White Sands Missile Range Museum


The site chosen for the atom bomb test was in the New Mexico desert, on the Alamogordo Bombing Range. It was close to the Manhattan Project’s main research center of Los Alamos, and near highways and a railroad, yet remote enough to provide the secrecy required of the test. In the fall of 1944 a base camp location was chosen and developed by the Corps of Engineers, with a small Military Police detachment sent from Los Alamos to provide security. Barracks, Mess Halls, maintenance shops, and other facilities were built as more engineers and scientists arrived throughout the Winter and Spring of 1945 to begin preparations for the upcoming July test – setting up camera locations, running miles of wiring, building the tower in which the bomb would detonate, turning a room at the Schmidt-MacDonald ranch house into a “clean room” in which to put the core of the “gadget” together. The site, called Trinity, bustled with activity as the actual test day, July 16 1945, fast approached – a day that would change the world forever.

About

The White Sands Missile Range Museum was founded in 1994 by BG Richard Wharton and the White Sands Pioneer Group as a way to preserve the artifacts and history of this unique part of the Army and New Mexico.

The mission of the WSMR Museum is to collect, preserve, interpret and display the Army's story in New Mexico and the role the Army played in operating the Missile Range to integrate Department of Defense, other Federal agency, and international test activities that contributed to the advancement of missiles and rockets, the emergence of the nuclear age, the winning of the Cold War, and our Nation's continued strategic dominance on the global stage.

The Museum supports our Nation's research and development by forming a bridge between the Missile Range and the public, by connecting our military and civilian work force to a continuum of effort that began in 1945 and continues to excel today. If this history is not preserved at the WSMR Museum, it will be lost forever.

Exhibits

We offer a very wide variety that all deal with the role of the Frontier Army in New Mexico, as well as post-1945. Some highlights are:

  • The Frontier Army in New Mexico - 1806 to 1880
  • Early Ranching in the Tularosa Basin
  • The V-2 Rocket
  • Manhattan Project and the Trinity Test
  • Bataan Death March
  • The Cold War at WSMR
  • Rocket and Missile Testing during the Vietnam War
  • NASA
  • The "Desert Navy" at White Sands

In addition, there are smaller exhibits on optics, cameras and photography, types of rockets, and more.

Visiting the Museum

Admission Free

Hours

Monday Closed
Tuesday 0800 1600
Wednesday 0800 1600
Thursday 0800 1600
Friday 0800 1600
Saturday 1000 1500
Sunday Closed

Closed on Federal Holidays

Building 200
Headquarters Avenue
WSMR, NM 88002

White Sands Missile Range is located in south-central New Mexico off US Highway 70 between Las Cruces and Alamogordo. The White Sands Missile Range Museum is located just inside the Las Cruces/Alamogordo Main Post Gate on the left.

Contact Us

General Information: (575) 678-2250

Curator email