Dugway Proving Ground
Encyclopedia
Dugway Proving Ground is a US Army
facility located approximately 85 miles (140 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah
in southern Tooele County
and just north of Juab County
. It encompasses 801,505 acres (3,243.576 km², or 1,252.352 sq mi) of the Great Salt Lake Desert
, an area the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges. It had a resident population of 2,016 persons as of the 2000 census
, all of whom lived in the community of Dugway, Utah
, at its extreme eastern end. The name "Dugway" comes from a technique to dig a trench along a hillside to keep a wagon from tipping. Dugway Proving Ground is located 13 miles south of the 2,624 sq mi Utah Test and Training Range
. Combined, they form the largest military space in the United States.
The transcontinental Lincoln Highway
passed through the present site of the Dugway Proving Ground, the only significant section of the old highway closed to the public. At least one old wooden bridge over a creek still stands.
and Allied biological and chemical weapon
defense systems in a secure and isolated environment. DPG also serves as a facility for US Army Reserve
and US National Guard
maneuver training, and US Air Force
flight tests - mostly from nearby Hill AFB in Ogden. DPG is controlled by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command
(ATEC). The area has also been used by US Army Special Forces for training in preparation for deployments to the War in Afghanistan
.
. The CWS surveyed the Western U.S.
for a new location to conduct its tests, and, in the spring of 1942, construction of Dugway Proving Ground began.
Testing commenced in the summer of 1942. During World War II
, DPG tested toxic agents, flamethrower
s, chemical spray systems, biological warfare
weapons, fire bombing tactics, antidotes for chemical agents, and protective clothing.
In October 1943, DPG established biological warfare facilities at an isolated area within DPG known as the Granite Peak Installation
- UTTR's range telemetry and tracking radar installation. DPG was slowly phased out after World War II, until becoming inactive in August 1946.
The base was reactivated during the Korean War
under Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Speers Ponder and in 1954 was confirmed as a permanent Department of the Army
installation. In October 1958, the U.S. Army Chemical Center, Maryland detached the U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons School to Dugway Proving Grounds.
From 1985 to 1991, Dugway Proving Ground was home to the Ranger School
's short-lived Desert Training Phase. It was first known as the Desert Ranger Division (DRD) until redesignated the Ranger Training Brigade's 7th Ranger Training Battalion in 1987, and taught students basic desert survival skills and small unit tactics. The program was later moved back to its original site at Fort Bliss, TX in 1991, where it was deactivated in 1995.
On September 8, 2004 the Genesis
- a NASA spacecraft - was directed to impact into the desert floor of the Dugway Proving Ground because the topsoil there is like talcum-powder (e.g. moondust), and would likely cushion the troubled spacecraft's impact. The Genesis spacecraft's accelerometer was installed backwards, which caused the spacecraft to malfunction upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.
On January 26, 2011 Dugway Proving Ground was placed on lockdown. Al Vogel, a public affairs specialist for the installation, would only say that the lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. Employees were not allowed to leave, and those coming to work were not allowed in. Vogel said there were no injuries, no damage and no threats reported at the proving ground. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred. It was later announced that the lockdown was in response to the temporary loss of a
vial containing VX nerve agent
. The lockdown was lifted on January 27 following recovery
of the material.
Dugway Proving Ground was also home to the High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector
, which discovered the first Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
. Dugway is home to several radio telemetry and tracking radar (i.e. RIR-777, TPQ-39 (Ver. V) and MPQ-39) sites which track national flight assets during flight tests at UTTR
.
, an area nearly thirty miles from Dugway's testing sites. When examined, the sheep were found to have been poisoned by an organophosphate
chemical. The sickening of the sheep, known as the Dugway sheep incident
, coincided with several open-air tests of the nerve agent
VX
at Dugway. Local attention focused on the Army, which initially denied that VX had caused the deaths, instead blaming the local use of organophosphate pesticide
s on crops. Necropsies conducted on the dead sheep later definitively identified the presence of VX. The Army never admitted liability, but did pay the ranchers for their losses. On the official record, the claim was for 4,372 "disabled" sheep, of which about 2,150 were either killed outright by the VX exposure or were so critically injured that they needed to be euthanized
on-site by veterinarians. Another 1,877 sheep were "temporarily" injured, or showed no signs of injury but were not marketable due to their potential exposure. All of the exposed sheep which survived the initial exposure were eventually euthanized
by the ranchers, since even the potential for exposure had rendered the sheep permanently unsalable for either meat or wool.
The incident, coinciding with the birth of the environmental movement
and anti-Vietnam War
protests, created an uproar in Utah and the international community. The incident also starkly underscored the inherent unpredictability of air-dispersal of chemical warfare agents, as well as the extreme lethality of next-generation persistent nerve agents at even extremely low concentrations.
issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, DOD
and other national security agencies studied "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of weapons tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.
The quote from the study:
More specifically, reports of certain nerve agents such as tetrodotoxin
, and datura stramonium
, have been tested at this military base. Tetrodotoxin (obtained from the puffer fish), and datura stranonium, when administered to a human, can cause nerve paralysis, slowing their metabolism so much that doctors could easily mistake them for dead. This is where the Haitian myth of the 'zombie' originated. The complete nerve agent was code-named "VX"-- one of a series of "V" nerve agents tested at the base.
in the early 1990s, UFOlogists and conspiracy theorists have suggested that whatever covert operations, if any, may have been underway at that location were subsequently transferred to DPG.
The Deseret News reported that Dave Rosenfeld, president of Utah UFO Hunters, stated:
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
facility located approximately 85 miles (140 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
in southern Tooele County
Tooele County, Utah
Tooele County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000, the population was 40,735 and by 2005 was estimated at 51,311. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele....
and just north of Juab County
Juab County, Utah
Juab County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000 the population was 8,238, and by 2005 had been estimated at 9,113. It was named from an Indian word meaning thirsty valley, or possibly only valley. Its county seat and largest city is Nephi.Juab County is part of the...
. It encompasses 801,505 acres (3,243.576 km², or 1,252.352 sq mi) of the Great Salt Lake Desert
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large dry lake in northern Utah between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border which is noted for white sand from evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits...
, an area the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges. It had a resident population of 2,016 persons as of the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
, all of whom lived in the community of Dugway, Utah
Dugway, Utah
Dugway is a census-designated place in Tooele County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,016, at the 2000 census, a modest increase over the 1990 figure of 1,761. "Dugway" is synonymous with the United States Army's giant testing facility, Dugway Proving Ground...
, at its extreme eastern end. The name "Dugway" comes from a technique to dig a trench along a hillside to keep a wagon from tipping. Dugway Proving Ground is located 13 miles south of the 2,624 sq mi Utah Test and Training Range
Utah Test and Training Range
The Utah Test and Training Range is a military testing and training area located in Utah's West Desert, approximately west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UTTR is currently the largest overland contiguous block of supersonic authorized restricted airspace in the continental United States...
. Combined, they form the largest military space in the United States.
The transcontinental Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
passed through the present site of the Dugway Proving Ground, the only significant section of the old highway closed to the public. At least one old wooden bridge over a creek still stands.
Mission
Dugway's mission is to test USUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Allied biological and chemical weapon
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
defense systems in a secure and isolated environment. DPG also serves as a facility for US Army Reserve
United States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....
and US National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
maneuver training, and US Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
flight tests - mostly from nearby Hill AFB in Ogden. DPG is controlled by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command
U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command
United States Army Test and Evaluation Command is a direct reporting unit of the United States Army responsible for developmental testing, independent operational testing, independent evaluations, assessments, and experiments of Army equipment....
(ATEC). The area has also been used by US Army Special Forces for training in preparation for deployments to the War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
.
History
In 1941, the US Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) determined it needed a testing facility more remote than the US Army's Edgewood Arsenal in MarylandMaryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. The CWS surveyed the Western U.S.
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
for a new location to conduct its tests, and, in the spring of 1942, construction of Dugway Proving Ground began.
Testing commenced in the summer of 1942. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, DPG tested toxic agents, flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s, chemical spray systems, biological warfare
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
weapons, fire bombing tactics, antidotes for chemical agents, and protective clothing.
In October 1943, DPG established biological warfare facilities at an isolated area within DPG known as the Granite Peak Installation
Granite Peak Installation
Granite Peak Installation , also known as Granite Peak Range, was a U.S. biological weapons testing facility located on of Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. GPI was a sub-installation of Dugway but had its own facilities, including utilities...
- UTTR's range telemetry and tracking radar installation. DPG was slowly phased out after World War II, until becoming inactive in August 1946.
The base was reactivated during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
under Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Speers Ponder and in 1954 was confirmed as a permanent Department of the Army
United States Department of the Army
The Department of the Army is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the Federal Government agency which the United States Army is organized within, and it is led by the Secretary of the Army who has...
installation. In October 1958, the U.S. Army Chemical Center, Maryland detached the U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons School to Dugway Proving Grounds.
From 1985 to 1991, Dugway Proving Ground was home to the Ranger School
Ranger School
The United States Army Ranger School is an intense 61-day combat leadership course oriented towards small-unit tactics. It has been called the "toughest combat course in the world" and "is the most physically and mentally demanding leadership school the Army has to offer". The course is conducted...
's short-lived Desert Training Phase. It was first known as the Desert Ranger Division (DRD) until redesignated the Ranger Training Brigade's 7th Ranger Training Battalion in 1987, and taught students basic desert survival skills and small unit tactics. The program was later moved back to its original site at Fort Bliss, TX in 1991, where it was deactivated in 1995.
On September 8, 2004 the Genesis
Genesis (spacecraft)
The Genesis spacecraft was a NASA sample return probe which collected a sample of solar wind and returned it to Earth for analysis. It was the first NASA sample return mission to return material since the Apollo Program, and the first to return material from beyond the orbit of the Moon...
- a NASA spacecraft - was directed to impact into the desert floor of the Dugway Proving Ground because the topsoil there is like talcum-powder (e.g. moondust), and would likely cushion the troubled spacecraft's impact. The Genesis spacecraft's accelerometer was installed backwards, which caused the spacecraft to malfunction upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.
On January 26, 2011 Dugway Proving Ground was placed on lockdown. Al Vogel, a public affairs specialist for the installation, would only say that the lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. Employees were not allowed to leave, and those coming to work were not allowed in. Vogel said there were no injuries, no damage and no threats reported at the proving ground. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred. It was later announced that the lockdown was in response to the temporary loss of a
vial containing VX nerve agent
VX (nerve agent)
VX, IUPAC name O-ethyl S-[2-ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, is an extremely toxic substance whose only application is in chemical warfare as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapon, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687...
. The lockdown was lifted on January 27 following recovery
of the material.
Dugway Proving Ground was also home to the High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector
High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector
The High Resolution Fly's Eye or HiRes detector was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observatory that operated in the western Utah desert from May 1997 until April 2006. HiRes utilized the atmospheric fluorescence technique that was pioneered by the Utah group first in tests at the Volcano Ranch...
, which discovered the first Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
In astroparticle physics, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray or extreme-energy cosmic ray is a cosmic ray with an extreme kinetic energy, far beyond both its rest mass and energies typical of other cosmic rays....
. Dugway is home to several radio telemetry and tracking radar (i.e. RIR-777, TPQ-39 (Ver. V) and MPQ-39) sites which track national flight assets during flight tests at UTTR
Utah Test and Training Range
The Utah Test and Training Range is a military testing and training area located in Utah's West Desert, approximately west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UTTR is currently the largest overland contiguous block of supersonic authorized restricted airspace in the continental United States...
.
"Dugway Sheep Kill" incident
In March 1968, 6,249 sheep died in Skull ValleySkull Valley
The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is the Goshute Indian reservation located approximately 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. It belongs to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally recognized tribe....
, an area nearly thirty miles from Dugway's testing sites. When examined, the sheep were found to have been poisoned by an organophosphate
Organophosphate
An organophosphate is the general name for esters of phosphoric acid. Phosphates are probably the most pervasive organophosphorus compounds. Many of the most important biochemicals are organophosphates, including DNA and RNA as well as many cofactors that are essential for life...
chemical. The sickening of the sheep, known as the Dugway sheep incident
Dugway sheep incident
The Dugway sheep incident, also known as the Skull Valley sheep kill, was a 1968 sheep kill that has been connected to United States Army chemical and biological warfare programs at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah...
, coincided with several open-air tests of the nerve agent
Nerve agent
Nerve agents are a class of phosphorus-containing organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanism by which nerves transfer messages to organs...
VX
VX (nerve agent)
VX, IUPAC name O-ethyl S-[2-ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, is an extremely toxic substance whose only application is in chemical warfare as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapon, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687...
at Dugway. Local attention focused on the Army, which initially denied that VX had caused the deaths, instead blaming the local use of organophosphate pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s on crops. Necropsies conducted on the dead sheep later definitively identified the presence of VX. The Army never admitted liability, but did pay the ranchers for their losses. On the official record, the claim was for 4,372 "disabled" sheep, of which about 2,150 were either killed outright by the VX exposure or were so critically injured that they needed to be euthanized
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
on-site by veterinarians. Another 1,877 sheep were "temporarily" injured, or showed no signs of injury but were not marketable due to their potential exposure. All of the exposed sheep which survived the initial exposure were eventually euthanized
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
by the ranchers, since even the potential for exposure had rendered the sheep permanently unsalable for either meat or wool.
The incident, coinciding with the birth of the environmental movement
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
and anti-Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
protests, created an uproar in Utah and the international community. The incident also starkly underscored the inherent unpredictability of air-dispersal of chemical warfare agents, as well as the extreme lethality of next-generation persistent nerve agents at even extremely low concentrations.
U.S. General Accounting Office report
The U.S. General Accounting OfficeGovernment Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, DOD
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
and other national security agencies studied "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of weapons tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.
The quote from the study:
More specifically, reports of certain nerve agents such as tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin, also known as "tetrodox" and frequently abbreviated as TTX, sometimes colloquially referred to as "zombie powder" by those who practice Vodou, is a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote. There have been successful tests of a possible antidote in mice, but further tests must be...
, and datura stramonium
Datura stramonium
Datura stramonium, known by the common names Jimson weed, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, thorn apple, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, datura, pricklyburr, devil's cucumber, Hell's Bells, moonflower and, in South Africa, malpitte and mad seeds, is a common weed in the...
, have been tested at this military base. Tetrodotoxin (obtained from the puffer fish), and datura stranonium, when administered to a human, can cause nerve paralysis, slowing their metabolism so much that doctors could easily mistake them for dead. This is where the Haitian myth of the 'zombie' originated. The complete nerve agent was code-named "VX"-- one of a series of "V" nerve agents tested at the base.
Alien speculation and experimental aircraft testing
Following the public attention drawn to Area 51Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
in the early 1990s, UFOlogists and conspiracy theorists have suggested that whatever covert operations, if any, may have been underway at that location were subsequently transferred to DPG.
The Deseret News reported that Dave Rosenfeld, president of Utah UFO Hunters, stated:
See also
- Area 51Area 51Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
- Aberdeen Proving GroundAberdeen Proving GroundAberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army facility located near Aberdeen, Maryland, . Part of the facility is a census-designated place , which had a population of 3,116 at the 2000 census.- History :...
- German Village (Dugway proving ground)German Village (Dugway proving ground)German Village was the nickname for a range of residential houses constructed in 1943 by the U.S. Army in the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, roughly a hundred kilometers southwest of Salt Lake City....
- Granite Peak InstallationGranite Peak InstallationGranite Peak Installation , also known as Granite Peak Range, was a U.S. biological weapons testing facility located on of Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. GPI was a sub-installation of Dugway but had its own facilities, including utilities...
- Human experimentation in the United StatesHuman experimentation in the United StatesThere have been numerous experiments performed on human test subjects in the United States that have been considered unethical, and were often performed illegally, without the knowledge, consent, or informed consent of the test subjects....
- Naval Air Weapons Station China LakeNaval Air Weapons Station China Lake- About : is part of under Commander, Navy Installation Command and is located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California, approximately north of Los Angeles. Occupying three counties – Kern, San Bernardino and Inyo – the installation’s closest neighbors are the cities of Ridgecrest,...
- Tonopah Test RangeTonopah Test RangeTonopah Test Range , also known as Area 52, is a restricted military installation located about southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. It is part of the northern fringe of the Nellis Range, measuring . Tonopah Test Range is located about northwest of Groom Dry Lake, home of the Area 51 facility...
- Tooele Army DepotTooele Army DepotTooele Army Depot is a United States Army post located in Tooele County, Utah. It serves as a storage site for war reserve and training ammunition. The depot stores, issues, receives, renovates, modifies, maintains and demilitarizes conventional munitions...