Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
Nike Missile Base – Location 25.3700, -80.6847
In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis called for an immediate defense of South Florida. Within a week the entire tip of Florida became an armed fortress with military units scattered from Miami down through the Keys and across the mosquito infested Everglades. The main defensive units consisted of a dozen strategically placed Hawk and Nike missile batteries with their nuclear-tipped surface-to-air missiles aimed at Cuba just ninety miles away. Each site had 12 missiles aimed at Cuba that were manned by 120 soldiers who were kept on alert 24 hours a day.
About twelve miles due southwest of Florida City a piece of this historical period still remains, but don’t plan on visiting it because it’s within the boundaries of the Everglades National Park. It is the only Nike site that is still intact; most of the other sites in South Florida have been demolished, totally vandalized, or converted to other uses like a former site in Southwest Miami, which is now used as an immigration detention center.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: Alfred Hitchcock was an ovophobe, which is the fear of what?
A: Ammo cans = N29° 29.559' W81° 49.949'
B: Film cans = N29° 29.549' W81° 49.949'
C: Eggs = N29° 29.539' W81° 49.949'