Trinity Site to open to public Saturday

The semiannual open house at the Trinity Site, where Los Alamos scientists tested the world’s first atomic bomb in the Southern New Mexico desert in July 1945, is scheduled for Saturday at White Sands Missile Range.

Visitors can take a quarter-mile walk to ground zero where a small obelisk marks the exact spot where the bomb was detonated. Historical photos are mounted on the fence surrounding the area.

Visitors can also ride a missile-range shuttle bus two miles from ground zero to the Schmidt/McDonald Ranch House. The ranch house is where the scientists assembled the plutonium core of the bomb.

The simplest way to get to Trinity Site is to enter White Sands Missile Range through its Stallion Range Center gate, five miles south of U.S. 380. The turnoff is 12 miles east of San Antonio, N.M. The nearest city to make hotel reservations is Socorro.

The Stallion Gate is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors arriving at the gate between those hours will be allowed to drive unescorted the 17 miles to Trinity Site. The road is paved and marked. The site closes promptly at 3:30 p.m.

Visitors will also be greeted by demonstrators from the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium who are seeking compensation through the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act for residents of communities who claim health consequences caused by fallout from the atomic explosion.