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All the United States Mississippi Lumberton Salmon/Sterling Nuclear Tests Marker

Salmon/Sterling Nuclear Tests Marker

This largely forgotten piece of Cold War history stands hidden in the woods just north of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Lumberton, Mississippi

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Matt Smith
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A granite monument surrounded by test wells marks the site of the nuclear bomb tests in southern Mississippi, code-named Salmon and Sterling.   Matt Smith (Atlas Obscura User)
A plaque at the test site provides details of the nuclear tests conducted 2,700 feet below.   Matt Smith (Atlas Obscura User)
Scientists conduct compression testing on Tatum core samples.   US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS/UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
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About

A roughly chest-high block of granite marks the site of the only atomic bomb tests on U.S. soil east of the Rocky Mountains. The tests, which were part of Project Dribble and dubbed “Salmon” and “Sterling,” were aimed at finding out whether a country could muffle the shock wave from a nuclear explosion by setting it off in an underground cavern.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission picked Baxterville, fewer than 100 miles northeast of New Orleans because it sits atop the Tatum Salt Dome, a large underground salt dome. The 5.3-kiloton Salmon explosion in October 1964 carved a cavity out of that salt 2,700 feet underground. The bomb was about a third the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The 0.38-kiloton Sterling test in December 1966 was set off inside that cavity to test the theory, which came out of efforts to limit Cold War-era nuclear testing. The results showed the technique couldn’t completely conceal a bomb test from the sensors set up by arms control treaties.

In 2010, the U.S. government transferred the land to the state of Mississippi, which uses it as a state timber preserve. The marker and the plaque are the only standing evidence of the clandestine nuclear operation.

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Monuments Plaques Nuclear Cold War Salt Explosions Military

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The site is about two and a half miles down a dirt road, and access is by appointment only.

Community Contributors

Added By

Matt Smith

Edited By

Kerry Wolfe

  • Kerry Wolfe

Published

August 14, 2018

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Sources
  • https://www.lm.doe.gov/salmon/Documents.aspx
  • http://clui.org/ludb/site/salmon-and-sterling-nuclear-test-sites
Salmon/Sterling Nuclear Tests Marker
Lumberton, Mississippi
United States
31.142222, -89.57
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