MOUNTAIN PARK CLOSE TO REALITY.

Byline: Marni McEntee Daily News Staff Writer

Back when Paul Barbour was in command of a key Army air defense battery in Los Angeles, there wasn't much time to marvel at the view from his post atop a ridge on a dirt road called Mulholland Drive.

It was the height of the Cold War in 1955, and Barbour and his command at the Nike missile command center above Encino were charged with monitoring radar for incoming Soviet aircraft.

At their fingertips were the controls to an arsenal of missiles buried in the Sepulveda Basin.

``We were being called on alert all the time. Every time there was an unidentified aircraft coming into the Pacific, we were called on alert,'' said Barbour, now retired and living in El Paso, Texas.

In the 40 years since Barbour's former post above Sullivan and Mandeville canyons was decommissioned, time and nature had begun to erase the significance of the Nike site - once known as LA96C by the Army.

A tower once topped with a huge radar honeycomb had fallen into disrepair and become a popular place for teen-agers to launch beer bottles onto the rocks below.

On that stretch of Mulholland, still unpaved, the name Nike was known more for the athletic shoes the mountain bikers wore than for the former key defense installation designed to fire Ajax missiles, and later the higher-tech Hercules missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

On Saturday, all that will change.

After spending $1 million to refurbish the 10-acre site, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will host a grand opening of San Vicente Mountain Park.

Located on the dirt portion of Mulholland Drive west of Encino Hills Drive, the park will feature historical signs, picnic tables, restrooms and a full-time ranger's residence.

Viewing sites at ground level will mimic military bunkers razed by the city in the late 1970s.

And, there will be plenty of time to take in the 360-degree view of the San Fernando Valley, the Pacific Ocean, downtown and the Westside from the refurbished radar tower.

Conservancy officials hope the changes will discourage teen-age revelers from congregating at the site.

``This place was the biggest party site for everybody in the Valley,'' said conservancy project director Sky Atchison. ``They smashed bottles and lit fires. We're trying to make this a safe place for people.''

Work was well under way Wednesday afternoon, when the mountain calm was punctuated by the sound of heavy machinery.

Conservancy executive director Joseph Edmiston was riding herd on the work, helping decide whether the burnt umber paint on the outbuildings blended well with the landscape.

``It's going to be finished by Saturday, I swear,'' Edmiston vowed.

The Nike site is believed to be the first park to interpret the Cold War era in Los Angeles, said John Diaz, the conservancy's land acquisition director.

``Normally, a park agency would level the site,'' Diaz said. Several others were in fact razed.

Instead, the conservancy intends to capitalize on the history. It has developed a slick brochure with a top-secret military theme for use by schoolteachers.

Although the area appears on maps as San Vicente Mountain Park, it never was officially developed, Diaz said.

Nevertheless, as the primary trail head to Mulholland Gateway Park, it is used by hundreds of hikers and mountain bicyclists each week to gain access to the 20,000-acre ``Big Wild,'' the nation's largest metropolitan wilderness area.

The Army operated the ridgeline site as an active nuclear missile control center from 1955 until 1968. It was part of an elaborate Cold War defense system that included 16 Nike missile batteries around Los Angeles, including ones on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys, on Oat Mountain north of Chatsworth and above Malibu in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The last of the sites in the Nike system - named after the Greek winged goddess of victory - was closed in 1974. No missile ever was fired from a site in the United States.

After the San Vicente control center was decommissioned, the land was turned over to the city of Los Angeles. The conservancy agreed in 1991 to build a park, using a grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Work began in March.

Along with planting new vegetation, a dirt road from Mulholland to the site was being covered Wednesday with tar and rocks. No cars will be allowed inside the park, however, except those

offering handicapped access.

The grand opening at 10 a.m. Saturday will include a visit by former commander Barbour, who will drive a 1955 Willy's Jeep into the site.

Barbour, 77, whose Delta Battery took a trophy three years running for spotting the most aircraft at the longest range from the San Vicente center, is enthusiastic about the new use.

``It's a way to get some use out of an old military site,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, map

PHOTO (color) A welder wraps up work at the new San Vi cente Mountain Park at the former Nike missile center.

Tina Gerson/Daily News

Map: San Vincente Mountain Park