On this day in 1945

[james_davis_nicoll]

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[thewayne]

I currently live about 200 miles from where the tests took place, I've been there twice. They used to do free public tours twice a year, I think they're down to one: it has to be organized as the site is within the White Sands Missile Range. My aunt was working as a telephone switchboard operator in a town called Silver City when the detonation happened: it shook up the town and broke windows. The cover story was that a munitions train had blown up.

[bibliofile]

I've driven through White Sands (on the Interstate), but we didn't have time to stop (alas). Tour envy.

[thewayne]

If you can make plans, the tours were the first Saturday of April and October, and they start at like 7am leaving Alamogordo.  It's around a 3-4 hour drive to the site in a convoy escorted by military police.  It's all free, but you pass through a checkpoint entering the base, so everyone in the car has to produce ID and registration (and maybe insurance).  But if you Google for Trinity Site Tour and look for a page for White Sands Missile Range, you can get full info.  And if you manage to attend, I can point you to the safe and best places to eat in Alamogordo, or more specifically, a few places to avoid: my wife is an astronomer and a visiting crew ate at one particular place and two of them came down with food poisoning. There's also some very pretty hikes in the area.  I have lots of photos in the area at my photography web site, WayneWestPhotography.com.