Visitors tour atomic site in likely record numbers as a result of ‘Oppenheimer’
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — Visitors lined up Saturday to tour the southern New Mexico site where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in what officials believe could be a record turnout amid ongoing fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbusterfilm, “Oppenheimer.”
Thousands of visitors are expected at the Trinity Site, a designated National Historic Landmark that’s usually closed to the public because of its proximity to the impact zone for missiles fired at White Sands Missile Range. But twice a year, in April and October, the site opens to spectators. No attendance numbers were immediately available at midnight Saturday. A video posted on social media showed at least 70 vehicles lined up to enter the site.
White Sands officials warned online that the wait to enter the gates could be as long as two hours. No more than 5,000 visitors are expected to make it within the window between8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Visitors also are being warned to come prepared as Trinity Site is in a remote area with limited Wi-Fi and nocell service or restrooms.
“Oppenheimer,” the retelling of the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer andthe top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, was a summer box office smash. Scientists and military officials established a secret city in Los Alamos during the 1940s and tested their work at the Trinity Site some200 miles away.
Part of the film’s success was due tothe “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in which filmgoers made a double feature outing of the “Barbie” movie and“Oppenheimer.”
The notoriety from “Oppenheimer” has been embraced in Los Alamos,more than 200 miles north of the Tularosa Basin. About 200 locals, many of them Los Alamos National Laboratory employees, were extras in the film, and the city hosted an OppenheimerFestival in July.