John Menick

It took me a while to notice, but this winter the indefatigable CLUI added an entry to their site on the sale of the natural and manmade Johnston Atoll. (Also note their entry on the Dixie Mall.) Discovered in the early 19th century and converted to a nuclear test site in the ’50s and ’60s, it seems that the military has gotten all of the their mileage out of the concrete slabs and are putting up for sale. The islands are unbelievable in a JG Ballard sort of way, sporting a ruined golf course, airstrips and acres of radioactive concrete. How could anyone turn down the offer? Some choice quotes and photos from CLUI:

In 1962, Johnston was used for a series of nuclear tests as part of Operation Dominic, which included the only U.S. test of an operational ballistic missile with a live warhead. For this test a Polaris missile was launched from a submarine, and traveled 1200 miles through space and the atmosphere, until detonating 11,000 feet above the ocean near Johnston…

…Also that year, the newly constructed rocket launch pad at Johnston was used for a number of extremely high altitude nuclear tests. On June 20, during “Starfish,” the Thor rocket engine cut out a minute after launch, and the missile was intentionally destroyed, at 30,000 feet. Large pieces of the rocket, including some plutonium–contaminated wreckage, rained down on the atoll….

… The test was repeated in July, and the rocket successfully flew to the highest elevation ever for a nuclear detonation (248 miles above the earth). Impressive light displays of the “artificial aurora borealis” lasted for several minutes, and were visible from the military outpost at Kwajalein Atoll, 1,600 miles away. The electromagnetic pulse from the blast knocked out street lighting in Oahu.

Other projects have taken place on the island in the last 50 years, the details of which are only partially known to us. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Johnston was the site for the government’s first operational anti-satellite program, which involved nuclear rockets ready to launch from Johnston to knock out enemy satellites. Also, beginning in 1964, a series of open-air biological weapon tests was conducted at Johnston Atoll. The American strategic bio-weapon program tests involved a number of ships positioned around the island, upwind from barges loaded with rhesus monkey test subjects that were exposed to agents dispensed from aircraft.

(Via BLDGBLOG.)