Neighborhood Nukes: New Jersey’s Cold War Nike Missile Program

In 2016 landscape photographer Richard Lewis learned that the long abandoned Lumberton New Jersey Nike Missile battery was going to be demolished. He felt this cold war relic was a piece of history that needed to be photographed before it was lost forever. After sharing the resulting images on his blog, it got the attention of a large number of veterans who served in the Nike Missile program during the cold war as well as historians.

Richard was invited to photograph other abandoned Nike Missile sites in New Jersey. During that time, he learned the secrets of the program, including what was really in the bunkers under Nike Missile batteries located all over the state of New Jersey. That lead to the creation of the program, Neighborhood Nukes, New Jersey’s Cold War Nike Missile Program, to share a time in American history where our country was threatened like no other time in its history.