The Minutemen missile’s economic impact is immense, especially at the local level. Of course the cost of making the missiles is very high but It created jobs, and supported many paying jobs like Boeing.  Boeing was the one that assembled and tested the minutemen. Even though the article doesn’t mention how much they made I presume it would be a lot. I believe the biggest impact the minutemen had was on the locals. They were forced to sell their lands and “ The project alone promised $60 million in construction contract alone” (heefner). Deposits were increasing in the local banks like first national and American national banks besides that more construction permits.What this shows about the cold war in the economic base is that there was a lot of money to be made be it by high contracting jobs or civilians and the government was spending a lot of money. 

I believe the reason that Silo was preserved as a national historic site is because people would want to see it and it has a lot of historical significance; as the cold war being a silent war I believe people would want to see the place where the war was happening. There is also money to be made and it can be used to show the impact of the civil war.