There were approximately 125 cars and a bus gathered at the Tularosa High School parking lot to caravan 65 miles onto the White Sands Small Missile Range. We followed the US Army police cars north across the barren range and arrived at the Trinity site about 10 am.
The Trinity Site is a National Historic Landmark comemorating the spot where the first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945. It was this 19 kiloton explosion that led to the quick end of the war in the Pacific and ushered the world into the atomic age.
This tour is only provided twice a year and the huge parking lot near the site was packed with cars and buses. From there, it's a short 1/4 mile walk to the actual test area. There are lots of warnings about radiation, however there is less radiation here than the average airplane traveler incurs in a cross country flight.
This obelisk marks the exact, ground zero where the bomb was attached to a 100 foot high tower and at 5:29:45 am Mountain War Time was detonated. The blast destroyed the tower and could be felt as far as 160 miles away. At the time, the government claimed that a munitions storage area had exploded and the first atomic bomb test was kept secret until a little over a month later when it was used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
When the blast occurred, the desert sand was scooped up into the fireball. The melted sand fell as molten glass and formed puddles of Trinitite that was then further heated and formed a smooth glasslike surface in the crater-like desert surface.
Only a very small area has been preserved from the actual blast. The rest of the area has been filled in and the Trinitite removed. It is illegal to remove any of the tiny bits of Trinitite that can be found nearby.
It was very touching, experiencing the history and story of this moment in time that would lead to such devastating loss of lives within a few months time. Most people were laughing and joking and jostling for position to have their pictures taken at the Ground Zero obelisk, but I could hardly keep from crying. So very sad.
After the visit at Ground Zero, we boarded an army bus that took us a few miles down the road to see the McDonald House landmark.
It was in this one story, adobe house that the Manhattan Project personnel assembled the plutonium core of the bomb.
We wandered through the house and adjoining building and corrals, some of which have been restored and others allowed to deteriorate. Afterwards, we took the bus back to the parking area and our car.
Leaving the missile range at the Stallion Center entrance, we took a different route home. The first town we came upon was Bingham where there was a rock shop advertising Trinitite for sale. Curious as cats, we stopped to price it and were horrified to find it was almost $50 a gram. No thank you.
Continuing along the highway, we came upon the Valley of Fires. The lava covers 125 square miles and is more than 160 feet deep at the center. We stopped at a roadside pull-off and marveled at the "land of frozen fire". Vegetation is gradually taking hold but, the lava field seems to go on forever. We didn't get to the lava tubes and caves as the day was getting late and we were already tired.
It felt good to get home and put our feet up after a very long, busy day. With about a zillion pictures to sort through, it takes a while to p0st a blog.
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