McDonald Ranch House
MCDONALD RANCH HOUSE - TRINITY SITE - NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK - 1972
RESTORED BY: US ARMY WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE - 1984
In the front room of this humble ranch house the world's first nuclear device was assembled on 19 July 1945. The device was then taken to Trinity Site, two miles from here, where it was placed into a test bomb and detonated at dawn on 17 July 1945. This historic event signaled the dawn of a new age and was forever to change the human experience. While nuclear technology was born of war, it today serves mankind in countless humanitarian forms.
The McDonald Ranch House has been restored and will be preserved as it was on that fateful day in 1945 that future generations may come here to see this historic structure where an event occured that altered forever the course of history. This site is dedicated to all those Americans who contributed to one of man's greatest technological conquests - the harnessing of the atom. Let this restored ranch house and its peaceful setting here in the shadow of the Oscura Mountains be ever a reminder to all those who come here of America's solemn obligation to use the miraculous phenomenon of the atom to serve all mankind in its untold, yet unexplored opportunities. This is an obligation we dare not fail to meet.
NILES J. FULWYLER
MAJOR GENERAL, USA
COMMANDING