Rockets in the Everglades

Whenever a new James Bond movie came out the Marco Beach Boys and Girls were some of the biggest fans. In true life, James Bond movies inspired everything from the ultralight helicopter to the modern wave runner and Jet Ski. “The Spy Who Loved Me” introduced the Wet Bike and the forerunner of the modern wave runner, and “You Only Live Twice” bought us Little Nellie and the 007 ultralight helicopter that terrified the Hollywood stunt crews assigned to fly her. 

In true James Bond Style, and in our very own Southwest Florida backyard, there were extravagant, dangerous, and top-secret rocket installations rising up in the Everglades that would rival any spy movie ever produced.

The recipe for a James Bond film is always exciting. Ian Fleming’s 007 came from the author’s experiences as a British Naval Intelligence officer, and as a result, many of the James Bond feature film locations were set in exotic and tropical destinations. With every James Bond film ever produced however, a competition was always underway to find the most exciting, remote, and dangerous locations where the adventures of good over evil would always prevail for the hero. Whenever an evil empire secretly bankrolled a world-class and sinister villain with a hidden agenda, James Bond’s 007 character was there to save the day - even if he had to wade through a nest of snakes or wrestle an army of alligators.

During the days when the modern development of Marco Island was young and the boating canals were under construction, there were several top-secret installations underway in the Everglades about the same time as the early 007 films were under production. 

When Soviet Russia launched the very first satellite into orbit in October of 1957, the world changed dramatically. Sputnik was the name given to the sphere-shaped and basketball-sized intruder that crossed over America every 90 minutes and many were convinced a communist evil empire was behind the first secret project to enter outer space. The Russians understood the first spacecraft ever would strike terror into every American who saw it streaking overhead, and to amplify the fear, the invasive satellite was fitted with a broadcaster to emit a steady, “Beep” that anyone could hear on a short-wave radio. 

Five years after the Russian Sputnik began orbiting the earth and claiming victory in outer space a missile tracking station was operating and searching the skies from Marco Island. The radar tracking station was located where Cape Marco is today and was watching with the latest technology for missile launches coming from communist Cuba. The Marco installation was also vital for tracking the first American rockets and missiles launched from Cape Canaveral and other locations.

During Marco’s early development, and when the United States was gearing up for the international race to dominate outer space, a secret installation was on the rise in the nearby Everglades to house, test, and launch the largest solid-fuel rocket ever made.

In 1963, Aerojet General was gathering funding from the U.S. Air Force to build a very remote installation near the Everglades National Park. Adjacent to the James Bond-type installation was the C-111 canal dug out of the Everglades. The lengthy canal enabled enormous payloads of rocketry equipment to reach the Everglades - equipment that was too large and heavy to transport over the Aerojet Road, which remains as a nature trail today.

After the buildings for the Aerojet rocket complex were complete, the Sun Ship and Dry Dock Company was under contract to build a concrete rocket silo that would house the first test rocket. The rocket silo reached 100-feet down into the marshy wetlands and water table of the Everglades and was completed and on-schedule - in perfect James Bond style - just before the first of the rockets arrived.

Meanwhile, troops of technicians clad in white tropical coveralls were busy at the Aerojet facility mixing volatile and dangerous hydrochloric acids into a solid rocket propellant that would ultimately fuel the largest solid-fuel rocket ever made.

With the timing perfect for James Bond’s “Thunderball” release in 1965, fiction was not far from fact as the rocket complex in the Everglades launched the first of three static tests of the newest prototype solid-fuel rocket. The rockets were contained during the test launches and did not fly, but the results from these incredible experiments are still under study today.

Sometime between, “Thunderball” in 1965 and “You Only Live Twice” in 1967, Aerojet rocket tests were static launching at midnight. When the space-age technicians ignited their rocket fuel and watched from their concrete reinforced blockhouses, the flames and fiery exhaust jettisoned from the missile reached high enough into the sky to see from Miami and Marco Island.

In true villainous James Bond fashion, the largest and most dangerous solid rockets ever made ejected motors on all three of the massive tests and released hydrochloric acid residuals into the atmosphere. After the largest and final test, residents of Homestead complained to local authorities about the falling chemicals that were stripping the paint from their cars and the severely damaged vegetable and sugar cane crops in the region. 

Meanwhile, and during the same space-age-era, and not too far from the massive Aerojet installation, another top-secret missile base was nearing completion. Because of the Russian aggression and Soviet buildup of missiles in Cuba, another remote section of the alligator and snake thriving Everglades was selected as a NIKE missile base.

The ultra-modern NIKE missiles were within the Everglades National Park and were vital to the protection of the U.S. mainland from a Cuban based attack. The NIKE Hercules missile site was first in operation in 1964 and was staffed and operational until late in 1979. According to accounts from the 150 personnel that were living on the base, the remote posting was dangerous and alarming because of giant rats, aggressive alligators, and the mysterious wildfires that always seemed to start from nowhere and sweep across the Everglades.