Big Picture: Tularosa Frontier
Channel: PublicResourceOrg
Date: 2010-09-19

Big Picture: Tularosa Frontier - National Archives and Records Administration   - ARC Identifier 2569727 / Local Identifier 111-TV-470 - DVD Copied by Timothy Vollmer. "Tularosa Frontier" is a film documentary, skillfully photographed and written, covering the historical achievements and present progress of the White Sands Missile Range in developing missiles for national defense. Opening with a review of the historical highlights of the Tularosa Basin, brief sequences are shown of Spanish conquistadores, early-day prospectors, wagon trains, cowboys, Indians, and the Cavalry, culminating in the first "A" bomb explosion which took place on the present-day White Sands Missile Range. The body of the film goes on to scenes of an early-day V-2 missile test. There follow brief sequences of technological "firsts" achieved at White Sands (e.g., missile-borne camera shots of the earth, the Viking missile, high-speed sled tests, static motor tests, and many others. Back dropped by the Oregon Mountains of New Mexico, "Tularosa Frontier" becomes a picture posing the question: "What does the future hold?"