King under the mountain: Building Colorado’s Cold War command center

"The tunnel entrance to the North American Air Defense (NORAD) Space Command Cheyenne Mountain Complex." Utah Mining, the company that excavated Cheyenne Mountain, also built a civilian tunnel going from Denver to Idaho Springs. The dimensions of that tunnel entrance are similar to the dimensions of this tunnel entrance. (credit: Department of Defense)

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Across the highway from the US Air Force Academy is a tiny cluster of buildings that represents one of Colorado Springs' earliest claims to fame: mining.

The Western Museum of Mining and Industry (WMMI) looks out onto a glorious expanse of the Rocky Mountains and is home to all manner of antique equipment that extracted minerals from those mountains.

But on a balmy April night, as a spring snowstorm rolled in from the west, Ars attended a lecture at the museum about a nearby mining marvel that was not intended to extract riches, but to bury something more valuable beneath the unyielding rock—knowledge.

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