Having a Blast

Trinity Site is open to the public only two days a year. In October, that day also happens to be the first day of Balloon Fiesta. So, instead of going to Balloon Fiesta park to watch the mass ascension, we drove to an empty lot about a mile away and watched the balloons for a little bit. Then, jumped in the car and made the two hour trek to the northern end of White Sands Missile Range, near San Antonio, NM.

We got on the bus that shuttles visitors to the McDonald ranch house about two miles away. This is where the plutonium core of the world's first atomic bomb was assembled. The master bedroom of the house was used for the assembly. To keep dust and sand out of the instruments and tools, windows were covered with plastic and tape was used to seal cracks in the walls and around doors. It's kind of amazing when you compare that to the "clean room" technology of today.

We then headed over to Ground Zero. A 12 foot lava-rock obelisk marks the spot where the nuclear device was detonated atop a tall steel tower. Here's a picture of Dad standing next to it. While walking around the area we found several small pieces of Trinitite, the blue-green glass formed from the heat of the explosion. Most of it was bulldozed and buried in 1952 to clean up the radioactivity, but I guess small pieces remain and find their way to the surface. You're not allowed to remove it from the area, but it's cool to see nonetheless.