Mr. Wheats Minuteman Missile

Back in the 1960s and 1970s there were a lot of nuclear-warhead-tipped Minuteman missiles in underground silos around LaMoure. One of them, about thirty feet tall, stands in front of the LaMoure Lions club. It's surrounded by a chain link fence, topped by razor wire. The missile was a gift from the honorable Milton Young, "known to the world as 'Mr. Wheat'," on the occasion of his 25th anniversary in the U.S. Senate in 1970. During his final campaign (1974) had himself filmed breaking a board with his bare hands. A square brick cairn stands in front of the menacing fence. Bolted onto it is a bronze plaque with a high-relief profile of Mr. Wheat, an elderly man with no hair, a large nose, and huge ears. "A common man of uncommon skill," according to the plaque. Thick spider webs hang off of the senator's nose.