Seven parcels of land in Montgomery County were used by the U.S. Army for the air defense of Washington, D.C., from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. In the early Cold War, the Soviet Union produced high-speed, high-altitude bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons on targets in the United States, and these aircraft flew too high and too fast to be stopped by the Army’s anti-aircraft artillery. To counter that threat, the Army developed the Nike Ajax surface-to-air missile, and by the late 1950s 260 Nike missile batteries encircled Washington and other major cities. Three batteries in Montgomery County, designated W-92, W-93, and W-94, were among the 13 that protected the nation’s capital. A typical Nike site consisted of two parcels of land a half mile apart, though Battery W-93 near Laytonville consisted of three parcels. The battery control area contained equipment to track enemy aircraft, fire the missiles, and guide them to their targets, as well as headquarters, barracks, and other support buildings. This park stands on the site of Battery W-94’s control area, while the W-94 launch area lay about a mile north of Snouffer School Road behind the Army Reserve Center. In the 1960s, the Ajax missile was replaced by Nike Hercules, Ajax batteries W-93 and W-94 were phased out, and Battery W-92 near Rockville received Hercules missiles and remained in service until the Nike program ended in 1974. The land for the park was acquired through the National Park Service’s Federal Lands-to-Parks program in 1997.