Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground ( DPG ) is a US Army facility located approximately 85 miles ( 140 km ) southwest of Salt Lake City , Utah in southern Tooele County and just north of Juab County . It encompasses 801 , 505 acres ( 3 , 243 km² , or 1 , 252 sq mi ) of the Great Salt Lake Desert , an area the size of the state of Rhode Island , and is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges . It had a resident population of 795 persons as of the 2010 United States Census , all of whom lived in the community of Dugway , Utah , at its extreme eastern end . The name " Dugway " comes from a technique of digging a trench into a hillside to create a flat surface along which a wagon can travel . Dugway Proving Ground is located 13 miles south of the 2 , 624 sq mi Utah Test and Training Range . Combined , they form the largest military space in the United States . The transcontinental Lincoln Highway passed through the present site of the Dugway Proving Ground , and is the only significant section of the old highway closed to the public . At least one old wooden bridge over a creek still stands . Mission . Dugway ' s mission is to test , implement US and Allied biological and chemical weapon defense systems in a secure and isolated environment . DPG also serves as a facility for US Army Reserve and US National Guard maneuver training , and US Air Force flight tests – mostly from nearby Hill Air Force Base in Ogden . DPG is controlled by the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command ( ATEC ) . The area has also been used by Army special forces for training in preparation for deployments to the War in Afghanistan and alien environments , including Colombia and Mars . History . In 1941 , the US Army Chemical Warfare Service ( CWS ) determined it needed a testing facility more remote than the US Army ' s Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland . The CWS surveyed the Western U . S . for a new location to conduct its tests , and , in the spring of 1942 , construction of Dugway Proving Ground began . Testing commenced in the summer of 1942 . During World War II , DPG tested toxic agents , flamethrower s , chemical spray systems , biological warfare weapons , fire bombing tactics , antidotes for chemical agents , and protective clothing . In October 1943 , DPG established biological warfare facilities at an isolated area within DPG known as the Granite Peak Installation - UTTR ' s range telemetry and tracking radar installation . DPG was slowly phased out after World War II , until becoming inactive in August 1946 . The base was reactivated during the Korean War , under Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Speers Ponder and in 1954 was confirmed as a permanent Department of the Army installation . In October 1958 , the United States Army Chemical Center , Maryland detached the U . S . Army Chemical , Biological , and Radiological Weapons School to Dugway Proving Grounds . From 1985 to 1991 , Dugway Proving Ground was home to the Ranger School ' s short - lived Desert Training Phase . It was first known as the Desert Ranger Division ( DRD ) until redesignated the Ranger Training Brigade ' s 7th Ranger Training Battalion in 1987 , and taught students basic desert survival skills and small unit tactics . The program was later moved back to its original site at Fort Bliss , TX in 1991 , where it was deactivated in 1995 . On September 8 , 2004 the Genesis - a NASA spacecraft - was directed to impact into the desert floor of the Dugway Proving Ground because the topsoil there is like talcum - powder ( e . g . moondust ) , and would likely cushion the troubled spacecraft ' s impact . The Genesis spacecraft ' s accelerometer was installed backwards , which caused the spacecraft to malfunction upon re - entry to Earth ' s atmosphere . On January 26 , 2011 Dugway Proving Ground was placed on lockdown . Al Vogel , a public affairs specialist for the installation , would only say that the lockdown began at 5 : 24 p . m . Employees were not allowed to leave , and those coming to work were not allowed in . Vogel said there were no injuries , no damage and no threats reported at the proving ground . There were about 1 , 200 to 1 , 400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred . It was later announced that the lockdown was in response to the temporary loss of a vial containing VX nerve agent . The lockdown was lifted on January 27 following recovery of the material . Dugway Proving Ground was also home to the High Resolution Fly ' s Eye Cosmic Ray Detector , which discovered the first Ultra - high - energy cosmic ray . Dugway is home to several radio telemetry and tracking radar ( i . e . RIR - 777 , TPQ - 39 ( Ver . V ) and MPQ - 39 ) sites which track national flight assets during flight tests at UTTR . Since its founding in 1941 , much of the activity at Dugway Proving Ground has been a closely guarded secret . Activities at Dugway included aerial nerve agent testing . According to reports from New Scientist , Dugway was still producing small quantities of anthrax as late as 1998 , 30 years after the United States renounced biological weapons . There were at least 1 , 100 other chemical tests at Dugway during the time period of the Dugway sheep incident . In total , almost 500 , 000 lb ( 230 , 000 kg ) of nerve agent were dispersed during open - air tests . There were also tests at Dugway involving other weapons of mass destruction , including 328 open - air tests of biological weapons , 74 dirty bomb tests , and eight furnace heatings of nuclear material under open air conditions to simulate the dispersal of fallout in the case of meltdown of aeronautic nuclear reactors . " Dugway Sheep Kill " incident . In March 1968 , 6 , 249 sheep died in Skull Valley , an area nearly thirty miles from Dugway ' s testing sites . When examined , the sheep were found to have been poisoned by an organophosphate chemical . The sickening of the sheep , known as the Dugway sheep incident , coincided with several open - air tests of the nerve agent VX at Dugway . Local attention focused on the Army , which initially denied that VX had caused the deaths , instead blaming the local use of organophosphate pesticide s on crops . Necropsies conducted on the dead sheep later definitively identified the presence of VX . The Army never admitted liability , but did pay the ranchers for their losses . On the official record , the claim was for 4 , 372 " disabled " sheep , of which about 2 , 150 were either killed outright by the VX exposure or were so critically injured that they needed to be euthanized on - site by veterinarians . Another 1 , 877 sheep were " temporarily " injured , or showed no signs of injury but were not marketable due to their potential exposure . All of the exposed sheep that survived the initial exposure were eventually euthanized by the ranchers , since even the potential for exposure had rendered the sheep permanently unsalable for either meat or wool . The incident , coinciding with the birth of the environmental movement and anti - Vietnam War protests , created an uproar in Utah and the international community . The incident also starkly underscored the inherent unpredictability of air - dispersal of chemical warfare agents , as well as the extreme lethality of next - generation persistent nerve agents at even extremely low concentrations . U . S . General Accounting Office report . The U . S . General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28 , 1994 , which stated that between 1940 and 1974 , DOD and other national security agencies studied " hundreds , perhaps thousands " of weapons tests and experiments involving hazardous substances . The quote from the study : More specifically , reports of certain nerve agents such as tetrodotoxin , and datura stramonium , have been tested at this military base . The complete nerve agent was code - named " VX " — one of a series of " V " nerve agents tested at the base . On January 27 , 2011 , the Dugway Proving Grounds was put on full lockdown for several hours , as an investigation into missing vials of the agent was undertaken . It was eventually recovered , and the incident was described simply as a mislabeling problem . Alien speculation and experimental aircraft testing . Following the public attention drawn to Area 51 in the early 1990s , UFOlogists and concerned citizens have suggested that whatever covert operations , if any , may have been underway at that location were subsequently transferred to DPG . The Deseret News reported that Dave Rosenfeld , president of Utah UFO Hunters , stated :