Field Trip · The Washington Post

White Sands National Park

July 12, 2023·1 hr·2 clips

A seed inside White Sands footprints dated to 23,000 years old.

The episode begins in the dunes of White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. The sand is bright white, cool to the touch, and so reflective that the late-day light still feels harsh, while fighter jets overhead make it clear that something military sits only a few miles away. It feels almost otherworldly. The host hikes with photographer Wayne Suggs, who grew up nearby, and together they climb over smaller dunes toward his favorite sunset overlook as the shadows lengthen and turn blue. From there, the episode moves into the deeper history of this desert, where the Trinity test changed the landscape and upended people's lives. It takes its time with that history. It includes the Downwinders' effort to win acknowledgment and compensation, and it notes that the Department of Defense has studied risks to military personnel but not specifically to nearby communities like Tularosa. The story keeps widening. It places Trinity inside the larger arc of more than a thousand nuclear tests carried out by the United States over the following decades. Many of those tests moved underground. The country ended nuclear weapons testing in 1992, but the desert still bears the mark of what happened there. The episode also explains why the site draws military historians, scientists, and people interested in government secrets or conspiracy theories alike. Twice a year, for only six hours, the missile range opens its gates and lets the public in to see the exact site of the Trinity test. Visitors get up before sunrise, line up in cars, and drive deep into the desert to reach it. The range is enormous, about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. After World War II, Werner von Braun worked there on rocket technology that eventually powered the first Apollo missions to the moon. It is still an active testing site for bombs and missiles, and it also has landing pads for shuttles returning from the space station.

As heard by us

A desert story that pairs vivid landscape reporting with Trinity and the Downwinders.

White Sands National Park comes through as a place of hard brightness: white sand underfoot, a cool surface, harsh light, wide dunes, and the occasional fighter jet overhead.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a desert story that starts with awe and ends with accountability.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Field Trip