Suburbs played a role during Cold War

Tensions are rising between the United States and Russia over the stand off in Georgia, and suddenly it's as if the Cold War never ended.

For those too young to remember, school tornado drills originated as taking cover in case of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. The conflict between the United States and the former Soviet Union, known as the Cold War, lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Initially, Americans feared a Soviet bomber air attack, predicated on memories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. By 1953, the U.S. Army began building Nike air defense systems around U.S. cities, military installations and industries. Nike missiles were the first operational, guided, surface-to-air missiles able to detect, track and destroy enemy aircraft.

The Chicago area had 23 Nike missile bases, with four sites in Lake County - Fort Sheridan (C-98), Libertyville (C-92 and C-94), and Barrington (C-84). All Nike systems in the upper Midwest were supplied and underwent service maintenance through Fort Sheridan.

Nike bases were relatively obscure facilities with small structures on the surface, such as barracks and sentry guardhouses, and missiles stored underground. Each site had 105 to 115 officers and enlisted men. During the day, military police and guard dogs patrolled the bases, and at night, the dogs were sometimes allowed to roam the launch areas.

Within a decade of their creation, Nike missiles became less significant in the defense of the United States as the Soviet Union changed its military strategy from bombers to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Nike missiles had been designed to strike enemy aircraft and not ballistic missiles. By 1974, all Nike missile sites were deactivated.

Since then, the abandoned bases have been used for several purposes. Some were given to school districts, or in the case of the Barrington site (on Quentin Road near Lake Zurich) temporarily housed county records and the collections of the Lake County Discovery Museum.

In 1991, the two most intact Nike installations in Illinois were documented for historic preservation purposes - site C-84 in Barrington and site SL-40 in Hecker. The Barrington site had operated only with the first generation of Nike missile known as the Nike Ajax (its range being only about 25 miles).

The silos at Fort Sheridan have been filled in for safety reasons by the Lake County Forest Preserve District, which was deeded 258 acres of the fort after its closure in 1993.