Part 2

In 1952 the Atomic Energy Commission let a contract to clean up the site. Much of the Trinitite was scraped up and buried. In September 1953 about 650 people attended the first Trinity Site open house. A few years later a small group from Tularosa visited the site on an anniversary of the explosion to conduct a religious service and prayers for peace. Similar visits have been made annually in recent years on the first Saturday in October.

In 1967 the inner oblong fence was added. In 1972 the corridor barbed wire fence which connects the outer fence to the inner one was completed. Jumbo was moved to the parking lot in 1979.

Visits to the site are now made in April and October because it is generally so hot in July on the Jornada del Muerto.

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range has developed from a simple desert testing site for the V-2 into one of the most sophisticated test facilities in the world. The mission of White Sands Missile Range begins with a customer--a service developer, or another federal agency, which is ready to find out if engineers and scientists have built something which will perform according to job specifications. It ends when an exhaustive series of tests has been completed and a data report has been delivered to the customer.

Between the beginning and the end of the test program, be it the Army Tactical Missile System or newly designed automobiles, range employees are involved in every operation connected with the customer and his product. The range can and does provide everything from rat traps to telephones, from equipment hoists and flight safety to microsecond timing.

We shake, rattle and roll the product, roast it, freeze it, subject it to nuclear radiation, dip it in salt water and roll it in the mud. We test its paint, bend its frame and find out what effect its propulsion material has on flora and fauna.

In the end, if it's a missile, we fire it, record its performance and bring back the pieces for post mortem examination. All test data is reduced and the customer receives a full report.

For more information on Trinity Site or White Sands Missile Range contact:

Public Affairs Office (STEWS-PA) White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range, N.M. 88002-5047

Reading List

The Day the Sun Rose Twice, by Ferenc Szasz, University of New Mexico Press, 1984.

Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, by Vincent Jones, Center of Military History, U. S. Army.

Trinity, by Kenneth Bainbridge, Los Alamos publication (LA-6300-H).

The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, Simon and Schuster, 1986.

Now It Can Be Told, by General Leslie Groves, Da Capo Press, 1975.

Day One, By Peter Wyden, Simon and Schuster, 1984.

City of Fire: Los Alamos and the Atomic Age, 1943-1945, by James Kunetka, University of New Mexico Press, 1978.

Los Alamos 1943-1945: The Beginning of an Era, Los Alamos Publication (LASL-79-78).

Day of Trinity, by Lansing Lamont, Atheneum.

Radiological Survey and Evaluation of the Fallout Area from the Trinity Test: Chupadera Mesa and White Sands Missile Range, N. M., Los Alamos publication (LA-10256-MS).

Life Magazine, August 20 and September 24, 1945.

Time Magazine, August 13 and 20, 1945.