Before the war the range was mostly public and private grazing land
that had always been sparsely populated. During the war it was even
more lonely and deserted because the ranchers had agreed to vacate
their homes in January 1942. They left because the War Department
wanted the land to use as an artillery and bombing practice area. In
September 1944, a remote 18 by 24 square mile portion of the north-
east corner of the Bombing Range was set aside for the Manhattan
Project and the Trinity test by the military.

The selection of this remote location in the Jornada del Muerto Valley
for the Trinity test was from an initial list of eight possible test
sites. Besides the Jornada, three of the other seven sites were also
located in New Mexico: the Tularosa Basin near Alamogordo, the lava
beds (now the El Malpais National Monument) south of Grants, and an
area southwest of Cuba and north of Thoreau. Other possible sites not
located in New Mexico were: an Army training area north of Blythe,
California, in the Mojave Desert; San Nicolas Island (one of the
Channel Islands) off the coast of Southern California; and on Padre
Island south of Corpus Christi, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. The
last choice for the test was in the beautiful San Luis Valley of south-
central Colorado, near today's Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

Based on a number of criteria that included availability, distance
from Los Alamos, good weather, few or no settlements, and that no
Indian land would be used, the choices for the test site were narrowed
down to two in the summer of 1944. First choice was the military
training area in southern California. The second choice, was the
Jornada del Muerto Valley in New Mexico. The final site selection was
made in late August 1944 by Major General Leslie R. Groves, the