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Old Wendover Airfield

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Old Wendover Airfield 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 T L A N N O 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.
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