• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

A goat tradition

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
From the 1930s, George McDonald and his family raised goats on a large tract of desert land rented from the US Government, about 60 miles northwest of our home in Alamogordo, just north of the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. The area had been known to the Spanish as La Jornada del Muerte (the dead man's journey).

The McDonalds lived in a modest adobe and fieldstone house, purchased from the prior leaseholder, Franz Schmidt, who built it in 1913, and enlarged by McDonald. (It was then a little larger than our current home in Alamogordo.)

In 1942 the government advised McDonald that the lease was terminated and he, his family and the goats would have to vacate. The land was needed for an expansion of the Bombing and Gunnery Range for use in training pilots for service in World War II. We assume that he was compensated for the house. The house remained vacant until 1945.

In late 1944, a team of government personnel arrived in the area to prepare for an important new project. They put up a lot of temporary buildings, but found that the former McDonald Ranch House, still intact, would be handy for one task they had on the agenda.

On July 13, 1945, in a makeshift not-very-clean room in what had been George and his wife's bedroom, the core of the world's first nuclear bomb, the Trinity "Gadget", was assembled. This mass of this grapefruit-sized sphere of plutonium would, three days later, be converted into as much energy as would have been released by the detonation of about 18,000 tons of TNT.

The house, only about two miles away, was not significantly damaged (mostly the windows were all blown out). A success for German/Scottish adaptation of traditional southwestern design!

The rest is history.

************

Today, George's grandson, Wayne McDonald, is the proprietor of a nice "family-style" restaurant on the western edge of Alamogordo (just off McDonald road actually). They serve wonderful barbecue (and in fact the best veggie burger available in this part of the world), but not cabrito, lest you later become worried.

And Wayne manages a nice herd of goats on a large posture adjacent to the restaurant, following a tradition carried on by his father, Clif McDonald.

At a recent meeting where Clif was to speak, he was introduced by his wife, Barbara. She said, "When I met Clif he was a goat herder." A Scottish heckler in the crowd called out, "He still is, Barbara."​
Here we see the current patriarch and matriarch of the goat herd (not to be confused with a goatherd - that's what Wayne is).

Goats_P04199-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Goat patriarch and matriarch

In fact, a later shot (not posted here) shows that Billy is still interested in increasing the size of the herd. It is not clear that Nanny was wholly in agreement.

Here we see the self-appointed overseer at work:

Goats_P04201-01-C1-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Oversight

Here's a future overseer, practicing his stance:

Goats_P04200-01-C1-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Future overseer

Finally, we see the goat ranch kraftwerke (idling for the moment):

Goats_P04203-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: One goat power - any time now

By the way, each of these images was dealt a glancing blow by the toy-of-the-week, Topaz Clarity. It looks as if it will be a really useful tool.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Hi Doug,

Nice series and story.

By the way, each of these images was dealt a glancing blow by the toy-of-the-week, Topaz Clarity. It looks as if it will be a really useful tool.

The images do have a more natural 3D look than a simple conversion would produce, without looking artificially processed. Well done.

Cheers,
Bart
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
The McDonald Ranch House in modern times

Just for continuity, were we see the McDonald Ranch House in October, 2012:

Trinity_F36106-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Carla at the McDonald Ranch House, 2012

The room just behind Carla's head is where the Trinity Gadget core was assembled.

Note the gantry at the main entrance. You'll see it again later (earlier, actually)

To the right we see the fieldstone addition built by George McDonald.

This was 2.06 miles from "ground zero".

Here we see Phil Morrison carrying the core components into the assembly room in July of 1945. The plutonium in that case had cost $300M (1945 dollars) to make.

Trinity_Core-01.jpg
US Government photograph​

At the house, Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell, deputy to Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves (the head of the Manhattan Project), was asked by the courier team to sign a receipt for the plutonium. Before he did, he took the sphere to hand. He said:

"I felt it growing warm. I got a certain sense of its hidden power. It wasn't a cold piece of metal, but it was really a piece of metal that seemed to be working inside. Then maybe for the first time I began to believe some of the fantastic tales the scientists had told about this nuclear power."​

Three days later, he wouild really "get it".

And here we see the completed core about to go to the test site from the McDonald Ranch House (I think that's Phil Morrison on the left):

core_arrives.jpg

US Government photograph​

You can see that gantry. It appears from various documents that it was built in 1945 (along with the deck under it, the ramp leading to the front porch, and a porch deck overlay to door sill height), probably to facilitate unloading from trucks equipment that was to go into the house (workbenches and such).

Of course it seems pretty stout for that purpose, but "it's always good to be prepared".

This 1942 Plymouth was J. Robert Oppenheimer's "G-ride". It is now in a museum in Albuquerque (a fabulous story all its own).

Of course I am more interested in this than goats.

An amazing thing.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Last edited:

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Bart,

Hi Doug,

Nice series and story.

Thanks.

The images do have a more natural 3D look than a simple conversion would produce, without looking artificially processed. Well done.

Thanks. I didn't give a lot of thought to the process. I chose some preset in Clarity, said "that looks better", nailed it, and moved on!

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Errata regarding the Trinity test:

George McDonald owned the land on which his ranch was located. It was appropriated by the government. There was controversy regarding the compensation paid McDonald for his land and house.

The fellow carrying in the core components was not Phil Morrison but Sgt. Herbert M. Lehr, a member of the Army Special Engineering Detachment.

By the way, George McDonald's brother Dave McDonald (perhaps joint with George) owned another ranch about ten miles southwest of the ground zero. It had also been appropriated by the government. It was used as the site for the "base camp" of the Trinity test site.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Wonderful photos of an incredible era, Doug. Goats have an odd countenance that fits in well with the nuclear goings on there a few decades ago.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
As an engineer, a New Mexican, and an American, I remain extraordinarily proud about the Manhattan Project, which led to a weapon that instantly brought an end to the terrible war with Japan.

But please do not think that my pride in that accomplishment, and my interest in the fascinating technical and logistic details, in any way blunts my awareness of the horror of this war, and the specific horror of the events that ended it. Far from it.

One of the most poignant views into that is this photo, taken in Nagasaki, Japan not too long after the use of the "Fat Man" bomb (which was essentially identical to the Trinity Gadget):

A+Japanese+boy+standing+at+attention+after+having+brought+his+dead+younger+brother+to+a+cremation+pyre,+1945.jpg


Joe O'Donnell: Brotherly love without boundaries, 1945

Here we see a young Japanese boy carrying, on his back, the body of his dead younger brother, presumably a victim of radiation sickness from Fat Man, bringing him to a community funeral pyre.

The young man, now completing his duty, stands at attention.

This has been the most difficult of my over 6000 messages to my colleagues here.

Best regards,

Doug
 

George Holroyd

New member
Well, you're one sick SOB, then. WTF do you have to be proud of, mass murder? I understand the context of the second world war and the human cost that was projected to be the price paid to end the war with Japan through traditional means but to state that you are proud of how we handled that and subsequently ushered in an era of mutually assured destruction, etc., that nuclear arms have subjected us to is pure hubris. I state this as a veteran of war. Of course, I was a medic, not some snot-nosed engineer who sat safely tucked away in a bunker, never getting their hands dirty. My perspective is, I'm sure, a little different.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Well, you're one sick SOB, then. WTF do you have to be proud of, mass murder? I understand the context of the second world war and the human cost that was projected to be the price paid to end the war with Japan through traditional means but to state that you are proud of how we handled that and subsequently ushered in an era of mutually assured destruction, etc., that nuclear arms have subjected us to is pure hubris. I state this as a veteran of war. Of course, I was a medic, not some snot-nosed engineer who sat safely tucked away in a bunker, never getting their hands dirty. My perspective is, I'm sure, a little different.

Nyilvánvalóan.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
................

I understand the context of the second world war and the human cost that was projected to be the price paid to end the war with Japan through traditional means but to state that you are proud of how we handled that and subsequently ushered in an era of mutually assured destruction, etc., that nuclear arms have subjected us to is pure hubris. I state this as a veteran of war.


George,

Putting aside "Doug the engineer" who loves digging up details of mechanisms of machines, and who had neither access nor authority at that time, I'll comment on the actual issue.

I'm fully empathetic with your view. While I applaud the brilliance of harnessing the atom, I've substantial and grave regrets at humanity having bitten that "apple" of the tree of knowledge. The long term consequences are not encouraging at all in a world of religious fanaticism and various society's cultural certainty of their superiority. Governed by self righteous/corrupt/incompetent humans, so far, nuclear energy is more of an existential threat than unrestrained population growth or pollution.

We do not know why the bombs were dropped. Let's, grant, for the sake of argument, "That it was morally better to drop the bombs than to bear the cost of further massive allied troop losses." So where would that leave us?

That successful use of nuclear weapons in decisively vanquishing a stubborn cause-driven enemy, opens the door to moral justification for future conflicts. The inherent irrevocable permission it gave, (by our clearly staged and even just example), is a door for horror that cannot be closed.

Asher
 

George Holroyd

New member
Let's, grant, for the sake of argument, "That it was morally better to drop the bombs than to bear the cost of further massive allied troop losses." So where would that leave us?

As someone who has had his wife fear for her life because I've woken up in the middle of the night hyper-alert and unaware of my surroundings, scaring the **** out of her in the process, I say **** that smug piece of **** and those like him. Middling little bitches like Doug and his ilk never pay the price, that is for others to bear.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It would be unseemly if discussion of dropping the bombs wouldn't evoke enough horror is all of us to lead to some bitter divisions. I'd be ashamed if we had any more casual view! It's the process of argument, reaction and counterargument that allows us to go beyond reactiveness to more objective understanding of what we have done.

I hope that our photography is not just for entertainment and commerce, but also from time to time, lifts up a lantern to what we as humans do to ourselves and the planet over which we have claimed jurisdiction.

Asher
 
Top