Wild Life at Seneca Army Depot
Map
Map
Story & Experience
Three of us—Erika Dagress, Tom Schloegel, and I, Trebbe Johnson—chose for this 16thannual Global Earth Exchange the Seneca Army Depot, a 10,5878-acre site that, during the Cold War, housed the largest store of Army nuclear weapons in the entire U.S. Beginning in 1941, in collaboration with the Manhattan Project, whose scientists built the first nuclear bombs. The Army stored radioactive materials there in garage-sized concrete bunkers called “igloos”. After the base closed in 1995, areas of it have been used as an autocross racetrack, a maximum-security prison, and a storage yard for railroad cars. A few businesses, such as an iron works and a dairy processing facility, now operate in other sections.
Seneca Army Depot is also known because it is the home of a herd of rare white deer. Probably we were not the first observers to joke that they may have developed this trait because of a genetic mutation caused by radioactivity.
Unlike most Global Earth Exchanges, we did not stop at one spot and stick to exploring it. We drove slowly along the spalling concrete roadways that were too wide to be sidewalks and too narrow to be actual roads, and that had foliage encroaching in every direction. Erika said the whole place reminded her of the History channel show, Life After Humans, that speculated what Earth would be like if all the people were gone. Wildflowers grew abundantly. Erika, a plant lover, was delighted.
We passed many of the “igloos,” which were shrouded in plantlife, but we did not find the ones that stored radioactive materials; perhaps they may have been down a road that was off limits. In one of the igloos, we were startled to see three cows. We also saw two horses, two white deer, and one brown deer with her fawn.
We spent the most of our time at a strange little pond dug into shards of beige and white shale and bordered on one side by wildflowers. We discovered thick masses of black tadpoles, looking at first like the contents of overturned jars of caviar. As we approached, the tadpoles scurried away.
It was at the pond that we constructed our RadJoy Bird.
During our entire pilgrimage we commented often on the beauty and diversity of the wildflowers, the density of the vegetation, and the pulsing vitality of the tadpoles. It is this indomitability of life that is so often appears as a surprise and a gift during a Global Earth Exchange.
Three of us—Erika Dagress, Tom Schloegel, and I, Trebbe Johnson—chose for this 16thannual Global Earth Exchange the Seneca Army Depot, a 10,5878-acre site that, during the Cold War, housed the largest store of Army nuclear weapons in the entire U.S. Beginning in 1941, in collaboration with the Manhattan Project, whose scientists built the first nuclear bombs. The Army stored radioactive materials there in garage-sized concrete bunkers called “igloos”. After the base closed in 1995, areas of it have been used as an autocross racetrack, a maximum-security prison, and a storage yard for railroad cars. A few businesses, such as an iron works and a dairy processing facility, now operate in other sections.
Seneca Army Depot is also known because it is the home of a herd of rare white deer. Probably we were not the first observers to joke that they may have developed this trait because of a genetic mutation caused by radioactivity.
Unlike most Global Earth Exchanges, we did not stop at one spot and stick to exploring it. We drove slowly along the spalling concrete roadways that were too wide to be sidewalks and too narrow to be actual roads, and that had foliage encroaching in every direction. Erika said the whole place reminded her of the History channel show, Life After Humans, that speculated what Earth would be like if all the people were gone. Wildflowers grew abundantly. Erika, a plant lover, was delighted.
We passed many of the “igloos,” which were shrouded in plantlife, but we did not find the ones that stored radioactive materials; perhaps they may have been down a road that was off limits. In one of the igloos, we were startled to see three cows. We also saw two horses, two white deer, and one brown deer with her fawn.
We spent the most of our time at a strange little pond dug into shards of beige and white shale and bordered on one side by wildflowers. We discovered thick masses of black tadpoles, looking at first like the contents of overturned jars of caviar. As we approached, the tadpoles scurried away.
It was at the pond that we constructed our RadJoy Bird.
During our entire pilgrimage we commented often on the beauty and diversity of the wildflowers, the density of the vegetation, and the pulsing vitality of the tadpoles. It is this indomitability of life that is so often appears as a surprise and a gift during a Global Earth Exchange.
Additional Photos
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