Missions and Missiles

A day trip southwest of Tucson takes us to 2 seperate places of interest and a cool title. The first is the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. As the Spanish moved north from Mexico they brought Jesuit missionarys along to convert the local indians. This was the most northerly and biggest mission in Arizona. It was built in 1797 of all local materials like brick and adobe.
This is the front of the sanctuary behind the altar. The very ornate interior was carved by Mexican artisans and shipped by wagon to the site for assembly. You can only imagine how impressive this must have been for the local natives who were used to worshiping rocks (or whatever).

This is the dome of the mission. Low light prevents the colours from showing; the decorations were very colourful. Imagine building a dome like this using only local materials and native help. This is probably 40 feet across.
The patron saint of the mission is St Francis Xavier and they have a wooden effigy that the faithful can touch and ask for blessings. Legend has it that only the righteous can lift the effigys head. Watching some of the tattoed bikers perform the task suggests looks are deceiving I guess.


In an alcove the faithful can light candles in memory of loved ones. This room was so hot from the candles burning that I darted in, had my picture taken then darted out and then scraped the burned hair off the back of my legs. Well, almost.
This mission is know as the "White Dove of the Desert" and for many years was the only structure for miles other than native huts. By allowing parts of the local customs to remain, almost total conversion of the local indians was achieved. It must have been hard for the local shaman to compete with this.
Which brings us to the second half of our day out and a different kind of worship. The worship of technology, and peace through mutually assured destruction. As the cold war started to end, the US and Russia agreed to destroy their ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles). The US had nearly 30 sites with Titan 2 missiles, each capable of destroying a large city in Russia. This is the only site left.
This was the control centre that monitored the equipment and where the launch would be initiated. A complex process of locked safes, codebooks, verification procedures and keys made sure a launch could only occur under very rigid control. We were told that the nuclear warhead and all the fuel had been removed from the missile so I felt kind of safe pushing the launch button.
The control room was buried underground and isolated from the ground by large springs. Multiple blast doors protected the crew from a launch accident or a nuclear attack. This was a one use site. Once the missile was launched it destroyed its launch area. It was probably assumed there would be no one around to reload anyway. I guess the fact that they were never used proved their worth.