Part 11: November-33 and Garrison Dam

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The Trip

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

By pure accident, we spotted a Minuteman missle site next to the road and it had an open gate.  We went to investigate and found that this site, November-33, was decommissioned and had been turned into a "museum".

There were plaques that described the system.

I took photos of some of the plaques and reproduced them here.

No external equipment was present at the site.

The blast door was huge and required special equipment to move it.  The shovel-nose was used to push debris and snow from the opening.

Note the missile loading brackets to the left of the door.

The personnel access to this unmanned site was through a manhole that was plugged with a 10,000lb+ door.

Equipment access doors.

As we approached Garrison Dam we spotted this monstrosity on the western horizon.  This coal-fired generation plant is fed by nearby mines.

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Our path took us next to one of the strip mines that serviced the power plant.

Despite a bit of motion blur in the photo above, the size of the mine can be determined by the amount of equipment in service.  These are huge trucks.

Further down the road we spotted a huge dragline at work.

The dragline is massive and dwarfs everything around it.

Our route took us over Garrision Dam and we got a nice view of the spillway.

A shot of the spillway control gates.

The eastern shore of the reservoir had steep shores.

Garrison Dam is huge in its scope.  This is an earthfill dam that spans the entire Missouri River.  Built by the Corp of Engineers, its purpose is downstream flood control.  The previous heights of the lake can be seen by the stripes on the rocks.

I love Corp of Engineers campsites, they are hands-down the best.  Asphalt pads with electrical service, restrooms with heated showers and well groomed grounds.



We hiked down to the banks of the Missouri River to get a look at its size.



From the shore we could look north toward the dam and powerhouse.  I have no clue as to the purpose of the towers above the powerhouse.  Sadly, due to Covid, the tours of the powerhouse were cancelled.



The river banks were large stacks of sediment (sand, silt and clay) and were deposited during earlier floods.  These areas now had nice stands of Cottonwood trees.



In the center of the river was a small island that the locals called Pelican Island.  There were other species of birds there as well.  It was odd to see a salt water bird at a fresh water lake (or river in this case).



I was mystified by this arrangement and assumed that the trailer was dropped to the ground to prevent the annoying rocking that comes with a house mounted on springs.  Wrong.  Some of the other campers told me that this is an ice fishing trailer and it is towed onto the ice and then lowered to prevent drafts.  There is an insulated plug in the floor that can be removed to provide ice access for fishing.  Too cool.

Tomorrow, we head north toward Writing Rock.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2021, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.