A significant amount of my childhood fears was driven by K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base located about 50 miles north of my childhood home. The base was part of the United States Strategic Air Command, housing B-52 bombers and nuclear weapons. When there was ever talk in the 1970s and 80s about nuclear war, that meant bombs dropping on K.I. Sawyer and close enough for either instant or near term death. The based paired with the Soo Locks that are vital to the transportation of iron ore to manufacture weapons, meant the U.P. in general was a strategic target for our enemies, meaning then the U.S.S.R.
Of course things changed in the early 90s with the fall of the Soviet Union and with it a decrease for the need of Air Force Bases, leading to the closure of K.I. Sawyer. The economic impact on the area was huge, and while today the site is partially in use including for the Marquette County airport, some of the buildings standing unused not too unlike the abandoned mining locations that dot the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.