We were driving north towards Hawthorne Nevada, before you got to the little town there was obviously military bases.
The strangest thing were these little bunkers out in the desert, thousands of them, as far as the eye could see. We speculated as to what they were for, we saw a sign that said something about ammunition, so we assumed they were ammunition bunkers out there. Then north of Hawathorne there was a huge lake, fenced off and lots of signs posted, it was obviously also military land. The really suspicious thing about all of this, we did not see any military personnel any where, not by the bunkers, around the metal buildings, or in the town of Hawthorne. You'd think with all the military bases there you outta see some military personnel some where?
Posts
2 comments:
Hi, I read your blog and I might be able to give a little more info of Hawthorne, the small little town you referred to. I'm a resident of that town.
Yes, those are Bunker's, AKA "Igloo's". You are partially correct in writing that you think they contain ammo, as the Main Gate sign refers to that. The lake you passed is mostly non-military and is used a lot during the winter season for great Cutthroat trout fishing. The south end (closest to town) is military and is posted due to the area being used in the 50's & 60's for live testing of munitions, and as a result, some ammo didn't detonate, and are now surfacing and are a hazard. They do have Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams detonate these dangerous ammo in place; these munitions surface as the lake recedes.
The military personnel departed in the early 80's, when the base was changed to a contract operated facility, however the area around the base is now being used for Special Force's training where a large population of armed forces are sent before being deployed to Afghanistan/Iraq. These are not permanent assignments at the base.
The DOD put the base was on the CLOSURE list a couple of years ago, but the Base Realignment and Closure Commission saved it. It's primary mission these days is in the demilitarization of obsolete munitions, and that seems to be slowing down as the gove't appropriations are being spent to support the two "wars".
The North end of the lake, closer to Schurz Paiute Reservation belong's to that tribe. The lake is 17 miles long and about 3 miles wide. The lake is slowly but surely receding, as up river irrigation consumes most of the water going to the lake. The fish habitat is in danger of being non-existent due to this. Many years ago, it was common to catch cutthroats weinging in the excess of 12 lbs; today the average weight is approximately 3 lbs and scarce.
This is a dead end lake, and currently, there is a highly funded effort to save the lake and fishery.
I hope this gives a little more insight to your curiosity of that area.
thank you for your information about Hawthorne. I can now share this with my dad. For many years, he has always questioned if Hawthorne still exists. I can now tell him, yes!
Post a Comment