Wikimedia Commons/Mechanique57
The Cold War Radar Station Atop Mount Baldhead
Atop a 230-foot sand dune in Michigan sits a strange white dome with a secret Cold War past. When the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949, America got scared fast.
The Air Force built the Saugatuck Gap Filler Radar Station in 1958 to watch for Soviet bombers sneaking low over Lake Michigan toward Chicago.
For ten years, this unmanned post used the world’s first working modem to send data to Battle Creek. In 1968, as missiles beat out bombers as the main threat, the radar shut down…