Boom

It's been windy in southern New Mexico since we arrived last Wednesday, generally running 20-30 mph with gusts to 50. We listened to the local radio station and found out that this is the "Spring Wind", which usually lasts about 45 days, and ushers in the Monsoon season. New Mexico seems to have three seasons: Wind, Monsoon, and Hot.  No mention of Winter…maybe they don't have one!

Since it's been so windy, we decided to take a drive today, Saturday, April 4th. After getting up at 5:30 this morning, we joined the "Alamogordo Caravan" to enter White Sands Missile Range and tour the site of the first explosion of an atomic bomb. We gathered at the Tularosa High School Athletic Field Parking lot. We were told to expect many vehicles, but an estimate was that there were over 100 cars, trucks, and RV's.

This pic was taken about 7:30, and more vehicles came in until our departure at 8:30 am. The local Lions club was serving breakfast, providing donuts, breakfast burritos, and scrambled eggs and bacon. With a military escort, we entered WSMR and began the 85 mile, one-way trip to Trinity Site. The landscape is just exactly what you would imagine of a military weapons test facility.

When we arrived at the site, most of the crowd gathered at the most popular place around.

The first artifact we came to was the remains of Jumbo. Originally built as a safety containment system in case the atomic bomb failed to maintain a chain reaction, it was designed to prevent the dangerous Plutonium from being blown all over the countryside. The atom bomb was to be suspended inside Jumbo.

The containment vessel was built by Babcock and Wilcox in Ohio and shipped via rail car to a siding in Pope, NM, where it was offloaded onto a specially built trailer with 64 wheels and brought to Trinity Site. The vessel was 25 feet long, 10 feet in diameter and weighed 214 tons with it's six inch thick walls.

Eventually, confidence in the atomic bomb grew to the point where Jumbo was deemed unnecessary and it was moved to a steel tower 800 feet from Ground Zero. Jumbo survived the atomic bomb explosion, but the steel tower was vaporized! The ends are missing today because in 1946 the Army stood Jumbo on end, placed eight 500 pound bombs inside, and detonated them. The ends were blown out and the interior was etched as if by a giant blacksmith.

A sign near the path leading to Ground Zero provides a sense of the remoteness of the site. We had arrived via the Alamogordo caravan, and left via the Stallion Range Gate, Carrizozo, and Tularosa, a return trip of about 131 miles, to make the days total about 216 miles!

A short 1/4 mile hike got us to the actual blast site, where a black volcanic rock obelisk marks the location of the bomb tower. Authorities estimated the crowd at over 2000 for the days open house, which lasted from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. As we left through the Stallion entrance, 50 or more vehicles were still waiting to enter at 1:30 pm. Most probably didn't make it in.

Only one concrete footing remains of the steel tower that held the atomic bomb prior to the test.

At one minute past midnight on Friday, July 13, 1945, the explosive assembly left Los Alamos for Trinity Site. Later that morning, assembly of the Plutonium core began at the George McDonald Ranch some two miles from the test site. The makeshift "clean" room consisted of plastic taped to windows and wall cracks!

At 5:29:45 on July 16, 1945, the device exploded successfully. The following photos show the sequence.

The second atomic bomb ever built was exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the third bomb devastated Nagasaki three days later.  The war was over. The Manhattan Project was a success.

After reflecting on the tremendous impact this technology has had on our lives, we walked slowly back to the car. The world and the people in it were forever changed 70 years ago.

Our return trip through Carrizozo, NM, took us through Valley of Fires, a Department of Natural Resources site where 5,000 years ago a lava flow covered a shallow valley. Unique in it's singularity, the lava flow is a sight to behold. The campground there is beautiful as well, providing water and electricity at each site and a central dump station. This view is from one of the camp sites.

Back in Alamogordo, a stop at Caliche's Frozen Custard Shop provided a Root Beer Float and a Hot Fudge Sundae with Pistachios. Yum! We had to make up with Sasha for leaving her along all day, so we took her to the Bark Park again, where she ran for an hour with a Pit Bull mix named Dually and tried to get a Beagle pup to play with her.  I think she's ok now!

We're about done with Alamogordo, so we'll leave tomorrow. Oh, what will we see……?