Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Perimeter Acquisition Radar Building, Limited Access Area, between Limited Access Patrol Road & Service Road A, Nekoma, Cavalier County, ND

Significance: It is believed that the plans for deployment and initiation of construction of this facility were instrumental in obtaining Soviet agreement to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and a subsequent decline in Cold War hostilities between the Superpowers. The Perimeter Acquisition Radar Building (PARB) is the only structure of its kind and size in the world. A unique massive, structure, for some time it was the second largest building in the state of North Dakota. The structure, which is steel reinforced concrete, was built to withstand a nuclear blast, termed nuclear hardened. The Perimeter Acquisition Radar is a long-range, phased array radar. It faces north and provides surveillance over the polar region. It can detect and track multiple targets. After the termination of the Safeguard system, the PAR became part of the missile early warning network and has remained operational to date.

Survey number: HAER ND-9-P

Building/structure dates: 1972 Initial Construction

concrete buildings radar tracking stations radar nekoma stanley stanley r mickelsen complex perimeter acquisition perimeter acquisition radar access access area patrol access patrol road service service road cavalier cavalier county north dakota ammann and whitney general electric company historic american engineering record christiana jackson us army corps of engineers photo ultra high resolution high resolution building plans design library of congress architectural diagrams

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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