Editing Trinity (nuclear test) (section)

==Site today==
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| title= {{center|"Trinity Site"<br />by National Atomic Museum<br /><small>Read by James Christopher for LibriVox</small>}}
| description= {{center|Audio 00:24:52 ([https://www.gutenberg.org/files/277/277-h/277-h.htm full text])}}
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In September 1953, about 650 people attended the first [[McDonald Ranch House|Trinity Site]] open house. Visitors to a Trinity Site open house are allowed to see the ground zero and McDonald Ranch House areas.<ref name="Afterwards"/> More than seventy years after the test, residual radiation at the site was about ten times higher than normal [[background radiation]] in the area. The amount of radioactive exposure received during a one-hour visit to the site is about half of the total radiation exposure which a U.S. adult receives on an average day from natural and medical sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsmr.army.mil/Trinity/Pages/RadiationatGroundZeroJusthowradioactiveisthesite.aspx |title=White Sands Missile Range > Trinity Site > Radioactivity |publisher=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office |date=March 8, 2022 |access-date=March 8, 2022 |archive-date=March 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316003530/https://www.wsmr.army.mil/Trinity/Pages/RadiationatGroundZeroJusthowradioactiveisthesite.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On December 21, 1965, the {{convert|51500|acre|ha|adj=on}} Trinity Site was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] district,<ref name="nrhpinv">{{cite web |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000493_text |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Trinity Site |date=January 14, 1975 |author=Richard Greenwood |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=June 21, 2009 |archive-date=March 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305145826/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000493_text |url-status=live}} and {{cite web |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000493_photos |title=Accompanying 10 photos, from 1974 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=March 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305134214/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000493_photos |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nhlsum" /> and on October 15, 1966, it was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris" /> The landmark includes the base camp where the scientists and support group lived, ground zero where the bomb was placed for the explosion, and the McDonald ranch house, where the plutonium core to the bomb was assembled. One of the old [[instrumentation]] bunkers is visible beside the road just west of ground zero.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/landmark.shtml |publisher=National Science Digital Library |title=Trinity Site National Historic Landmark |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=July 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702204013/http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/landmark.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> An inner oblong fence was added in 1967, and the corridor barbed wire fence that connects the outer fence to the inner one was completed in 1972.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trinity Atomic Website: Jumbo |publisher=Virginia Tech Center for Digital Discourse and Culture |url=http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/trinity50_7.html |access-date=February 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215085732/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/trinity50_7.html |archive-date=February 15, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Trinity monument, a rough-sided, lava-rock [[obelisk]] about {{convert|12|ft}} high, marks the explosion's [[hypocenter]].<ref name="Afterwards">{{cite web |url=http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/g6_p1.shtml |title=Trinity Site Monument |publisher=[[National Science Digital Library]] |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=September 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929101250/http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/g6_p1.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> It was erected in 1965 by Army personnel using local rocks taken from the western boundary of the range.{{sfn|Angelo|2004|p=601}} A special tour of the site on July 16, 1995 (marking the 50th anniversary of the Trinity test) attracted 5,000 visitors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/WSHist/Pages/ChronologyCowboystoV2stotheSpaceShuttletolasers.aspx |title=Chronology: Cowboys to V-2s to the Space Shuttle to lasers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013081400/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/WSHist/Pages/ChronologyCowboystoV2stotheSpaceShuttletolasers.aspx |archive-date=October 13, 2014 |publisher=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office |access-date=August 24, 2014 }}</ref> Since then, the site has been open to the public on the first Saturdays of April and October.<ref name="fees">{{cite web |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/default.aspx |title=Trinity Site |publisher=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office |access-date=July 11, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712030052/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/default.aspx |archive-date=July 12, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/News%20Releases/WSMR%20Release%2036%20-Trinity%20Site%20Open%20House%20now%20open%20twice%20a%20year.pdf |title=WSMR Release 36 – Trinity Site Open House now open twice a year |publisher=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office |access-date=July 11, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713065933/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/News%20Releases/WSMR%20Release%2036%20-Trinity%20Site%20Open%20House%20now%20open%20twice%20a%20year.pdf |archive-date=July 13, 2015 }}</ref>