People line up to check out a raised Nike anti-aircraft missile at the Army’s launch site on Brown Deer Road in River Hills on Oct. 28, 1956. Credit: Milwaukee Journal photo

SHARE Two boys admire a Nike missile at the Army’s launch site in River Hills — one of seven guided-missile installations in the Milwaukee area in 1956. Milwaukee Journal photo

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On a Sunday afternoon in the thick of the Cold War, Milwaukee came out to meet the missiles.

On Oct. 28, 1956, the U.S. Army sent out an open-house invitation to the public to check out the seven Nike missile launching sites ringing Milwaukee, as the city's first line of defense against a Soviet strike.

The Milwaukee Journal reported on Oct. 29, 1956, that about 25,000 people took the Army up on its offer "to come behind the barbed-wire enclosures at the seven launching sites and see what was going on.

"They included a bright-eyed boy who wanted his daddy to get him a Nike."

The Journal ran a photo of people lined up to see the anti-aircraft missiles at the Nike site at 2000 W. Brown Deer Road in River Hills. At the Nike site in Grant Park, the Journal reported, Milwaukeeans asked all sorts of questions — and, not surprisingly, received few actual answers.

"How fast do they go a minute?" a man asked. "I'm not allowed to say," an officer replied.

"How long does it take to assemble one?" "I'd rather not say."

Some of the questions at the open house, the Journal reported, were a little, well, Wild West.

"Do you have the cooperation of Mitchell Field?" one woman asked. "I mean, do they send their jets over so you can shoot at them?"

An Army officer "courteously" explained that Mitchell Field didn't offer up jets and pilots for target practice, and that no missile would be fired in Milwaukee unless an enemy actually attacked.

During the open house, the Journal reported, "bells sounded and soldiers began to run, push buttons and disappear down hatches. The adults were a trifle unnerved."

"Well," the Journal quoted a "brave young man" as saying, "it looks like we're going to have some real action."

"Not while we're here, I hope," his female companion replied.

Turned out it was a practice launch — and, the Journal reported, it didn't go too well. Only three of four launchers functioned properly.

At the time of the Nike missile site open houses, the world sure seemed like a dangerous place. The open-house photo in the Journal was part of a photo page that included images of a funeral for anti-Soviet rebels in Hungary during that country's 1956 uprising. On the front page of the Journal, the world was on edge amid rising military tensions in the Middle East, as hostilities between Egypt and Israel threatened to turn into all-out war.

But the threat that the Nike sites were built to thwart didn't last long.

Although an eighth site was added at Maitland Field — the airport on Milwaukee's lakefront where Summerfest now sits — American defense priorities changed.

As the Journal reported, in 1961, three missile defense sites were deactivated. Two more sites were turned over to the Army National Guard and, in 1963, were closed; the Army abandoned the Maitland Field site in 1969 and, in 1971, announced it was closing its last two Nike sites, including the Brown Deer Road site — the last Nike missile sites operating in Wisconsin.

ABOUT THIS FEATURE

The Journal Sentinel's photo archives are testament to the idea that the past is never even past. If you dig deeply enough, you can find images from Milwaukee and Wisconsin's recent history that echo today.

Each Wednesday, Our Back Pages will dip into those archives, sharing photos and stories from the past that connect, reflect and sometimes contradict the Milwaukee we know today — or at least give us something to smile about.

Special thanks and kudos go to senior multimedia designer Bill Schulz for finding many of the gems in the Journal Sentinel photo archives.