Construction of the first, and ultimately the only complete, Safeguard ABM facilities at Grand Forks, North Dakota, commenced on Monday, 6 April 1970. The event was marked with a modest ground breaking ceremony at the PAR site attended by Corps and contractor representatives, a state senator, and five mayors from nearby villages.
A crowd of about 200 looked on while appropriate remarks were made from a bunting-draped platform, a few spadefuls of earth were turned by the dignitaries, and photographs were made. Then, without further fanfare, earthwork began in earnest.
By early afternoon soggy, half-frozen black North Dakota soil was being stripped away by rumbling earthmoving equipment excavating the foundations for the PAR building and its power plant. The same sights and sounds could be seen and heard twelve miles away as excavation got underway simultaneously for the MSR building and its power plant.
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