It must be an alright spot, because there's this little stop here on a major U.S. Highway...
Congratulations to FrankandGinny for FTF!
A cache directly related to this one and easy to drive to but requires a short and steep hike is "Pointy Mountain" GC7938. A t the time this became Hot Canyon, Pointy Mountain was known as "West 10,000."
So, you and your pard are here, packing up your cow camp - you and your fellow cowhand and your small herd. It is 5:29:45 A.M., July 16, 1945, to be very precise, when the sun suddenly rises - What? Southwest of here?! But then the sun goes away and all is dark again. 30 seconds later, comes the massive body-jellying shock wave. "What the blazes was that...!?" "Dunno - I suppose the damned Army agin." "Hmmm, smells like rain a-comin'..."
Indeed, a mild, misty and warm wind is blowing out of the southwest and this is really a very, very bad place to be at this moment in history. For now, various earthen and sandy particles begin to fall from the sky. "What the...?" But seemingly nothing too serious, but actually, exceedingly serious - it is hot, hot, hot - very, hot. A new term in history - fallout - Plutonium. It's kind of melancholy too - you and your pard chose this life because you've been there and have seen the elephant - you, Marine Corps - South Pacific - and your pard, he limps due to his leg wound received on Omaha Beach...
Yes, fortunately for the Allies, but unfortunately for you and your pard, the first atomic bomb was just detonated about 15 miles west on the other side of the Oscura Mountains and this is right in the path of the subsequent cloud drift. You had one of the ringseats to history, except you weren't in one of the observation shelters. Sure hope you make it... Very, very bad place... Thus for years after, as technicians monitored this area with Geiger Counters and other equipment, they would always say, "Yeah, we're going over to Hot Canyon today." It was really hot here for about 20 years and then everything got covered up by blowsand, etc. Be careful if you dig a hole here and I don't know about that little gypsum quarry over there...
"Several books and numerous declassified reports shed insight on the troubles that befell the Los Alamos scientists, the military, and the ranchers northeast of the Trinity test site when the first plutonium fission bomb was detonated in July of 1945. The weather was not precisely what they had hoped for, but political pressure prevented them from taking a "rain check." The pending Potsdam Conference between Truman, Churchill and Stalin required an answer on whether the bomb would work or not. It appears that the scientists didn't expect such widespread fallout. Secrecy of the work prevented them from evacuating anyone in advance of the test.
A cloud of ground-zero dust was carried to the northeast by the prevailing winds, over what was thought to be unoccupied grazing land. When the health physics team tracked the fallout cloud they were surprised to find several occupied homesteads where they thought there was none. Some fallout occurred in Bingham and was especially heavy in a canyon near Chupadera Mesa (GUESS WHICH CANYON...?)
Quantities of Strontium 90, Cesium 137 and Plutonium were elevated in some areas, during the afternoon after the test. Residue was later measured all the way to Encino, and beyond. About 600 head of cattle were contaminated; over the years the Los Alamos National Laboratory bought some of the cattle that had blotches of white hair on their backs and had them slaughtered to measure accumulated radioactivity. By 1957, there was still measurable contamination in the soil and plants on parts of Chupadera Mesa. A 1985 report still showed slightly elevated levels of some isotopes here."
Over the years coyotes and foxes with very sharp, needle-like fangs have been taken in this area, and there've been quite a few instances of big two-headed diamondback rattlesnakes encountered. Further, cavers, including me, exploring the karstlands just north of here and soldiers on duty south of here have heard, while camped at night, very eerie, long howls that just don't sound like coyotes or wolves. Just saying...........
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Trinity.html