Whtie Sands Administrative History

Visitation and facility issues, as always, faded in the 1980s at White Sands as the Reagan era of weapons research and space exploration took precedence in the Tularosa basin. Walter McDougall wrote of the early 1980s that "the political patterns of space technology [were] in greater flux than at any time since 1961." The Reagan administration, following ideas prevalent in the military since the close of the Vietnam conflict, opted for "big-ticket" weapons systems that contributed to what McDougall called the "militarization of space." Among these items were the "Missile Experimental [MX]" system of warheads stored on a "race-track" buried in the deserts of Utah and Nevada; the Army Desert Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert; and the "Space Transportation System [STS]," known commonly as the "space shuttle." Elements of all three systems, especially the latter two, would touch WSMR and Holloman AFB, along with the new secret bombers and fighter planes known as "Stealth" aircraft, and the futuristic "Ground-Based Free-Electron Laser Project" at WSMR. [23]

Superintendent Harper engaged the space shuttle program in the spring of 1982, when NASA made a last-minute decision based upon weather conditions to bring the shuttle back to Earth across the monument's boundary at Alkali Flats, instead of the landing strip at Edwards AFB, California. Because of the speed of re-entry into Earth's orbit, the shuttle required miles of smooth runways, preferably on surfaces less rigid than concrete. Alkali Flats also had been the alternate for shuttle landings since the program began in the 1970s. The craft's arrival had not allowed time for NPS officials to join Harper in the VIP tent, where he mingled with state, NASA, and armed services representatives, as well as an international television audience that witnessed a classic Tularosa basin dust storm on the first day projected for the landing. [24]

The comparatively peaceful relationship with space and military officials continued in 1983, when the Army negotiated the historic rehabilitation of the McDonald ranch house near Trinity Site. The Army and park service agreed to spend $150,000 each to restore the property to its appearance on July 16, 1945, including stabilization of the outbuildings. The NPS would provide in-house staff from the SWR to complete the research, design, and construction. The park service then asked WSMR to permit "public visitation to the site . . . with proper escort and access during normal daylight hours on weekends." The latter condition could not be met, however, and the Army only conducted tours to Trinity and the McDonald property once every spring and fall. [25]

One reason that the Army may have been unable to provide weekly access to the Trinity complex was the focus in the mid-1980s on desert warfare. The Tularosa basin shared with the Army's Mojave training center the aridity, isolation, and vastness of the desert oil fields of the Persian Gulf. The Army also wished to test the next generation of tanks (the "M-1"), which needed space for maneuvers available only in the desert. Yet another consideration was time. Military strategists anticipated some type of action in the Middle East as Islamic fundamentalism spread, typified by the seizure in 1979 of U.S. citizens as hostages in Tehran, Iran. Thus the Army turned in 1985 to its series of bases in southern New Mexico (Fort Bliss and WSMR) to conduct the first of a planned biennial series of maneuvers known as "BorderStar 85."

This scale of desert training caught the park service and other resource agencies off-guard, resulting in yet another round of pleas with the military to reconsider encroachment onto monument land. BorderStar 85 also revealed the inherent weakness of environmental regulation when confronted by national security imperatives. Eldon G. Reyer, associate SWR director for planning and cultural resources, corresponded with several high-level Army commanders in late 1984 and early 1985 to register the park service's dismay. Initial surveys of the area in question uncovered 2,500 cultural resources sites endangered by troop and tank movement. Reyer wished that the Army would at least conduct a thorough Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), so that soldiers would know what areas to avoid in the New Mexican desert. He admitted that time constraints would not allow NPS staff and contractors to mark these sites off-limits. Further intrusions included the drawdown of 1.5 million gallons of water (enough to serve the monument for five months) ; the release of 1.8 million pounds of air pollutants and 30 tons of hydrocarbons; and the loss of 20 percent of the "biomass" of the basin's ecology. The monument itself would sustain hundreds of overflights at 2,000 feet, shaking buildings and frightening wildlife. Most disastrous, said Superintendent Harper, was the Army's plan to drive 30 to 50 M-1 tanks over the dunes to see how they handled such terrain. [26]

BorderStar 85 did not unfold on the scale originally planned, but the military's pace of testing and land use persisted for the rest of the decade. On May 14, 1987, the "Defense Nuclear Agency [DNA]," exploded 4,685 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO) about 12,000 feet (or two-plus miles) from the McDonald ranch house. Called "MISTY PICTURE," the test recorded the effects of "the air blast and ground motion of an 8-KT [kiloton] free-air nuclear detonation." Fortunately no serious damage occurred to the $300,000 rehabilitation work at the ranch house, but the experience followed upon Superintendent Harper's request that SWR personnel examine monument structures for cracking and repair. Richard Geiser, of the regional section of research and preservation planning, came to the dunes in April 1987 to discover that White Sands endured 300-500 overflights daily. While of these only 20 per year emitted "sonic booms," down considerably from the daily noises of the 1960s, Geiser reported that the vibrations exacerbated the traditional wearing of adobe by water seepage and gravity settlement of the brick. The NPS promised to fund repair work, but by the time of Don Harper's departure in 1989, the service still lacked the money to send in a contractor. [27]

Figure 62. Ranger patrol (1980s).
(Courtesy White Sands National Monument)