SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- Daily life for residents of San Antonio was disrupted July 16, 1945 when the sky turned red and a mushroom cloud appeared in the distance to the southeast at 5:29:45 a.m.

Little did they know that history?s first nuclear weapon was being tested on ranchland south of Bingham.

Ground Zero - the Trinity Site - is now in the northern part of White Sands Missile Range and is normally closed to the public.

For several years afterward the site of the blast was closed to the public, but in September 1953 about 650 people attended the first Trinity Site open house.



A few years later a small group from Tularosa visited the site on an anniversary of the explosion to conduct a religious service and prayers for peace. Similar visits were made annually in recent years on the first Saturday in October.

Visits to the site are now made on the first Saturday in April and October because the weather is less cruel on the Jornada del Muerto.

According to White Sands Missile Range attendance last year was 2,886 for the two days combined.

At a November 2005 symposium at Tech, longtime residents of San Antonio spoke about their memories of seeing the massive mushroom cloud from 26 miles away.

Juana Gonzales Odeb said she remembers waking up at 5:30 a.m. July 16, 1945.

?There were no lights, no phone, no nothing,? she said. ?It was already getting to be daylight. You could see it. A big mushroom cloud.?

?I remember thinking we were being bombed by the Japanese,? she said.

Cecelia Padilla Woodward said she was with her sisters when the bomb exploded early that morning.

?I remember we were playing outside,? she said. ?We all looked up. The sky was all lit up.?

She remembers the farm animals being sick afterward.

?There was a kind of mucus coming out of their beaks,? she said. ?Some of the cows lost their hair.?

Ana Lee Padilla Montoya said her husband, Atreraclio Montoya, worked at the Trinity Site on the tower that held the bomb.

?They never told him what it was for,? she said.

What she remembers that morning was seeing the cloud. ?We saw the mushroom cloud and all that red light,? she said.

Lucille Catherine Miera said she thought a light was being shown in her face.

?We had a flashlight, and my grandmother would sometimes wake me up by shining it in my face,? she said. ?That Monday morning I woke up because of a bright light, and I said, ?Turn it off, Grandma,? but she wasn?t there and there was no flashlight. The whole room was lit up. I didn?t know what was happening.?

She said her grandmother came into the room and told her to stay inside. ?But I went outside to see anyway,? she said. ?Everything was real bright, like a halogen lamp. The little trailers and tents were all gone.?

According to documents at White Sands, residents were told at the time that an ammunition dump had blown up at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range.

Ricardo Padilla Reyas said 200 local workmen helped construct the tower, which he said is a fact that hasn?t been made known to the general public.

?But, all you see in the old photographs are military workmen,? he said. ?They kept the locals out of sight when pictures were being taken.?

To get to the historic site from Socorro, visitors can drive through the Stallion Gate Entrance off Highway 380.

The northern gate for WSMR is five miles south. Visitors are allowed to enter and exit unescorted between 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 5.