Lamar County Cold War Test Site
LAMAR COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) - When you think of atomic explosions, images of the unprecedented devastation in Japan at the end of World War 2, or mushroom clouds over the desert spring to mind. But, did you know that 2 atomic bombs were detonated in Mississippi a little more than 50 years ago.
The Cold War was at its hottest in 1964. Two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over humanity, the United States, the United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R came to an agreement to end nuclear testing above ground or underwater. That effectively sent the arms race underground.
The Cold War was at its hottest in 1964. Two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over humanity, the United States, the United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R came to an agreement to end nuclear testing above ground or underwater. That effectively sent the arms race underground.
The Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Defense did not keep it a secret when they set up shop in rural Lamar County. Leaders from Mississippi had courted them here. Dr. Mark Puckett is a Professor of Geology at Southern Miss.
He says, "If it brought in millions of dollars for this federal project, then I think they were very happy to do it."
Folks who lived near the test site also go paid between 5 and 10 dollars for any inconvenience. The whole thing was seen as very patriotic thing to do.
Author and Historian Dr. Stephen Cresswell says, "The fear was that the Soviets might cheat in an arms deal, that they would be secretly testing underground without us knowing it."
Uncle Sam wasn't about to let that happen.
About a half mile underground, in rural Lamar County, rests a massive salt dome. The remains of a sea that has long since dried up. It turned out to be the perfect place to test a nuclear bomb. So,on October 22,1964 America detonated a device more powerful than 5,000 tons of TNT. Shock waves rippled away from ground zero.
Dr. Puckett says, "It bucked up about 4 inches or so at the site itself, and those waves just propagated away from there."
The blast damaged several nearby homes and could be felt more than 20 miles away on the Southern Miss campus. When the dust settled the test was a success. America learned more about its nuclear arsenal. A second blast, in the massive salt cavity created by the first, helped us calibrate seismic equipment to better detect signs of underground nuclear testing.
Dr. Cresswell says, "I think the biggest damage happened when the government, a couple of months after the blast, sent a drill bit down into the salt cave, to be able to send some instruments down there and brought up some radioactive soil."
That soil and, any other radioactive material that made its way to the surface, are now long gone. Safely decaying in a nuclear repository half a country away.
Dr. Puckett concludes, "Most people are not too worried about it at all. They've done some studies of the radioactivity around there, and the plug basically held tight during the event."
Today, the only evidence of what happened is a hard to find marker atop the site. It commemorates the test and warns future civilizations not to dig there.
The two detonations in Lamar County are on the only known nuclear tests conducted East of the Mississippi River. Nevada got it far worse than we did. Hundreds of bombs were set off there.
The two detonations in Lamar County are on the only known nuclear tests conducted East of the Mississippi River. Nevada got it far worse than we did. Hundreds of bombs were set off there.
The salt that makes up the Mississippi salt dome came from the Pacific Ocean. It once covered that part of, what is now, our state.
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