By: Barrett Ervin, Khadijah Lacey, Olivia Rogers

The Project Dribble test site in Baxterville focuses on a state effort to return the wasteland into a long leaf timber eco-system.

Forest Management Chief at Mississippi Forestry Commission Richard McInnis said “one of our goals is to be able to try and return this land back into the long leaf eco-system that was once predominately in this area.”

The State Department of Energy assumed control of the 20-acre site in 1964 from the United States Department of Defense.

“It started in the 1960s with the Tatum family owning a piece of land,” McInnis said. “In mid 1960s they released the land when approached by the Department of Energy to use it as a testing site.”

McInnis said five years ago he and his team were approached by the Department of Energy to acquire the land and put it under a timber management plan.

“The agency has the ability to come in and complete a 10-year management plan and we are currently managing it,” McInnis said.

According to McInnis, the plan is for him and his team to take back the land and make sure the eco-system remains in operation, but most importantly to make sure the long leaf timber types stay in that category.

On an annual basis, McInnis and his department inspect the roads to make sure they are in good condition and also complete drives around the property to identify different types of

timber. His team evaluates the timber to figure out which stands are thin and which ones need to be regenerated back into long leaf, he said.

“We want to take the long leaf sites and return them to native or artificial regenerated long leaf sites,” McInnis said.

Although trying to keep the site healthy for the long leaf environment, there have been other instances that have proved to be difficult, with trees having bullet holes from locals hunting on the property. McInnis said the biggest difficulty the office faces is the Half Moon creek. The creek cuts the property in half providing difficulty with access to certain areas. He added that although the state does have a hunting problem, the agency has never been faced with a serious encounter.

McInnis worries mostly about the vandalism and dumpings that can occur because they may ruin the landscape of the site.

“The diversity of the site has a lot of diverse timber types mixed pine hardwood stands and long leaf stands,” McInnis said.

Kathleen Bogle, a resident of Lumberton, Miss. remembered that eerie morning in October 1964 when her classroom at Lumberton High shook when the bomb was detonated.

“I was teaching at Lumberton High and I remember the walls of the building shaking when it happened,” Bogle said.

She said she was very frightened and in a state of shock. Bogle said that residents were aware of the nuclear testing but were not informed when the bomb would be detonated so it all came as a shock to everyone in Lumberton.

“My husband Bill was working for Gaylord Chemical Company, when the bomb went off.  He and his crew were working in the middle Baxterville on a gas pipeline at the time and worried that the pipeline would explode and cause damages,” Bogle said.

On the day of the nuclear explosion in 1964, 400 residents from the small community southwest of Hattiesburg were evacuated. For their troubles, they were given $10 per adult and $5 per child. According to the Bureau of Statistics, today the $10 that was given is equivalent to $250 and the $5 is equivalent to $126. According to Mental Floss website, the families were reimbursed for damages that were caused to their homes and a pipeline was built to ease their fears of the radioactive drinking water near the test site.

Lumberton is only 10 miles from Baxterville and it suffered a lot of damage just as in Baxterville. “I know at my house in Lumberton, there was damage to the plumbing in my bathroom,” Bogle said. She is unsure of the exact cost, but said the government paid a substantial amount for the damages to her house.

Shane Freeman, a resident of Lumberton, grew up hearing about the explosion from his relatives.

“My grandma told me that she was home by herself when the explosion went off, and she described it as horrifying,” Freeman said. “She said one of her glass plates fell from her cabinet and shattered.”

Freeman said that he remembers learning about it in school but said the bombing is rarely discussed and remembered among the residents due to the time period it occurred.

David Burke, historian and author of Atomic Testing in Mississippi, said the salmon detonation was important because it was at the base of a shaft that was packed with materials called tamped shot and that allowed the blast waves to go directly from the device when it detonated into the surrounding soil.

“They had no idea how strong the blast would be,” Burke said.

“ Many anticipated that in Hattiesburg and Baxterville the shock wave from the blast would be no more than if a person jumped off a curb, but the amount of damage was far more significant, primarily due to the amount of water in the soil and these aquifer layers that amplified and made the soil ripple,” Burke said.

Although the nuclear testings were international news in 1964, many people who live in Mississippi today are unaware of them. In 1964, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy knew that the detonation was going to be felt so they encouraged local participation and involvement.

Burke said that people are unaware of the nuclear testings for numerous reasons. The transient aspect to the South of people coming and going, and other front-page news stories that were occurring at the time such as the Vietnam War. After the Sterling test took place in 1966, two gas detonations occurred under a program called Miracle Play, which mimicked the smaller of the two nuclear detonations.

“Since the Department of Energy was no longer detonating nuclear devices underground, they did not feel the need to keep locals in the loop and they were slowly forced out of operational conduct and the site became a closed laboratory,” Burke said.

According to The Center for Land Use Interpretation website, the location of the explosion was in a shaft located 2,700 feet underground which was drilled into a reservoir of ancient salt called the Tatum Salt Dome. The plan was to detonate a single nuclear bomb within the salt dome. When the bomb was detonated it collapsed roofs on houses, cracked ceilings in building, and dried up water wells. It even had an effect on Hattiesburg, 30 miles away, causing buildings to sway.