Project GNOME

Project GNOME is a New Mexico historical marker in Eddy County.

Eddy County · NM Highway 128 at intersection with Mobley Ranch Road · location approximate

The first nuclear detonation in the Plowshare Program, whose aim was to develop peaceful uses for nuclear explosions, was conducted 4.9 miles south of here on December 10, 1961. The 3.1 Kiloton explosion created a man-made cave 170-ft in diameter almost 1,200-ft below ground. The Plowshare Program was cancelled in 1977, amid negative public perception of peaceful nuclear explosions.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

Project GNOME

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