Nike Ajax, Hercules, and Zeus MissilesPhotographer and Location Unknown
Somewhat by accident I found that only a few hundred feet from a company where I used to work in Eastlake Ohio, there was a Nike Missile site. No, I’m not talking about a type of shoe, but real honest-to-god missiles that are used for war and blow things up. I became curious about the subject and with a little digging, I found that at one time, there were several Nike missile sites in the Cleveland area.
Photo from Dana Ryan and Burke Lakefront Airport staffThe Nike missile program was named after Nike, the goddess of victory from Greek mythology. The program brought Nike Ajax and/or Nike Hercules missiles to the Cleveland area and other locations across the nation during the “Cold War” era to combat a perceived Soviet threat. The missiles were part of a “line-of-sight” anti-aircraft missile system. They were put in place in the mid-1950s, and remained in place until the early 1960s when most locations in the Cleveland area became obsolete and closed, with the exception of the Parma and Warrensville locations. All bases in the Cleveland area were closed by 1971, and all locations were eventually reconfigured to serve other purposes more useful to their communities.
At Burke Lakefront Airport
Photo by Howard L. Newmarker
The missile location in the confines of the actual city of Cleveland was at Burke Lakefront Airport. All locations in the Cleveland area were as follows:CL-02 Bratenahl
CL-11 Painesville (Lake County)
CL-13 Willowick.Eastlake (Lake County)
CL-34DC Warrensville
CL-34 Warrensville/ Highland Hills
CL-48 Garfield Heights
CL-59 Parma/ Midpark Station
CL-67 Lakefront Airport (Burke)
CL-69 Lordstown Military Res/Fairview Park
You can find more detailed information about the program, and these Cleveland locations, in the links below.
By the way, I dug deep into my “archives” and found some old aerial photographs taken of the company where I worked in Eastlake. The photos were from the early 1960s – long before I worked there – but you can spot the location of the missile site in the photos.
Additional reading and reference:
Encylcopedia of Cleveland History Nike Missile Bases, which includes addresses for most locations
Nike Missile Sites in Ohio
The Nike Historical Society
Detroit-Cleveland Defense Area
Check out my blog home page for the latest Cleveland information, here.
26 comments:
great posting.I guess that is why the park one pleasent vally road near Tri-c campass is called nike park.Of course there is no trace of the missle site at all.
I like your use of the word "percieved" in regards to a precieved military strike from the Soviets. Am I left tp presume as a reader that such treats were "percieved" and not real? Maybe it means nothing to point this out but words mean things and regretfully they have a big impact on how future generations "percieve" past events in history.
I was interested in your list, since the house I lived in from 1951 till 1957 was 0.4 mile from the actual launching area at the Nike site in Fairview Park. I remember that there was opposition to the site (but I was a child, and had little understanding of what the fuss was about).
To "Anonymous" above: How many times can one misspell the word "perceive" or "perceived" in one short post? Answer: 4.
I lived on Concord Drive, just north of the Warrensville Control site, from 1957 to 1966. Several of the radar platforms were easily viewed from Richmond Road. I joined the rest of the neighborhood kids and routinely snuck onto the base to visit a creek for tadpoles. The double bladed 'banana choppers' frequented the base. The flights of these helicopters were so common that we didn't bother looking up when their engines were heard. The Cuban Missile crisis prompted my family to leave the area and camp far from the city. I also recall another sign of the Cold War. We heard sonic booms from the military jets overhead.
I was a Company and Battalion clerk on the Bratenal site. Back in 1959,60 and 61.
As a kid I lived on Saxon Dr, a street away from Garfield Hts Site CL-48; now the Board of Education. I still remember climbing the 2 remaining empty radar towers; now gone.
I have the only photo of the Willowick Nike radar site that accompanied the Eastlake missle site. I took the picture out our front window on Arnold Rd. I worked at the abandoned missle site in Eastlake at the Willoughby-Eastlake bus garage. At the time, they used the old missle elevators to take busses underground to paint them. It was cool watching the busses disappear as they went down the elevators.
I lived in Willowick as a child from 1954 to 1968 and actually attended fourth grade at CL-13 when it was used for classrooms by the Willoughby-Eastlake School District. Ultimately it was turned into city park named after a Willowick native by the name of Bob Manry who single-handed a small sailboat called Tinkerbell across the Atlantic. I still remember passing through the gates and seeing the radar tower on the school bus. Didn't really understand what it was all about back then, but I find the history fascinating now.
My father worked there after you . During those years he was working near Pittsburgh. Were you very young then or closer to retiring?
@Mimi Sefcik - where exactly did your father work and whne?
My aunt and uncle live directly across from the Nike base on W. Pleasant Valley Rd. I would spend A week every summer with them every morning my aunt would take me and my brother across the street to the Bobwire fence that surrounded by missiles it was fascinating
We moved to Euclid the year the Cuyahoga river caught fire the last time. My father
worked at a couple of the Lakefront Nike Hercules sites until they were closed. People would have freaked if they'd known there were tactical nukes down there... I didn't figure it out until after my dad retired in the 80's and I asked about all of the different jobs he had done.
Some idiot decided using tactical nukes would be a good idea because they could knock down a whole group of soviet bombers at once. The trouble with the idea was that if the wind was blowing to the south when they were detonated, the fallout would have ended up in the very places they were trying to protect. A U.C. study of the Nike Hercules sites on the California coast near San Francisco (where the wind almost always blows from the ocean to the land) estimated 30% of the population would have died of radiation within a month of their use.
I was stationed at the Warrensville Repair site from Nov.1970 through June of 71 when they closed it down and I got an early out!
Easy duty for a radar repairman.
Had to live off base in Maple Heights and ride my Enduro bike to the base daily. Coldest winter I've ever experienced...and later in the spring the Cuyahoga river caught on fire!!
Fond memories however!
Yeah - those lake effect snow storms, partial thaw and re-freeze days were fun, weren't they? I was a skinny little bean pole in 7th grade then - Delivering the Cleveland Press after school was fun --- I wasn't heavy enough to break through the ice layer, so I spent most of the time on my butt and then gathering papers up again. We lived at 26922 Tungsten Rd. in Euclid when my dad was at Bratenahl. I was going to Forest Park Jr. High - the only school I went to (and there were 22 on 3 continents) that had a print shop --- setting moveable type, silk screening, ……
I grew up in a house in Rocky River about a mile from the Nike Launch Site. Occasionally they would have drills where 4 missiles would be brought up on elevators from underground and raised into launch position. Still wonder if those missiles had nuclear warheads
I have been digging around on the internet for info about CL-59 and CL-69. As near as I can tell, both had the Ajax missiles, which were Conventional weapons. Not Nuclear. CL-59 was in Parma and CL-69 was in Fairview Park.
I remember these Nike Sites well. I lived in Fairview Park 1/8th of a mile from the CL-69 Lordstown Control Site (Westwood Rd. & W.217th St., now residential houses and a park) and a 1/2 mile from the Launch Site (Westwood Rd. & W.229 St., now the Tri-City Park). During the construction of these sites mid 1950s, when the workers would leave for the day, us neighborhood kids would play hide an seek in the buildings and scaffolding. Years later 59-60, I meet a new kid at school, last name Berry. His father was Sgt. 1st class Berry. He was from the Nika 54th unit, stationed here to help train personnel with the transfer from Ajax to Hercules Missiles. While stationed here the Berrys rented a half of a house across from Westgate Shopping Center on W.210 St. On a sleep over at the Berrys Friday night we attended FHS football game. Early Saturday morning we were woke up by Sgt. Berry and told to get ready for breakfast. At the table he dropped a big surprise on us. He had obtained permission from the Commanding Officer to bring his son and I on to the Control Base. The Launch Site was off-limits. WE drove up to the closed gate where a helmeted armed guard opened the gate. We saw the barracks, communication room, training rooms, bunker but not allowed inside, supply room. They also had a little rec room with tv, radio, pool table, card table with chairs,and pop machine. We had lunch in the mess hall. Sgt Berry gave me an OD green flat top Army cap with his Nika 54th unit pin on the front, a Nike Site Unit patch and pin, two Sgt. 1st class patches, and a helmet liner. As a kid I treasured these items for many years. Only still have the Nika pin and the Nike Site red/yellow Unit Patch. Sgt. Berry was transferred to a new duty station about 8 months later. I'll never forget how thoughtful and kind he was to include and gift me that day. ~ DT ~
Tom Golden. I was assigned to Warrenville Site for 60 days in 1966 from Richmond Kentucky where we did Radar Bomb Scoring 24 hours daily and 5 days a week for the SAC/USAF. At Cleveland NIKE I scored High Altitude Bombers (B-52- B-47 and B-58's) and always at (11 PM to 8 AM) at night. We used the NIKE Radar and Computer to track and score the Bombers practice bombing of Cleveland. I was the only Air Force member on site and the Soldiers on the site didn't particularly like me showing up at 11, as they knew they would be up all night working. It was very rewarding working with the Army. At that time, every major city in the USA had NIKE Defense for the Cold War. Our site in Kentucky supported Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and New York City.
Hi, I lived on Barjode Rd. in Willowick from 1959 thru 1965, before my Dad was transferred from Cleveland to Los Angeles. I remember sneaking through the chain link fence and climbing the old radar tower of CL-13. I was just a kid, and had no idea what the Nike Base was all about. Tonight I was watching "Mysteries of the Abandoned" on the Science Channel and they showed the Nike base in Gary, Indiana. Thought I would google "Nike base in Willowick" and found this. I also remember the air raid siren, bomb drills in school, and the sonic booms of the military warplanes. I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop and pondering over the last month I've spent "sheltering at home" over the COVID-19 fiasco. How times have changed...
I grew up in Euclid, after my dad got out of the service and became a Policeman. I never knew these sites existed until just today. I am fascinated that we never heard about them, not knew about them. I'm sure my Dad knew but never told us about them. I happened to be looking up info regarding the size of Generators that ran those bases and came across this blog. I live in KS now, but growing up in Euclid was absolutely the best. Too bad what shape its in today.... and I remember the river self combusting..Euclid 75
Growing up on west 229th the military vehicles would go up and down westwood rd and enter the tri city park entrance almost daily. Always be was a bit scary to think about the missile site being so close to home.
Your information is incorrect. The Nike site in willowwick was where Manary park stands today. There are still missiles that have been deactivated stored below ground.
@Pilot - the information I posted is correct. The IFC (Integrated Fire Control) was at Manry park. But the actual missile launch area is at 33525 Curtis Blvd. where the school buses are parked where I marked it on the photo. It's verified by this source. You may have to cut and paste this link: https://nikehercules.tripod.com/cl-13.html
lived on Westwood road, after Fairview site closed we used to sneak in and play in the silos, pretty cool, except the day bullies forced us underground, we were sure the locked the hatch, but alas an hour later we tried and it was open, sigh lol
Hi. Thanks for sharing your time there. I live about 1.5 miles from the old base in Warrensville. They have been slowly developing the area. The area has always facinated me. Do you remember where the actual launch site was? Or orher significant areas of the base?
@LD - all I could find on site locations was from the Encylopedia of Cleveland History - it listed this for all sites: "NIKE MISSILE BASES (1955-71) were built at 7 sites in Cuyahoga County (with an 8th location in Lake County). The bases, constructed at a cost of $12 million by the M. J. Boyle Co. of Chicago, were part of the U.S. air defense system. The bases in Cuyahoga County were located at: ROCKY RIVER-FAIRVIEW PARK (launch base near the WESTLAKE-Fairview Park border, control area at 21700 Westwood Ave.); PARMA-PARMA HTS. (launch base at 11000 York Rd., control area east of Parma Park Blvd.); GARFIELD HTS.-INDEPENDENCE (launch base at 733 Stone Rd., control area at 5640 Briarcliff); WARRENSVILLE HTS. (launch base at Richmond and Harvard roads, control area on Richmond Rd.); Willowick (launch base at 33605 Curtis, control area at 30100 Arnold); BRATENAHL (launch base at 555 E. 88th St., control area at Gordon Park); and Lakefront Airport (launch base at the northeast corner of BURKE LAKEFRONT AIRPORT, control area at E. 40th and MEMORIAL SHOREWAY). Each launch base consisted of a battery of Nike-Ajax missiles, missile-assembly, generator, acid-storage buildings, a fueling area, underground missile storage and launchers, barracks, and a launcher-control trailer. The control area, one-half mile from the launch area, consisted of a mess hall, administration building, barracks, radar tower, and control van." Link: https://case.edu/ech/articles/n/nike-missile-bases
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