BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News

Friends of Nike Site Summit held its first public tour of the historic Nike missile site on Joint Base Elmendorft-Richardson in the Chugach Mountains on Saturday.

The organization is working to restore some of the buildings and conduct regular tours. The launch sites were the last line of defense against Soviet bombers; 145 Nike Hercules missile sites were constructed in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. The Chugach Mountains site, one of only two to conduct live fire exercises, is the only one to survive as a nearly complete site.

Barry Hutchins makes a photograph of one of the clam shell radar towers while on the Friends of Nike Site Summit's first public tour of the site in the Chugach Mountains above Anchorage on Saturday. (View the rest of the gallery)