old wendover airfield - 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
Points of Interest
around the
Old Wendover Airfield
An Inexhaustive Investigation
of Current Content
ENTER F
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U
TIO N
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LAND
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The Center for Land Use Interpretation
IN T E RPR
E
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 distributor, 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 flying 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 inflight 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.
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POINTS OF INTEREST
AROUND THE
OLD WENDOVER AIRFIELD
|
THE CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION
Map produced by the CLUI / Los Angeles
9331 Venice Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232
Nevada
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Points of Interest around
Old Wendover Airfield
An Inexhaustive Investigation
of Current Content
the
A Center for Land Use Interpretation
Urban Tours Program Publication
Edition 3, written Novemnber 2009
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
is a nonprofit research organization
dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge about how
the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived.
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
9331 Venice Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
www.clui.org