Human Systems Research, Inc. has done the bulk of archaeological studies on the White Sands Missile Range, including an extensive overview and fi eld inspection of sites (Eidenbach et al. 1996 ) and excavation of a domestic dump used during 1945–
1947 (Duran et al. 1997 ). Also of interest is the White Sands Missile Range Museum, operated by the White Sands Missile Range Historical Foundation and chartered to preserve and present White Sands history to the public. And that history is central to understanding the development of US missiles and related technologies because of the extensive tests carried out there, which included the fi ring of V-2 rockets, many with scientifi c instruments aboard. The general outlines of V-2 work are well known from documentary sources, museum specimens, and books, but there is ample potential for archaeological research.
Immediately after the war, von Braun and a group of 118 German scientists and engineers as well as parts for about 100 V-2 rockets, other equipment, and 12 tons of documents were carried across the sea in 15 Liberty ships and over land in 300 rail cars to a sparsely inhabited region of south-central New Mexico that had already been used for military activities (Eidenbach et al. 1996 :5; Enscore 1998 ). Part of
“Operation Paperclip,” most of the Germans lived on the Army’s Fort Bliss, nearby in El Paso, Texas, where they practiced English, conducted research, and continued V-2 development. Although some documentary materials along with von Braun were relocated in 1950 to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama (part of which in 1960 became the Marshall Space Flight Center under NASA), the White Sands museum contains a plethora of declassifi ed documents and artifacts, including a refurbished V-2 rocket motor, V-2 hydrogen peroxide tank, V-2 gyroscope, German circular slide rule for calculating rocket trajectories, and German mechanical calcu-lator for reducing data from test fi rings. There is also an online archive of docu-ments and photographs that includes materials related to von Braun’s tenure at White Sands. 4
The Museum Website has a searchable database of missiles tested there, which provides the fi rst fi ring date and basic technical information. One example is the Aerobee series, prototypes of which were fi rst fi red in 1947. James Van Allen, who is credited with discovering the radiation belt surrounding the earth that carries his name, had a hand in designing this rocket; one model was 31 ft long and could reach a height of 165 miles. With its instrument package it probed the characteristics of outer space, furnishing information for military and space-exploration applications. 5 Outside the museum structure itself is the White Sands Missile Range Missile Park, which exhibits a phalanx of dozens of missiles, including a refurbished V-2 as well as many intriguing one-off artifacts.
To comply with the Legacy Program and other federal legislation, the Department of Defense undertook a demonstration project to identify National Register-eligible
4 http://www.wsmr-history.org/Archives.asp , accessed 30 May 2012.
5 http://www.wsmr-history.org/Aerobee170.htm , accessed 30 May 2012.
Research Resources
properties at White Sands related to the historical theme of the Cold War. Mainly covering the period 1942–1964, the researchers made extensive use of unpublished histories, oral history, and documents to fashion a detailed and well-illustrated his-tory (Eidenbach et al. 1996 ). Each property—e.g., “isolated launch pads, block-houses, test sites, and instrumentation stations” (p. 1)—was recorded in the fi eld and the structural remains compared to engineering drawings.
The report begins with a detailed year-by-year account of activities, which describes the expansion and consolidation of the base and its use for Army, Navy, and Air Force missile programs. The next section discusses each missile program, giving relevant dates, achievements, and mentions the companies involved in mis-sile development and manufacture along with the universities participating in the research component of many projects. Then follows a section that describes each surviving property under the following “thematic groups”: Army Infrastructure, Lab/Assembly, Navy Infrastructure, Launch Complexes, Static Test Stands, Instrumentation, and Range Camps (p. 112).
Of the more than four dozen Cold War-related sites at White Sands, I mention just two: Launch Complex (LC) 33 and the 100-K Static Test Facility. Construction of LC-33 (Fig. 2 ) began in mid-1945, making it the oldest major US launch complex (pp. 137–144). From LC-33 were sent aloft 67 V-2 rockets (Enscore 1998 :25) and, after some modifi cations, several US-built missiles. This complex consists of many structures, including two blockhouses, gantries, missile storage facility, explosive- storage bunkers, and concrete pads; and many—especially the gantries—retain their integrity. LC-33 is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Before launch, a rocket’s motor was fi red in a static test stand, which held the rocket in a stationary position at full thrust. In this mode, the motor and the rocket’s mechanical stability could be monitored. The 100-K facility, consisting of the stand itself and a control building, was built in 1946 for the V-2 program; it could restrain a rocket generating 100,000 lb of thrust. Both the stand and control building “remain in excellent condition” (p. 155).
This report also contains a discussion of oral history and an appendix, organized by missile name, that lists test fi rings from 1945 to 1964 (p. 225). The different mis-siles and varieties are named along with the numbers fi red; in total there were many thousands.
The White Sands Missile Range is no longer active, but for archaeologists inter-ested in early US missile and rocket development, it holds much relevant evidence, especially in the museum’s large document collection and surviving structures and artifacts.
Discussion
The increasing availability of information about, and sometimes access to, early missile- and rocket-related sites on military bases gives us the opportunity to create archaeological syntheses of many previously secret technologies and their
171
subsidiary projects. A study of the V-2 program’s archaeological remains in the USA is now eminently feasible, and would at the very least include the White Sands Missile Range, the Cape Canaveral complex, and Fort Bliss, supplemented by copi-ous documents, museum artifacts, and technical reports.
Four major impressions remain from my superfi cial inquiry into the US govern-ment’s early involvement in missiles and rocketry. (1) To a large extent the military projects incorporated terrestrial, atmospheric, and biological science experiments whose fi ndings contributed to the space program. (2) In development and testing activities, the Air Force, Navy, and Army competed vigorously, which led to par-tially redundant projects. (3) Testing activities took place on military bases in many states; manufacturing activities by aerospace corporations were likewise dispersed.
(4) Although there has been an enormous amount of archaeological and historical compliance research on military bases, the reports reside almost exclusively in the gray literature and are sometimes diffi cult to obtain.
Fig. 2 Launch Complex 33, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico (courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC)
Research Resources