Trinity Site: 1945-1995.
Page: 11

much more damage. The barn did not do as well. During the Trinity
test the roof was bowed inward and some of the roofing was blown away.
The roof has since collapsed.

The house stood empty and deteriorating until 1982 when the U.S. Army
stabilized the house to prevent any further damage. Shortly after,
the Department of Energy and U.S. Army provided the funds for the
National Park Service to completely restore the house. The work was
done in 1984. All efforts were directed at making the house appear as
it did on July 12, 1945.



Afterwards


The story of what happened at Trinity Site did not come to light until
after the second atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on
August 6. President Truman made the announcement that day. Three
days later, August 9, the third atomic bomb devastated the city of
Nagasaki, and on August 14 the Japanese surrendered.

Trinity Site became part of what was then White Sands Proving Ground.
The proving ground was established on July 9, 1945, as a test facility
to investigate the new rocket technology emerging from World War II.
The land, including Trinity Site and the old Alamogordo Bombing Range,
came under the control of the new rocket and missile testing facility.

Interest in Trinity Site was immediate. In September 1945 press tours
to the site started. One of the famous photos of ground zero shows
Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves surrounded by a small
group of reporters as they examine one of the footings to the 100 foot
tower on which the bomb was placed. That picture was taken Sept. 11.
The exposed footing is still visible at ground zero. On Sept. 15-17,
George Cremeens, a young radio reporter from KRNT in Des Moines,
visited the site with soundman Frank Lagouri. They flew over the
crater and interviewed Dr. Kenneth Bainbridge, Trinity test director,
and Capt. Howard Bush, base camp commander.

Back in Iowa, Cremeens created four 15-minute reports on his visit
which aired Sept. 24, 26, 27 and 29. A 15-minute composite was made
and aired on the ABC Radio Network. For his work Cremeens received a
local Peabody Award for "Outstanding Reporting and Interpretation of