Points of Interest around the Old Wendover Airfield
an inexhaustive investigation of current content
The Center for Land Use Interpretation Points of Interest around the Old Wendover Airfield
An Inexhaustive Investigation of Current Content
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
CENTER E FO H R
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I D T U A S T E RE INTERP Wendover Airfield
Called "Leftover Field" by Bob Hope when he visited in 1942, Wendover Airfield is now a large and largely unused former World War II airfield. Construction of the Wendover Airbase started in 1940, and by 1943 it was the largest military reserve in the world, in area. Around 20,000 military personnel were based in 668 buildings and trained on 3.5 million acres of the surrounding desert.
Wendover became the home of the training program for the first atomic bombing missions, later carried out on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The remains of the assembly and modification areas associated with this top-secret program can be seen in the distance a mile south of the flightline of the Wendover Airport. The former office for Colonel Tibbets, the commander of the atomic bomb squadron, is now a public storage building.
By the late 1950's, the base's use was in steep decline, and the Air Force officially transferred the base to the Town of Wendover in 1977. In 1999, the town surrendered the base to Tooele County, which owns and manages the airport and the remaining 100 buildings.
In this book, the numbers in parenthesis refer to the original base building numbers. The current reuse of these buildings is as least as interesting as their past. This is a walking tour of the old airfield. Visitors may start their tour at the Center for Land Use Interpretation's Wendover Orientation Building.
Getting to the Orientation Building
First get to Wendover, Utah, located on Interstate 80, on the state line between Utah and Nevada, 2,304 miles west of the George Washington Bridge in New York City, and 611 miles east of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.
At Wendover, exit south off Interstate 80 to Wendover Boulevard (the main street in Wendover, which runs parallel to and south of Interstate 80).
At the Shell Station, located on the Utah side of the state line, take First Street south, then take the first left after crossing the railroad tracks.
After about a mile the CLUI Wendover Orientation Building and Radio Tower will be on your left.
Instructions for entry into the Orientation Buidling are posted near the door. 1. CLUI Wendover Orientation Building (Building 2624) The Orientation Building is the recommended start point for visitors to the CLUI Complex in Wendover. This building served as the administrative headquarters for the base hospital, and later as a squadron headquarters building. It has recently been used by a hardware and feed company, called IFA. It is now leased to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, and is a regional landscape information center.
2. Radio Tower This 40 foot tall radio tower was designed by CLUI Residence Program participant Deborah Stratman, and built by her crew from Chicago, as part of her Power/ Exchange project. The tower acts as a sort of scanner/sampler for the invisible radio spectrum of the area. A kiosk at its base enables visitors to listen to different radio frequencies in the region, such as aviation channels, fast food drive-thrus, casino security, and others. There is also a transmit function in the kiosk, with low powered FM and Citizens Band, so users can communicate with some of the thousands of truckers, residents, and transients in the area and on the Interstate.
3. Latrine Home (Building 2417) This building is a former latrine, one of two in this fenced compound that served the 400 men who lived in this cluster of barracks during the war. This latrine building was later converted into a home. 4. Dining Hall (Building 2515) The Dining Hall building was built in 1945, and was one of the last buildings to be constructed on the original airbase. It was abandoned for many years, and was last used by the military in 1986, as part of a large training operation called Red Flag, which involved military bases in Nevada and Utah in a widespread war scenario. New commercial cooking equipment for the operation was used only once, then abandoned. Other uses of the building since Red Flag have included the occasional quinzinera by local residents, and as a place for the screening rushes of Hollywood productions filmed on location at the airbase. Due to its poor condition, it is now unused.
5. Exhibit Hall One (Building 2514) This exhibit hall is located inside a former army barracks at the old Wendover Airbase. The structure, designated as airbase building number 2514, was singled out by the CLUI due to its location and its ideal configuration and appearance for use as a display space. Alterations to the building, basically unused since the evacuation of the military in 1977, have been minimal. A hanging wall has been constructed down the middle of the structure for the display of two-dimensional media, and the rear of the building has been enclosed for additional display space. Information on accessing the building is located near the exterior door. 6. Row of Barracks This western row of barracks has been left unused by former airport managers to maintain their original appearance for historical purposes. Many of the 668 buildings that comprised the base at its peak, in 1945, were of the residential type. Most of the barracks were like the 19 remaining structures here, 20 feet wide and 100 feet long, housing 24 soldiers, in a single long room with 24 cots and 24 shelves. There were seven cantonment areas like the one within this fenced compound, each with around 20 barracks, 2 latrines, and a mess hall.
7. Exhibit Hall Two Exhibit Hall Two is a CLUI public display area located in the west end of the Studio building, with a seperate entrance. Access information for this building is the same as Exhibit Hall One.
8. CLUI Studio (Building 1860) The Studio building at Wendover has a 1,000 square foot workspace to support CLUI programs in the region, including the Wendover Residence Program. It is located adjacent to the Residence Support unit, and across from the Enola Gay Hangar. Basic shop tools, supplies, raw material, storage, and a display space are located in the interior of this building. 9. Residence Support Unit The CLUI Wendover Residence Support Unit is located on the eastern edge of the air field flightline, across from the Enola Gay Hangar, and adjacent to the CLUI Wendover Studio building. This building contains quarters for CLUI programming participants working in Wendover. The 12 foot by 60 foot manufactured building was donated to the CLUI by the Wastewater Construction Management Division of the Los Angeles Department of Public Works. It was originally built in 1990 to support the construction of a new sewer tunnel being built under the City of Los Angeles. In 1998, after the project was completed, the building was transported to Wendover. In 1999, the interior of the CLUI building was modified by Simparch, a design team awarded a CLUI Residence Program grant. Within the fenced enclosure of the Support Unit is a 1958 Streamline Countess travel trailer, also available for use by CLUI programming participants in Wendover. The building is located on a cement pad that is all that remains of Building Number 1868 of the old Wendover Airbase, a building that, after the end of WWII, became the town of Wendover's animal control pound, before it burned down more than a decade ago.
10. CLUI Viewing Tower This old target scoring tower provides elevated views of the region. It was originally an observation tower for the military training ranges north of the highway. It was moved to the Kaiser Potash works in the 1950's, to watch operations in the spread out evaporation ponds south of the highway. By the late 1970's its use dimished to simply supporting a TV antenna for the potash bunkhouse, which is no longer in use by the plant. It was donated to the CLUI by the owner of the potash plant, and moved to its current location in 2007. 11. Wendover Military Area Contained within a fenced compound at the east end of the airbase is the only remaining dedicated military land left on the Wendover Airbase. On about 165 acres behind the chain link are fifty or so buildings used for training by the Air Force and the reserves. The rows of huts were built in the 1980s as simple barracks and administrative buildings. The row in the middle are washhouses, where the water remains heated all year long, in case someone needs a shower. This fenced compound was also the site of a large military salvage yard, in use through the 1970s, full of aircraft parts, vehicles, machine guns, and other hardware. The yard was cleared for the construction of what you see there today.
12. Wendover Radar Site Radar and telemetry antennas on site are associated with aircrew test and training operations in the skies above this area. This is the western edge of a restricted military airspace that is part of the Utah Test and Training Range, operated by Hill Air Force Base, north of Salt Lake City. The Utah Test and Training Range is the largest restricted ground and airspace complex in the country, with over 3 million acres of land and 12 million acres of airspace. What was known as the Wendover Bombing Range in WWII is now part of the UTTR.
13. Salon Del Reino de Los Testigos de Jehova (Building 2658) Built in 1944, this building served as the noncommissioned officer's mess hall. It is now used as a meeting hall of the local hispanic Jehovah's Witnesses. 14. Morgue (Building 2629) This small building is the former base mortuary and morgue.
15. Airbase Laundry This structure, one in a row of nearly identical buildings that were built as part of the expansive hospital complex, once provided clinical and surgery functions. It has been converted into a commercial laundromat. Drop Bundles. Indeed.
16. Ben's Furniture Store (Building 2821) Located in a former airbase hospital complex building, this store sells used furnishings, appliances, and objects for the home. The business is named after its owner, Ben.
17. Scrap Pile Double Building (Building 2115) This fenced enclosure contains a rather large collection of material, salvaged from the base and from the region. Many of the parts taken from the old airbase buildings in the 1980s ended up here. It only represents a fraction of the inventory of Mr. Ripptoe, who owned Rip's store in Wendover, Utah, the grounds of which were similarly adorned before it burned to the ground a few years ago. This building is unusual as it is composed of two buildings placed side by side, allowing rain to collect in the center. It remains an architectural curiosity. 18. Quartermaster Warehouse Area (Buildings 2219-2224) These two large warehouses are all that remain of a row of nearly thirty warehouses that once lined the tracks here, and were the main supply point for the airbase. After base closure, one of these buildings was leased to Anaconda Copper. It is now used by a local concrete and bulk materials distribu- tor, Shelton Concrete.
19. Former Hardwarehouse (Building 1029) This building was once part of the base motorpool area, which extended north and south of here, with grease and inspection racks, paint shops, wash racks, and several other maintenance, cleaning, parking, and supply buildings. This was the location of the motorpool gas station. It was turned into a hardware store, which has since moved to West Wendover, Nevada.
20. Chapel (Building 1000) The former base chapel was turned into apartments in the 1980s.
21. Power Plant (Building 207) This building behind the offices of Shelton Redimix concrete, is one of the first buildings built on base in WWII. This was the power plant for the main base, as well as the gunnery school range northeast of Wendover. Seven diesel generators provided 1525 kilowatts of electricity for the base, distributing power through overhead electric lines. The plant was leased to a local power utility in 1957, and provided electricity to the town. It was shut down by 1980, and the generators were removed. Inside, the generator mounts are frosted with decades of pigeon droppings, and a smattering of mysterious toxic powders. 22. Water Tank The Base's red and white water tank remains on the hill, with its rotating beacon still turned on at night as a warning for low fly- ing aircraft, though it no longer supplies water to anyone. Much of the hill it rests on has been dug away and ground up for aggregate by Shelton Concrete. 23. Former Base Headquarters/Dixon Rentals (Building 211) This building is the original base headquarters, where base administration and command was centered. It has been radically modified for use as a public storage facility, and is now privately owned. In 1944 and 1945, the building housed the offices for Colonel Tibbets, the commander of the Enola Gay. Tibbets selected Wendover for the training site for the atomic bombing raid on Japan, and is said to have declared when he first came to the area, "the end of the world, perfect."
24. Tank Farm On the north side of the road, behind the tattered fence, is the underground fuel tank farm for the old airbase. Nine primary tanks held a total capacity of 300,000 gallons, in tanks as large as 60 feet in length. Though mostly empty by now, the tanks are still in the ground, visible only by pipes and vents protruding from overgrown cement casings on the ground. This is an area of particular interest to the Army Corps of Engineers, who are doing a study of potentially toxic and hazardous sites at the airbase. 25. Wendover Utah Swimming Pool (Building 101) This is the old base swimming pool, which later became Wendover's municipal pool. It has been abandoned for around 20 years. It was also the location for a scene of the film Con Air, depicting a conversation between a psychopathic child molester played by Steve Buscemi, and a little girl. 26. Original Hangar One Site (Building 111) Hangar One was the largest hangar on base. Made of wood, unlike the Enola Gay Hangar, which is metal, it was destroyed by fire in July 1946. The blaze, set off by a short circuit in a battery charger, was accelerated by 30,000 gallons of aircraft fuel stored on site. In addition to destroying the airplanes in the hangar, the fire spread to several adjacent buildings before the fire crew responded, despite the fact that they were stationed across the street.
27. Hangar One (Building 412) Hangar One is one of six WWII hangars that remain standing on the flightline of the airbase. Originally there were seven hangars, but in 1946, the original Hangar One burned down. After this tragedy, this building, originally called Hangar Two, was designated as the new Hangar One, and all the other hangar numbers decreased by one as well. It is now used for civilian aircraft storage and maintenance.
28. Airport Operations (Building 426) The operations building, at the foot of the original control tower, is the administrative headquarter for the airfield, including most of the remaining structures north of the flightline, the hangars, runways, and Southbase. The airport is now owned and operated by Tooele County, Utah, and a small staff works out of this building. Prior to being taken over by the county in the late 1990s, the airbase was owned by the city of Wendover, Utah, and this building was the home of the aviation services business with the poetic, mythological name of Icarus Aviation, which ran the airport functions of the base for over ten years. The airport operations building is open to the public daily from 8 to 6, and inside is an exhibit about the WWII airfield, with historic photographs and a model. This is a good place to ask questions about the historic airfield and about access to Southbase. 29. Officers Club (Building 432) This is the former officers club for the base, which once had a bar, gym, and dining hall. A bad roof for a number of years has damaged much of the interior. Leased by the Peppermill Casino for records storage, it was referred to as the "chicken coop" because of the amount of pigeons and pigeon droppings inside. It has recently been partially restored.
30. Old Barracks (Buildings 704, 711) These two story barracks buildings are some of the few old base buildings that are privately owned. The owner, who also owns the Wendover Times (one of two local newspapers) is an automobile enthusiast, and operates the Wendover raceway, currently located on the east end of the airbase. Remarkable among his collection behind the fence are a number of old airport limousine cars - regular American car models from the ‘60’s and ‘70s, stretched to extreme lengths, and with multiple doors, one of which is said to have belonged to the Harlem Globetrotters.
31. Partially Missing Building (Building 804) Building 804, the original Armament and Instrument Inspection and Adjustment building, also known as the "old bomb-site building" was partially destroyed by the wind following modifications made by the the last tenant, the State Line Casino.
32. Hangar Three (Building 811) Hangar Three is the third, from west to east, of four similar Squadron hangars, used for the maintenance of squadron aircraft. This hangar was used extensively in 1996 as a shooting location for the patriotic alien attack film Independence Day, where the Wendover Base played the part of the secret airbase known as "Area 51." Portions of the sets from the film remain in the hangar, visible through the window on the west wall. 33. Chimney Stack This stack is all that remains of a former school on base. Airport administration has refused offers to knock it down and salvage the brick for commercial resale.
34. Airport Fire Station (Building 1800) The renovated building on the flightline is the airbase fire department. The building originally had no garages facing the flightline, as it was constructed for a different purpose during WWII. Bombardiers trained in this building, learning how to identify and acquire targets. Trainees on the second floor would look through holes in the floor at printed targets, displayed on scrolling paper on the floor below. After the base was turned over to the town, this building became City Hall for Wendover, Utah. Later, this complex became the city's maintenance shop area.
35. Celestial Navigation Site and Navigation Aids Building On the ground just north of the fire-house is an octagonal foundation that is the remains of one of four Celestial Navigation buildings. These silo-like buildings were used to train aircrews to navigate using the stars. Star patterns were projected onto the ceilings of the darkened rooms of each builing. One of the buildings was recently entirely rebuilt through efforts administered by the Historic Wendover Airfield and made possible by private donations. 36. Link Trainer Building (Building 1804) This building was an aircrew training facility that contained a number of mechanical flight simulation devices called Link Trainers. These pilot training machines, developed by Edwin Link in the late 1920s, consisted of a stylized, miniature airplane - complete with a cockpit, little wings and a tail, and usable flight controls - mounted on a pedestal that enabled it to move about, simulating in- flight behavior. The system used pneumatic mechanisms derived from the Link family's player-piano and organ business. During the war the Army Air Corps used thousands of Link Trainers to teach pilots proper instrument flight procedures.
37. Con Air Plane A large flightless aircraft usually parked on the flightline, and labeled as being part of the US Marshall's Service, was one of two nearly identical prop airplanes brought to Wendover in 1996 for the shooting of the Disney film Con Air. Unlike its sister plane, which was able to fly back to Southern California, this plane was brought in pieces, and assembled on a bus chassis for the taxiing shots in the film. Tragically, during filming, this plane collapsed and killed a crew member. As an accident involving an aircraft, even one that doesn't fly, the NTSB investigated the accident, and the plane stayed long after filming was complete. It is used in fire crew training exercises, and periodically houses a theater showing excerpts of films shot in Wendover, a movie location theater on location in a prop plane prop. N\e[fm\i9cm[% /' ;n`^_k;%<`j\e_fnj\i?np%
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