On Walkabout At: White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

A really interesting place to visit in southern New Mexico for those interested in military history or rocket & missile technology is the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR).  The missile range is famous for being the location where America’s first atomic bomb was detonated as well as being the birthplace of America’s space program.  WSMR does have a museum and missile park that is open to the public at their base camp.  The WSMR base camp located in an extremely scenic location between the White Sands National Monument and the beautifully rugged Organ Mountains:
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The best place to begin a visit to White Sands Missile Range is to take a walk through the missile park:

The missile park is filled with static display missiles, rockets, warheads, aircraft, and other interesting items from America’s military and space program:

One of the most prominent missile systems on display is the US Army PATRIOT missile made famous by intercepting Iraqi missiles during both Gulf Wars:

Another famous piece of military equipment on display is the legendary Redstone Rocket:

This rocket was designed by the father of America’s space program, the German rocket scientist, Wernnher Von Braun.  The Redstone rocket is named after Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where the rocket was developed.  In 1961 the Redstone Rocket was used to put the first US astronaut Alan Shepard into space.

As can be seen in the above photograph, the missile park is backdropped by the beautiful Organ Mountains that I have hiked  many of the trails and never get tired of exploring:

Here is the view from the missile park looking to the east towards Alamogordo and across the missile range:

Here is one of the F-4 Phantoms on display that is a Vietnam era aircraft that has been long retired by the US but still used for flight training by the German Air Force Flight Training School located just down the road from WSMR at Holloman Air Force Base:

Here was a NASA rocket on display that was part of the agency’s Orion program that was part of the Constellation program to return astronauts into space after the shuttering of the Space Shuttle program:

Recently the Constellation program was cancelled by the Obama administration so these rockets will likely be used for other purposes.  Here is something from America’s space program past that could obviously be confused with a “flying saucer”:

This is called the Aeroshell Flying Saucer and was designed for slowing down a rocket for a landing on Mars.  It was first fired in 1966 and took off from Roswell, New Mexico of UFO fame and landed at WSMR.  Also on display was the casing for the Fat Man atomic bomb:

The actual Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki that played a key role in ending World War II.  The next thing to check out while visiting WSMR is the museum located next to the missile park.  The museum is actually quite interesting with a number of displays and videos about the various missiles and rockets test at WSMR over the decades:

Besides information on missile and rockets, there was also a number of displays about the equipment used by personnel conducting the testing over the years:

Something really interesting was the rifles and even swords found on the range over the years:

There has also been a number of archaeological artifacts uncovered on the missile range as well from Native-American tribes that once frequented the area:

The museum also had a Darth Vader mask on display which George Lucas donated to WSMR for their assistance on past Star Wars movies:

Finally the museum has a number of stuffed animals that represent the many wild animals that live on the range such as this mountain lion:

It wasn’t too long ago when a mountain lion like this one pictured wandered into downtown El Paso and caused trouble.

Here are the displayed heads of a few more animals that live on the range:

The animals that scare me more than even seeing a mountain lion on WSMR are these African oryxs:

According to the National Park Service website, the oryx was brought from the Kalahari Desert in Africa to an experimental range at Red Rock New Mexico.  Federal law prohibits introducing a wild animal from another country into the wild in this country so offspring were obtained at this experimental range to introduce onto the White Sands Missile Range.  Between 1969 and 1977, 93 oryx were released on White Sands Missile Range. There are now about 3000 animals in residence. Annual hunts for the oryx began in 1974 on the Missile Range. Oryx can weigh up to 450 pounds. They stand 47 inches at the shoulder. Both males and females have horns that average 34 inches long. Their brown coloring with distinctive black and white markings allows them to hide among desert shrubs.  I have seen these animals up close and they are extremely large.  A friend of mine actually got a license to hunt one of these animals and he told me the meat from the one he killed was not very tasty if anyone is wondering.

Anyway that wrapped up my visit to the White Sands Missile Range, so my wife and I decided to take the backgate from WSMR back to Northeast El Paso, which is where we live.  Here are a few pictures from our drive back to El Paso:

Here is a view of the southern end of the Organ Mountains as seen from the road:

Here is a view of the Franklin Mountains which is where El Paso lies at the base of:

After about 45 minutes we were back in El Paso and we definitely enjoyed our trip to WSMR.  In fact when I have out of town visitors I usually bring them by WSMR as part of a visit to White Sands National Monument.  There really is no reason not to set aside about an hour to visit WSMR if visiting White Sands National Monument.  So definitely check it out and learn a little bit more about American’s vibrant space history with much of it beginning here at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range.