Some Call It the Friendly Frontier; Others See It As the Starting Point for the Third World War

'People say this is going to be Ground Zero now but I'd rather be at Ground Zero than 200 miles away and die of radiation," says Tom Van Eyck, looking up from beneath his leather, coin-ringed cowboy hat as he sits by his van in the midsummer sun selling wood carvings and walking sticks made out of diamond willow.

"I'd rather vapourise than die slow. I think it's great. I don't remember if they asked us about it or not but you could say that the local people are for it."

"It" is the missile defence system site for which a ground-breaking ceremony will be held today just down the road at Fort Greely, a ceremony that will transform this little town of 800 people beyond recognition and is already transforming the international debate on nuclear weapons.

While its supporters say that the system will throw a protective shield across the United States and warn off its enemies, its opponents say that it will accelerate the nuclear arms race and could turn this idyllic wilderness into the place where the third world war begins.

Delta Junction is 100 miles south of Fairbanks in the heart of Alaska, reached by a highway dotted with place names like Moose Creek, Beaver Avenue and North Pole. It is called the Friendly Frontier and its inhabitants would probably be content to continue hunting caribou, moose and bear, worshipping at the local Lutheran and Baptist churches and living their lives far removed from the Lower 48, as they describe the other states. Instead they find themselves in the world spotlight with a new missile defence base due to become operational by 2004. With work starting today on five new underground missile silos and a satellite communications and command centre as part of a national $7.5bn programme, they are aware that life is about to change for ever.

"This area has a philosophical belief in the missile defence system," said Pete Hallgren, the city administrator, sitting in his office, a modest one-storey building that shares roof space with the town library. "We are proud to be here defending all 50 states. I grew up in Chicago during the cold war and I knew Chicago and all the other big cities were targets then but at least this time if I'm in an area that's a target, I won't feel it's a useless gesture."

The ceremony comes two days after President Bush officially withdrew the US from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty and the decision to build the missile defence system at Fort Greely has been broadly welcomed locally and throughout Alaska, a Republican state which owes much of its history to the military. Local politicians, the press, the unions have all backed the site which means hundreds of construction and other jobs in hard economic times.

When they had a meeting in Delta Junction about the plan last year, the only voice raised against it was a local subsistence hunter who worried how the influx of people might affect his profession. The town's relationship with the military goes back to the second world war when a base was first built there and it suffered economically when the base was closed in 1995.

But even if the locals are welcoming the boom, some are already feeling what they call "the dread factor". Bernie Holland, a former policeman who works in security, was having a root beer at Diehl's Delights with his wife and daughter. "This is the end of the last frontier," he said. "You'll see a sharp rise in crime, drugs, hookers. It used to be a sleepy little place but Delta Junction is no more. I see a lot of strange faces and I don't mean that in a good way either. I'm concerned for my children." A few miles south stands the heavily guarded entrance to Fort Greely, Home of the Rugged Professional as the sign says. Ruggedness is certainly required by those who have chosen to live in the area, with temperatures dropping to minus 60 in winter and savage mosquitoes in full combat mode now.

A small caravan of protesters against the site have set up camp nearby. A tall, red-headed woman, Stacey Fritz, is the coordinator of No Nukes North. She became activated, she said, as she did her masters thesis on missile defence at the University in Fairbanks. "The military has used Alaska as a remote national sacrifice zone, so remote that they can get away with anything and nobody finds out about it," she said. "The modus operandi of the Bush administration is that they'll do what they like regardless of objections from the world or from their own citizens. Our basic mission is to provide information on this - we want an educated opposition."

A car goes past and the driver gives the protesters a single-fingered gesture. "Our first yahoo," said Fritz with a shrug. "But we've had surprisingly little hostility. There is a great deal of support, both from liberals and conservatives." A major from the base had just dropped by and bought a couple of No Nukes North stickers and a CD of protest songs by singer Holly Graham, who is also part of the peace caravan and camp.

Graham, who lived in England in the late 60s and early 70s, said: "Our population has been dumbed down by the corporate media. We're still fighting battles we should have won 30 years ago but this confrontation between India and Pakistan should have proved something to a lot of people."

Bruce Gagnon, from the Florida-based Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, has come north for the protest. "It's not about defence, it's all about controlling and dominating space ...This is a brand new issue about war in the heavens." He does not think that a country nervous about further at tacks is less receptive to arguments against missile defence. "I think it's been easier since 9/11. More people are paying attention. People know something is going on - that's the public but with politicians it's been more difficult. The Democrats have just rolled over. There's a real disconnection between the public and the politicians."

Not that the withdrawal from the ABM treaty has gone entirely without mainstream political opposition. This week, 31 members of the House of Representatives filed a suit against President Bush in an effort to prevent him from withdrawing. "The constitution of the United States is being demolished and we need to challenge that in court," said the Ohio Democratic party congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is heading the challenge.

Stacey Fritz surveys the wilderness stretching away towards the snow-capped Alaska Range, beyond the glacial outwash plains, past the black spruces and aspens, the pair of hovering eagles. "Alaska is such a symbol to the rest of the world of a free, open wilderness and now, instead of that, it's going to stand for the end of the ABM treaty and the dawn of a new nuclear arms race. What a shame."