prepare a Spartan missile for intercept.

On paper, the time from detection to launch was just six seconds. In case the Spartan missiles failed for some reason, the pyramid also held a battery of smaller Sprint missiles. The idea was to detonate the offending ICBM in the air before it hit Detroit or Cleveland or Boise.

Sprint and Spartan missiles both carried atomic warheads.