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Trinity Site: 1945-1995.
A National Historic Landmark
White Sands Missile Range,educational sensory bins for 14 year olds New Mexico

Contents:

Radiation at Trinity Site.
How to Get to Trinity Site.
Trinity Site National Historic Landmark.
The Manhattan Project.
The Theory.
Building a test site.
Jumbo.
Bomb Assembly.
The test.
After the explosion.
It's the Schmidt house.
Afterwards.
White Sands Missile Range.
Reading List.

"The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent,beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of suchtremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effectsbeggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searinglight with the intensity many times that of the midday sun."

Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell

Radiation at Trinity Site

In deciding whether to visit ground zero at Trinity Site, thefollowing information may prove helpful to you.

Radiation levels in the fenced, ground zero area are low. On anaverage the levels are only 10 times greater than the region's naturalbackground radiation. A one-hour visit to the inner fenced area willresult in a whole body exposure of one-half to one milliroentgen.

To put this in perspective, a U.S. adult receives an average exposureof 90 milliroentgens every year from natural and medical sources. Forinstance, the Department of Energy says we receive between 35 and 50milliroentgens every year from the sun and from 20 to 35milliroentgens every year from our food. Living in a brick house adds50 milliroentgens of exposure every year compared to living in a framehouse. Finally, flying coast to coast in a jet airliner gives anexposure of between three and five milliroentgens on each trip.

Although radiation levels are low, some feel any extra exposure shouldbe avoided. The decision is yours. It should be noted that smallchildren and pregnant women are potentially more at risk than the restof the population and are generally considered groups who should onlyreceive exposure in conjunction with medical diagnosis and treatment.Again, the choice is yours.

At ground zero, Trinitite, the green, glassy substance found in thearea, is still radioactive and must not be picked up.

Typical radiation exposures for Americans
Per The National Council on Radiation Protection

On hour at ground zero = 1/2 mrem

Cosmic rays from space = 40 mrem at sea level per year

Radioactive minerals in rocks and soil = 55 mrems per year

Radioactivity from air, water, and food = anywhere from 20 to 400 mremper year

About 22 mrem per chest X-ray and 900 mrem for whole-mouth dental X-rays

Smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for one year = 40 mrem

Miscellaneous such as watch dials and smoke detectors = 2 mrem peryear

How to Get to Trinity Site

Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic bomb was exploded in1945, is normally open to the public twice a year--on the firstSaturday in April and October.

Trinity is located on the northern end of the 3,200-square-mile WhiteSands Missile Range, N.M., between the towns of Carrizozo and Socorro,N.M. There are two ways of entering the restricted missile range ontour days.

Visitors can enter through the range's Stallion Range Center which isfive miles south of Highway 380. The turnoff is 12 miles east of SanAntonio, N.M., and 53 miles west of Carrizozo, N.M. The Stalliongate will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors arriving at the gatebetween those hours will receive handouts and will be allowed to driveunescorted the 17 miles to Trinity Site. The road is paved andmarked.

The other way of entering the missile range is by travelling with acaravan sponsored by the Alamogordo (N.M.) Chamber of Commerce. Thecaravan forms at the Otero County Fairgrounds in Alamogordo and leavesat 8 a.m. Visitors entering this way will travel as an escorted groupwith military police to and from Trinity Site. The drive is 170 milesround trip. There are no service station facilities on the missilerange. The caravan is scheduled to leave Trinity Site at 12:30 p.m.for the return to Alamogordo. The caravan may leave later if there isa large number of vehicles in the returning caravan.

In 1995, an additional open house will be conducted on July 16, the50th anniversary of the Trinity test. Visitors may enter the missilerange through the Stallion Range Center gate from 5 to 11 a.m. Therewill be no caravan leaving from Alamogordo, N.M., for this event. Theearly hours will allow visitors to be on-site at 5:29:45 a.m., thetime the Trinity Site detonation occurred, and should help visitorsavoid the 100-plus degree afternoon temperatures common here in July.

Included on the Trinity Site tour is Ground Zero where the atomic bombwas placed on a 100-foot steel tower and exploded on July 16, 1945. Asmall monument now marks the spot. Visitors also see the McDonaldranch house where the world's first plutonium core for a bomb wasassembled. The missile range provides historical photographs and aFat Man bomb casing for display. There are no ceremonies or speakers.

Portable toilet facilities are available on site. Hot dogs and sodasare sold at the parking lot. Cameras are allowed at Trinity Site, buttheir use is strictly prohibited anywhere else on White Sands MissileRange.

For more information, contact the White Sands Missile Range PublicAffairs Office at (505) 678-1134/1700.

Trinity Site National Historic Landmark

Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:29:45 a.m.Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945. The 19 kiloton explosion not onlyled to a quick end to the war in the Pacific but also ushered theworld into the atomic age. All life on Earth has been touched by theevent which took place here.

The 51,500-acre area was declared a national historic landmark in1975. The landmark includes base camp, where the scientists andsupport group lived; ground zero, where the bomb was placed for theexplosion; and the McDonald ranch house, where the plutonium core tothe bomb was assembled. On your visit to Trinity Site you will beable to see ground zero and the McDonald ranch house. In addition, onyour drive into the Trinity Site area you will pass one of the oldinstrumentation bunkers which is beside the road just west of groundzero.

The Manhattan Project

The story of Trinity Site begins with the formation of the ManhattanProject in June 1942. The project was given overall responsibility ofdesigning and building an atomic bomb. At the time it was a race tobeat the Germans who, according to intelligence reports, were buildingtheir own atomic bomb.

Under the Manhattan Project three large facilities were constructed.At Oak Ridge, Tenn., huge gas diffusion and electromagnetic processplants were built to separate uranium 235 from its more common form,uranium 238. Hanford, Wash. became the home for nuclear reactorswhich produced a new element called plutonium. Both uranium 235 andplutonium are fissionable and can be used to produce an atomicexplosion.

Los Alamos was established in northern New Mexico to design and buildthe bomb. At Los Alamos many of the greatest scientific minds of theday labored over the theory and actual construction of the device.The group was led by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited withbeing the driving force behind building a workable bomb by the end ofthe war.

The Theory

Los Alamos scientists devised two designs for an atomic bomb--oneusing the uranium and another using the plutonium. The uranium bombwas a simple design and scientists were confident it would workwithout testing. The plutonium bomb worked by compressing theplutonium into a critical mass which sustains a chain reaction. Thecompression of the plutonium ball was to be accomplished bysurrounding it with lens-shaped charges of conventional explosives.They were designed to all explode at the same instant. The force isdirected inward, thus smashing the plutonium from all sides.

In an atomic explosion, a chain reaction picks up speed as atomssplit, releasing neutrons plus great amounts of energy. The escapingneutrons strike and split more atoms, thus releasing still moreneutrons and energy. In a nuclear explosion this all occurs in amillionth of a second with billions of atoms being split.

Project leaders decided a test of the plutonium bomb was essentialbefore it could be used as a weapon of war. From a list of eightsites in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, Trinity Site waschosen as the test site. The area already was controlled by thegovernment because it was part of the Alamogordo Bombing and GunneryRange which was established in 1942. The secluded Jornado del Muertowas perfect as it provided isolation for secrecy and safety, but wasstill close to Los Alamos.

Building a test site

In the fall of 1944 soldiers started arriving at Trinity Site toprepare for the test. Marvin Davis and his military police unitarrived from Los Alamos at the site on Dec. 30, 1944. The unit set upsecurity checkpoints around the area and had plans to use horses toride patrol. According to Davis the distances were too great and theyresorted to jeeps and trucks for transportation. The horses weresometimes used for polo, however. Davis said that Capt. Bush, basecamp commander, somehow got the soldiers real polo equipment to playwith but they preferred brooms and a soccer ball.

Other recreation at the site included volleyball and hunting. Davissaid Capt. Bush allowed the soldiers with experience to use the Armyrifles to hunt deer and pronghorn. The meat was then cooked up in themess hall. Leftovers went into soups which Davis said were excellent.

Of course, some of the soldiers were from cities and unfamiliar withbeing outdoors a lot. Davis said he went to relieve a guard at theMockingbird Gap post and the soldier told Davis he was surprised bythe number of "crawdads" in the area considering it was so dry. Davisgave the young man a quick lesson on scorpions and warned him not totouch.

Throughout 1945 other personnel arrived at Trinity Site to helpprepare for the test. Carl Rudder was inducted into the Army on Jan.26, 1945. He said he passed through four camps, took basic for twodays and arrived at Trinity Site on Feb. 17. On arriving he was putin charge of what he called the "East Jesus and Socorro Light andWater Company." It was a one-man operation--himself. He wasresponsible for maintaining generators, wells, pumps and doing thepower line work.

A friend of Rudder's, Loren Bourg, had a similar experience. He was afireman in civil life and ended up trained as a fireman for the Army.He worked as the station sergeant at Los Alamos before being sent toTrinity Site in April 1945. In a letter Bourg said, "I was sent downhere to take over the fire prevention and fire department. Uponarrival I found I was the fire department, period."

As the soldiers at Trinity Site settled in they became familiar withSocorro. They tried to use the water out of the ranch wells but foundit so alkaline they couldn't drink it. In fact, they used Navysalt-water soap for bathing. They hauled drinking water from the firehouse in Socorro. Gasoline and diesel was purchased from the Standardbulk plant in Socorro.

According to Davis, they established a post office box, number 632, inSocorro so getting their mail was more convenient. The trips intotown also offered them the chance to get their hair cut in a realbarbershop. If they didn't use the shop, Sgt. Greyshock used horseclippers to trim their hair.

Jumbo

The bomb design to be used at Trinity Site actually involved twoexplosions. First there would be a conventional explosion involvingthe TNT and then, a fraction of a second later, the nuclear explosion,if a chain reaction was maintained. The scientists were sure the TNTwould explode, but were initially unsure of the plutonium. If thechain reaction failed to occur, the TNT would blow the very rare anddangerous plutonium all over the countryside.

Because of this possibility, Jumbo was designed and built. Originallyit was 25 feet long, 10 feet in diameter and weighed 214 tons.Scientists were planning to put the bomb in this huge steel jugbecause it could contain the TNT explosion if the chain reactionfailed to materialize. This would prevent the plutonium from beinglost. If the explosion occurred as planned, Jumbo would be vaporized.

Jumbo was brought to Pope, N.M., by rail and unloaded. A speciallybuilt trailer with 64 wheels was used to move Jumbo the 25 miles toTrinity Site.

As confidence in the plutonium bomb design grew it was decided not touse Jumbo. Instead, it was placed in a steel tower about 800 yardsfrom ground zero. The blast destroyed the tower, but Jumbo survivedintact.

Today Jumbo rests at the entrance to ground zero so all can see it.The ends are missing because, in 1946, the Army detonated eight500-pound bombs inside it. Because Jumbo was standing on end, the bombswere stacked in the bottom and the asymmetry of the explosion blew theends off.

To calibrate the instruments which would be measuring the atomicexplosion and to practice a countdown, the Manhattan scientists ran asimulated blast on May 7. They stacked 100 tons of TNT onto a 20-footwooden platform just southeast of ground zero. Louis Hemplemanninserted a small amount of radioactive material from Hanford intotubes running through the stack of crates. The scientists hoped toget a feel for how the radiation might spread in the real test byanalyzing this test. The explosion destroyed the platform, leaving asmall crater with trace amounts of radiation in it.

Bomb Assembly

On July 12 the two hemispheres of plutonium were carried to the GeorgeMcDonald ranch house just two miles from ground zero. At the house,Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell, deputy to Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, wasasked to sign a receipt for the plutonium. Farrell later said, "Irecall that I asked them if I was going to sign for it shouldn't Itake it and handle it. So I took this heavy ball in my hand and Ifelt it growing warm, I got a certain sense of its hidden power. Itwasn't a cold piece of metal, but it was really a piece of metal thatseemed to be working inside. Then maybe for the first time I began tobelieve some of the fantastic tales the scientists had told about thisnuclear power."

At the McDonald ranch house the master bedroom had been turned into aclean room for the assembly of the bomb core. According to RobertBacher, a member of the assembly team, they tried to use only toolsand materials from a special kit. Several of these kits existed andsome were already on their way to Tinian, the island in the Pacificwhich was the base for the bombers. The idea was to test theprocedures and tools at Trinity as well as the bomb itself.

At one minute past midnight on Friday, July 13, the explosive assemblyleft Los Alamos for Trinity Site. Later in the morning, assembly ofthe plutonium core began. According to Raemer Schreiber, RobertBacher was the advisor and Marshall Holloway and Philip Morrison hadoverall responsibility. Louis Slotin, Boyce McDaniel and Cyril Smithwere responsible for the mechanical assembly in the ranch house.Later Holloway was responsible for the mechanical assembly at thetower.

In the afternoon of the 13th the core was taken to ground zero forinsertion into the bomb mechanism.

The bomb was assembled under the tower on July 13. The plutonium corewas inserted into the device with some difficulty. On the first tryit stuck. After letting the temperatures of the plutonium and casingequalize the core slid smoothly into place. Once the assembly wascomplete many of the men took a welcome relief and went swimming inthe water tank east of the McDonald ranch house.

The next morning the entire bomb was raised to the top of the 100 footsteel tower and placed in a small shelter. A crew then attached allthe detonators and by 5 p.m. it was complete.

The test

Three observation points were established at 10,000 yards from groundzero. These were wooden shelters protected by concrete and earth.The south bunker served as the control center for the test. Theautomatic firing device was triggered from there as key men such asDr. Robert Oppenheimer, head of Los Alamos, watched. None of themanned bunkers are left.

Many scientists and support personnel, including Gen. Leslie Groves,head of the Manhattan Project, watched the explosion from base campwhich was ten miles southwest of ground zero. All the buildings atbase camp were removed after the test. Most visiting VIPs watchedfrom Compania Hill, 20 miles northwest of ground zero.

The test was scheduled for 4 a.m. July 16, but rain and lightningearly that morning caused it to be postponed. The device could not beexploded under rainy conditions because rain and winds would increasethe danger from radioactive fallout and interfere with observation ofthe test. At 4:45 a.m. the crucial weather report came throughannouncing calm to light winds with broken clouds for the followingtwo hours.

At 5:10 the countdown started and at 5:29:45 the device explodedsuccessfully. To most observers the brilliance of the light from theexplosion--watched through dark glasses--overshadowed the shock waveand sound that arrived later.

Hans Bethe, one of the contributing scientists, wrote "it looked likea giant magnesium flare which kept on for what seemed a whole minutebut was actually one or two seconds. The white ball grew and after afew seconds became clouded with dust whipped up by the explosion fromthe ground and rose and left behind a black trail of dust particles."

Joe McKibben, another scientist, said, "We had a lot of flood lightson for taking movies of the control panel. When the bomb went off,the lights were drowned out by the big light coming in through theopen door in the back."

Others were impressed by the heat they immediately felt. Militarypoliceman Davis said, "The heat was like opening up an oven door, evenat 10 miles." Dr. Phillip Morrison said, "Suddenly, not only wasthere a bright light but where we were, 10 miles away, there was theheat of the sun on our faces....Then, only minutes later, the real sunrose and again you felt the same heat to the face from the sunrise.So we saw two sunrises."

After the explosion

Although no information on the test was released until after theatomic bomb was used as a weapon against Japan, people in New Mexicoknew something had happened. The shock broke windows 120 miles awayand was felt by many at least 160 miles away. Army officials simplystated that a munitions storage area had accidentally exploded at theAlamogordo Bombing Range.

The explosion did not make much of a crater. Most eyewitnessesdescribe the area as more of a small depression instead of a crater.The heat of the blast did melt the desert sand and turn it into agreen glassy substance. It was called Trinitite and can still be seenin the area. At one time Trinitite completely covered the depressionmade by the explosion. Afterwards the depression was filled and muchof the Trinitite was taken away by the Nuclear Energy Commission.

To the west of the monument is a low structure which is protecting anoriginal portion of the crater area. Trinitite is visible throughopenings in the roof.

It's the Schmidt house

The George McDonald ranch house sits within an 85'x85' low stone wall.The house was built in 1913 by Franz Schmidt, a German immigrant, andan addition was constructed on the north side in the 1930's by theMcDonalds. There is a display about the Schmidt family in the houseduring each open house.

The ranch house is a one-story, 1,750 square-foot building. It isbuilt of adobe which was plastered and painted. An ice house islocated on the west side along with an underground cistern whichstored rain water running off the roof. At one time the northaddition contained a toilet and bathtub which drained into a septictank northwest of the house.

There is a large, divided water storage tank and a Chicago Aeromotorwindmill east of the house. The scientists and support people usedthe north tank as a swimming pool during the long hot summer of 1945.South of the windmill are the remains of a bunkhouse and a barn whichwas part garage. Further to the east are corrals and holding pens.The buildings and fixtures east of the house have been stabilized toprevent further deterioration.

The ranch was abandoned in 1942 when the Alamogordo Bombing andGunnery Range took over the land to use in training World War IIbombing crews. The house stood empty until the Manhattan Projectsupport personnel arrived in early 1945.

Inside the house the northeast room (the master bedroom) wasdesignated the assembly room. Work benches and tables were installed.To keep dust and sand out of instruments and tools, the windows werecovered with plastic. Tape was used to fasten the edges of theplastic and to seal doors and cracks in the walls.

The explosion, only two miles away, did not significantly damage thehouse. Most of the windows were blown out, but the main structure wasintact. Years of rain water dripping through holes in the roof didmuch more damage. The barn did not do as well. During the Trinitytest the roof was bowed inward and some of the roofing was blown away.The roof has since collapsed.

The house stood empty and deteriorating until 1982 when the U.S. Armystabilized the house to prevent any further damage. Shortly after,the Department of Energy and U.S. Army provided the funds for theNational Park Service to completely restore the house. The work wasdone in 1984. All efforts were directed at making the house appear asit did on July 12, 1945.

Afterwards

The story of what happened at Trinity Site did not come to light untilafter the second atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, onAugust 6. President Truman made the announcement that day. Threedays later, August 9, the third atomic bomb devastated the city ofNagasaki, and on August 14 the Japanese surrendered.

Trinity Site became part of what was then White Sands Proving Ground.The proving ground was established on July 9, 1945, as a test facilityto investigate the new rocket technology emerging from World War II.The land, including Trinity Site and the old Alamogordo Bombing Range,came under the control of the new rocket and missile testing facility.

Interest in Trinity Site was immediate. In September 1945 press toursto the site started. One of the famous photos of ground zero showsRobert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves surrounded by a smallgroup of reporters as they examine one of the footings to the 100 foottower on which the bomb was placed. That picture was taken Sept. 11.The exposed footing is still visible at ground zero. On Sept. 15-17,George Cremeens, a young radio reporter from KRNT in Des Moines,visited the site with soundman Frank Lagouri. They flew over thecrater and interviewed Dr. Kenneth Bainbridge, Trinity test director,and Capt. Howard Bush, base camp commander.

Back in Iowa, Cremeens created four 15-minute reports on his visitwhich aired Sept. 24, 26, 27 and 29. A 15-minute composite was madeand aired on the ABC Radio Network. For his work Cremeens received alocal Peabody Award for "Outstanding Reporting and Interpretation ofthe News."

At first Trinity Site was encircled with a fence and radiation warningsigns were posted. The site remained off-limits to military andcivilian personnel of the proving ground and closed to the public.

In 1952 the Atomic Energy Commission let a contract to clean up thesite. Much of the Trinitite was scraped up and buried. In September1953 about 650 people attended the first Trinity Site open house. Afew years later a small group from Tularosa visited the site on ananniversary of the explosion to conduct a religious service andprayers for peace. Similar visits have been made annually in recentyears on the first Saturday in October.

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

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

White Sands Missile Range

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

Between the beginning and the end of the test program, be it the ArmyTactical Missile System or newly designed automobiles, range employeesare involved in every operation connected with the customer and hisproduct. The range can and does provide everything from rat traps totelephones, from equipment hoists and flight safety to microsecondtiming.

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

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

For more information on Trinity Site or White Sands Missile Rangecontact:

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 MexicoPress, 1984.

Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, by Vincent Jones, Center ofMilitary 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 JamesKunetka, 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 theTrinity Test: Chupadera Mesa and White Sands Missile Range, N. M., LosAlamos publication (LA-10256-MS).

Life Magazine, August 20 and September 24, 1945.

Time Magazine, August 13 and 20, 1945.

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