MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – During the Cold War, the land in Dakota County served as a missile and release platform. But in Finding Minnesota this week, John Lauritsen shows us how his new owners expect to move from missiles to Mediterranean cuisine.
At this time of year, rural Dakota County is a sea of vegetation. There are acres and acres of lush farmland, with an old missile in the middle of it all.
The NIKE missile site was opened in 1959. It was one of 4 bases built during the Cold War to protect dual cities from imaginable enemy airstrikes.
“I went hunting to buy a farm. And then, one day, I stopped by on this road, there was a big “For sale” sign, lahcen Grass said.
For Lahcen, it’s a “really sore eyes” display. He and his wife, Amina, bought the invaded assets as temporarily as possible. He said it was necessarily a jungle when he first bought it.
“It took about $10,000 to leave the trees and shrubs blank and everything,” he says.
Becoming the owner of an old army base means that Lahcen also owns its history.
“It was just to wait for a signal from the defense system, if there is any enemy aircraft, so they can fire the missiles,” said Lahcen.
At its peak, more than 150 people lived and worked at the base. Now there are three. But the afterlife is and waiting to be explored: from an anti-aircraft shelter with 2-foot-thick concrete walls to the release platform where protection was a priority.
When asked how many missiles could be introduced at the same time, Lahcen said: “There is prospective for 12 launchers. The number of missiles classified information. I don’t know how many there were here.”
The missiles were 31 feet long and weighed about 10,000 pounds. They can only about 2,000 miles consistent with the time.
Lahcen admits it’s a little strange to wake up every day at an old missile site.
“Sometimes it’s scary, it’s rewarding,” he says.
It’s gratifying in the sense that Lahcen and his wife are looking to throw something new. When the site was dismantled in 1972, the Ministry of Mines took over. Then a personal owner. Finally, Grass’s circle of relatives became owner in 2015 and turned the old administrative construction into his home.
Amina said he’s skeptical at first, “but we make it work.”
The couple is originally from Morocco and they have a flair for Mediterranean food. They want to open a cooking school, which is why the site is now adorned with an army of vegetables. Grape vines are replacing barbed wire. Chickens now run their own security near the former mess hall.
“Every dish and every vegetable we want a mixture of spices and olive oil,” Amina said.
Amina says it’s one of her dreams, a dream they hope to take off.
“It’s the best position where I can show my vision and show our culture and percentage of things with people,” Lahcen said.
The couple are applying with the USDA to bring bees and pollinators to the property.
They expect to open their kitchen in about a year.
Once the school opens, they will climb a museum that will include the history of the Nike missile site.