old wendover airfield

18 Pages·2010·1.24 MB·English

Points of interest
around the
o W a
ld endover irfield
an inexhaustive investigation
of current content
the Center for land use interPretation
Points of interest
around the
o W a
ld endover irfield
An Inexhaustive Investigation
of Current Content
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
ANLDUSTEHEINCETNTEERRPFORRETANTIO
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.