Recent Photos of Minot AFS, ND
2012 image looking North
Radar-Ops 2012 image looking North
2012 image looking South
Radar-Ops 2012 image looking South
The following recent photos were made by Tom Page on 17 September 2022:
Foreground: Foundations of the tower for the former AN/FPS-6B / AN/FPS-90 height-finder radar located just north of the Operations building. (looking southwest)
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Operations building, north side (the section added for SAGE operations) (looking south-southwest)
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Operations building, south side and east side -- original manual AC&W operations side on the left; SAGE operations addition on the right (looking northwest)
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Operations building, west side and south side -- original manual AC&W operations section (looking northeast)
Those are bee hives in the foreground on the far right
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South side and east side of the former AN/FPS-27 FD search radar tower base and antenna-support structure -- the elevator and stairway section of the radar tower juts out to the right (looking west-northwest)
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Source: http://www.radioparadise.com/content.php?name=Journal&file=show_entry&jid=57
FPS-26A foundation in foreground; FPS-27 remains in the background
Interior of the remains of the FPS-27 tower.
Fall 2005 photos by Scott Murdock
Ed. Note: Time is really starting to show on these buildings now
Looking approx. northwest, across the housing area to the station
Summer 1998
Photos and notes by Gene McManus
Email: gmcmanus@radomes.org
A portion of our summer vacation was a trip back to Minot to have a look at the 786th as it appears today. I had been in contact with Bill Kickert, who was a "lifer" who spent most of his career at the 786th, and currently lives in Minot. He arranged a site tour with the present owners, who were gracious enough to open up the site and all the buildings for our perusal, and to have us into their home, in the old 786th housing area, for cold drinks when we were through. Bill and I, and our wives spent about two hours rummaging around the old squadron. It was a pretty nostalgic afternoon, and even knowing what it was going to look like, it was pretty depressing.
As the accompanying photos suggest, the site is rapidly deteriorating. There is considerable moisture damage to most buildings, due to roof damage over the years.
Gene McManus
September, 1998
The 786th doesn`t look too bad as you approach the gate on the access road
However, when you get there, and are greeted by the current residents, and see the present state of the buildings, it`s another story. These cattle are grazing around the remnants of the old AN/FPS-6B tower. The AN/FPS-27 tower is in the right background.
All that remains of the AN/FPS-27 tower.
From an email from Bob Redding:
The tall metal structure in the photo, appears to be part of the antenna support pedestal. This pedestal extended from the ground, all the way up through the center of the building to the base of the antenna. It was not normally visible inside the building, except between the floor and ceiling on the top floor.
The larger concrete structure, appears to be the two 50,000 volt power supply vaults. There is a dividing wall inside, between the two smaller square ventilator openings. This view is of the rear, outside wall of the FPS-27. This structure is much larger than it *seems* in the photo. These enclosures resembled Bank vaults, and would probably be very difficult to demolish.
The smaller object in the foreground, with the steps, appears to be part of the cooling tower support structure.
The operations building was very musty-smelling, probably owing to its being perpetually dark, with no sunlight to dry it out. The moldy smell forced my wife to not tour it. There`s a painting of the "Spirit of `76" flag on the wall in the old manual ops room, still in good condition, but my flash was too puny to get a decent photo of it.
The NCO Club seems especially dilapidated.
