Clio Logo

This entry is awaiting approval by: Daniel McInerney, Utah State University.

Northrop Grumman Rocket Garden

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This popular roadside attraction was built in 1986 in Corinne, Utah, and is home to nearly 40 different examples of space supersonic and military hardware on exhibit. Including a 150-foot rocket booster used for the Space Shuttle. There is also an Atlas Rocket, Patriot, and Minuteman missiles, and less-known military munitions such as Antares, Maverick, and Minotaur missiles. The Northrop Grumman Rocket Garden is within an 8-mile radius of the Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the transcontinental was completed in 1869, and visiting the Northrop Grumman Rocket Garden you can learn and see where scientists helped put a man on the moon exactly 100 years later in 1969!

Images

Northrop Garden Rocket Garden

Sky, Rocket, Missile, Gas

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The Northrop Grumman Rocket Garden was built in 1986, owned and named at the time as Morton Thiokol, builder of the booster that was on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. It is also located at one of their manufacturing facilities. Rockets are large and combustible, so it is sensible to build them in "The middle of nowhere." The high desert of Northern Utah fits that description of one of those "Nowhere" places.

    The Northrop Grumman Rocket Garden has over 40 different examples of military and space hardware on display. All with their own plaque with the rocket/missile name and details. Visitors can walk up close to a solid rocket booster that did fly during NASA’s Space Shuttle Program and took its astronauts to a speed of 17,400 miles per hour. Visitors can also get up close to a Minuteman (a U.S. land based intercontinental ballistic missile), and a Maverick (air-to-ground missile designed to be launched from Black Hawk helicopters).

    When it was built in 1986 it was 1/3 of the size it is today. It is a popular attraction and people visit it from all over the country and world. It is an interesting and informative display of innovation and technology.

Sources

Boam, Rod. Rocket Garden is a bonus for Golden Spike National Park visitors, cachevalleydaily.com. March 26th 2019. Accessed February 14th 2021. https://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/archive/2019/03/26/rocket-garden-is-a-bonus-for-golden-spike-national-park-visitors/#.YCmj9WhKiM8.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/16594

Additional Information