To view a poster, click on any of the icons below. To magnify an area

within a poster, use the magnifying tool on the Acrobat Reader

tool bar and drag a box over the area.
“Field test is one of the real roots of Sandia,” asserts Howard Austin, one of Sandia’s pioneer field testing managers. From

its earliest days as Z-Division of Los Alamos, Sandia was involved in field testing. In 1945, one of the first tasks of Z-Division

was to locate a site for drop testing of developmental bomb shapes; this was the genesis of Sandia’s work in non-nuclear

testing. Sandia began its supporting role in nuclear testing in 1946 when Z-Division personnel were called to the Pacific for

Operation Crossroads, the first post-war nuclear test series. 

The field test group was organized in September 1945 under

Glenn Fowler and Dale Corson. Fowler made arrangements with

the Isleta Pueblo to use a test range west of Los Lunas.

According to Fowler, “Almost simultaneously with the decision to

go to Los Lunas, we started thinking about a more permanent

place.” In 1946, Fowler and other Z-Division personnel located a

Navy test range in California at the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea

Test Base was Sandia’s first permanent test base and was primarily used to test strategic bombs dropped from high altitudes.

As the area became heavily populated and Sandia’s testing

requirements changed, the Salton Sea Test Base was phased

out, finally closing in 1961. The Tonopah Test Range was added

in 1957 and became Sandia’s permanent range in 1960. 

Salton Sea instrument laboratory and control center.

It required teamwork by two Sandians to

operate Askania phototheodolites, 

used for tracking test drops.

One-third of the 100 Sandia employees at Salton Sea lived

on the base. Here families of the field testers enjoy the

swimming pool at the San Felipe Lodge recreation center.

Children of the field testers pose in their costumes 

at a 1953 Halloween party held at the San Felipe Lodge,

Salton Sea Test Base.

Sandia field testers at work in the Salton 

Sea control room, left to right: Billy Mitchum, 

Tom Pace, Howard Austin, Ed Stout.

This book serves as a pictorial resume of the facilities at the Salton Sea 

Test Base and was used for recruiting and to show the capabilities of the facility to

outside agencies. The contents were compiled by the special projects section of

the field test organization of Sandia Corporation; this copy was saved by Pete

Chevalier. These pages emphasize the seaside location.
Sandians have provided technical support for all post-war U.S. nuclear

tests, beginning with Operation Crossroads in 1946. Sandia provided

instrumentation, data recording, and analysis for nuclear tests designed

by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

Personnel from Z-Division and Los Alamos 

assumed overall responsibility for technical support of Operation 

Sandstone, the second postwar nuclear test series. X-ray, first in the 

Sandstone series, was detonated on a tower on Enewetak Atoll.

This brochure was used to recruit field test 

personnel for nuclear testing in the Pacific. 

(The modern spelling is Enewetak.)

Right: Operation Plumbbob included a number of tower 

and balloon nuclear weapons related tests. The Fizeau 

test was a tower shot at NTS in September 1957. The

tower setup is shown in this Weaponizing brochure 

from the late 1950s. Harold Rarrick’s Certificate of

Participation for Operation Plumbbob includes the 

Fizeau shot. In other Operation Plumbbob tests, Sandia 

first used balloons to lift devices to greater heights than

were feasible with towers.

These snapshots

were purchased 

by Harold Rarrick 

at the Enewetak

Base Exchange 

in 1958.

Field test personnel relax with a beach cookout during 

the Sandstone nuclear test series.

In 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission established the Nevada Test Site (NTS) north of Las Vegas to conduct nuclear

tests. Sandia supported these tests. In the 1950s, Sandia employees had the opportunity to travel to the Nevada Test

Site to observe the atmospheric nuclear tests. This employee observer group at Operation Big Shot included, back

row, left to right, CJ McGarr, Dan Yarbrough, CJ Harris, Bob Lemm, Randy Parsons, Jim Dempsey, Celia Brand, and

Conrad Roesche; front row, left to right, John Maxon, Harold Gunn, Ted Sherwin, Max Weber, Nate Wineberg, and Fred

Smith. A Sandia Bulletin article from May 9, 1952 shows the detonation and relates the story. 

Sandia Bulletin donated by Fred Leckman.

Nevada Test Site
Other Sites Other Sites

After the Limited Test Ban Treaty

(LTBT) was signed in 1963, nuclear

testing went underground. Addressing

increasing worldwide concerns about

radioactive fallout, the LTBT prohibited

nuclear tests in the atmosphere,

oceans, and outer space.

Sandia sponsored two tests in

G-Tunnel at the Nevada Test

Site. The first was Cypress

in February 1969; the second

was Camphor in June

1971. Sandia took primary

responsibility for executing these events, including

complete design of the

pipes and closure systems.

Cypress was a successful

shot; Camphor had a 

containment failure.

This NTS brochure from 1963 shows several photographs, including the Sedan Crater. The Sedan shot 

was part of the Plowshare series sponsored by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which investigated 

using nuclear explosives for peacetime excavation projects. Sandia supported Plowshare work with 

cratering experiments in Nevada and New Mexico.

out at remote sites, field testers developed 

a strong sense of camaraderie in their work.

In 1986, Sandians went to the Arctic to test ice 

penetrators. From left: Dean Kuehl, Terry Leighley, 

Diana Helgesen, Stan Yager, Rob Smith, Bob Thomas.

Working with the Laramie Energy 

Research Center in 1975-1976, Sandia 

conducted field experiments near Hanna,

Wyoming, on in-situ coal gasification. Sandian

Dave Northrop is in the orange jacket. 

Photograph from the Ben Benjamin collection.

This photo of field test managers and visitors came from 

a Nevada Test Site scrap book page dated April 1976.

Included are, front row: Glenn Fowler (blue jacket), 

Carter Broyles (light blue pants), and Howard Austin 

(green pants); Howard Viney is visible in the second row

between Fowler and Broyles.

This drawing by Carl S. Smith shows the assembly drawing for Station 2, Cypress

shot. The experiment went inside the line-of-sight pipe shown. 

Drawing and information

supplied by Carl S. Smith.

Although this exhibit has focused on Sandia’s test ranges,

field testers traveled the globe “putting weapons to the

test.” These photos show a few of the other sites where

field testing was done.

In 1974, a dozen Sandians, led by John Eckhart, 

participated in a joint project with Los Alamos, 

the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, 

and the University of Texas to conduct tests at 

Cape Parry, 285 miles north of the Arctic Circle in

Canada’s Northwest Territories. Called Operation

Tordo, Sandia was responsible for designing the 

rocket payloads and launching the Canadian -

manufactured Black Brant IVA rocket systems.

Photograph and information supplied by Rick Orzel.
The Coyote Canyon Test Complex is located southeast of Sandia New Mexico’s main technical area, nestled in the foothills

of the Manzano Mountains. The test complex was created in early 1950 to provide testing capabilities convenient to the

majority of Sandia employees. Over time, the complex grew to include two drop towers, a centrifuge complex, shock tube,

5000 foot sled track, burn site, and other testing facilities.

The Greystone Manor and Coyote Spring. Greystone

Manor was one of the early homesteads in the area.

Owned by the Chavez family, the property included a

house, a 100-ft-diameter wading pool fed by Coyote

Springs, and a bathhouse that was rented by area residents. Earlier in this century, the Chavez family sold

Coyote Springs water to Albuquerque bottlers for 10

cents a bottle. Bottlers claimed that the water cured

stomach and liver trouble.

Mike Cetera stands on the 

tower that held 11,500 lb of high

explosives for the test. 

After the 1951 Operation Greenhouse full-scale

nuclear tests in the Pacific, there were non-nuclear

Greenhouse scale-down tests at Coyote Canyon to

investigate how well a scale-down test could simulate a full-scale Pacific test. 

Information provided by Dick Jones.

This Development Testing brochure from 1983 features many of the 

facilities in the Coyote Canyon Test Complex.

During the 1970s, field testers used the sled

track to test shipping casks for spent nuclear

fuel by ramming them and their truck transports at high speeds into concrete walls.

Left to right: Dick Jones, Hershel Waldorf,

and Deacon Palmer set up the 

Greenhouse model – a 1/15 scale model 

of the Pacific test. 

This 1950s 

brochure shows

Sandia’s shock

test facilities.

This mining claim signed by Rufus C. Little on October 6, 1928, 

for the Little #2 mine confirms that mining was done in the Coyote Springs 

area. The mine appears to have been located about 3 miles from Coyote

Springs and about 16 miles from the town of Albuquerque. 

Fluorite and galena were mined in the area.

A Spartan antiballistic missle test was 

done near the shock tube in the 

Coyote Canyon Test Complex.

Photograph and information supplied by Dennis Mitchell.

Green House Test

Centrifuge Complex

Shock Tube

300 foot Drop Tower

Burn Site

Greystone Spring

Sled Track
By 1954, the search was under way for a new test site that would offer a wider range of test options than Salton Sea. Cactus

Flats, near Tonopah, Nevada, offered seven times the area of the Salton Sea range and met the need for a test range that

could serve the Air Force and Navy as well as Sandia. Howard Austin, Bobby G. Edwards, Don Beatson, and Ben Benjamin

surveyed the range boundaries and staked out station locations during early 1956; temporary facilities were installed later that

year. Tonopah Test Range became Sandia’s permanent test range in 1960.

This 1981 brochure shows various test operations at the 

Tonopah Test Range.

In 1964 some of the range crew grew beards for 

the Nevada Centennial. Left to right: Bob Statler,

Lloyd Young, Grant Gardner, Dewey Stout, 

A. Korbe, F. Steel, K. Datz, Dick Browne 

(successor to Statler as range manager).

After 1968 most staff

working at the Tonopah

Test Range lived in Las

Vegas and flew to work

on a charter air service.

The 160-mile commuter trip to the range

required about fifty minutes flight time. In

mileage, it may have been the longest commute

to work in the United States. Long-time range

employees accumulated more than a million miles of commuter travel 

between 1968 and 1993 and were given certificates for significant 

commuter milestones.

Ben Benjamin surveys a

base line at the Tonopah

range site in 1957.

Parachute test drop of a B53 Joint Test

Assembly at Tonopah Test Range in 1995.

Tonopah Test Range in the 1980s.

These are parachute reefing line rings. They were

retrieved from a B53 test at TTR. The rings are used

to control the inflation of the parachute’s canopy. 

Rings and patch loaned by Dan Luna.

Homestead ranches, mines, mine 

equipment, and other artifacts were 

abandoned on the Cactus Flats 

periphery during the Depression in the 

1930s. The ruin of one of the homesteads 

is shown in this photograph. A horseshoe

and bottle were collected from the range 

area by Sandian Harold Rarrick.
During the last U.S. atmospheric nuclear tests in 1962, Sandia established a rocket-launching

facility on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. First known as Barking Sands, it became the Kauai

Test Facility. Kauai was where Sandia tested designs for high-altitude rockets; both 

rail-launch and vertical-launch facilities at Kauai supported the testing of hundreds of rockets

over the years. STARMATE I was launched 

in September 1989.

Kauai Test Facility, 1989.

Below: Sandia launches one of its Strypi 

rockets developed originally during the 1962 

Dominic tests. The Strypi rocket proved 

so robust and reliable that it became a workhorse in Sandia’s rocket research program.

STARS Mission 2 ODES Demonstration 

flight at Kauai Test Facility in 1994.