by Jaromy Jessop

CORRESPONDENT

Having lived and worked for a while in Wendover, I thought I knew quite a bit about the place. But on a recent trip out there I realized that there are many stories and tidbits of historical information that I was not aware of. When you start looking into these stories, they are fascinating. One case in particular is that of the gunnery ranges at Wendover Field.

First of all, Wendover Army Airfield was established in the early 1940s. In fact, land acquisition and preliminary construction began in November 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and many others realized that as Germany and Japan were working towards expanding the reaches of their empires, the United States needed to start preparing for a conflict. To do this, more ranges, training facilities and bases had to be built.

Before this push, the town of Wendover was a sleepy little place on the rail line which crossed the Salt Flats. This changed overnight, however, when the Army Air Corps came to town. By 1943 there were over 2,000 civilians and 17,500 military personnel stationed at and working in Wendover. In order to more fully appreciate those statistics, consider that the current population of both Wendover, Utah, and Wendover, Nev., combined is about 7,000. There were nearly three times that many people working and living in Wendover back in the 1940s.

By 1945 the base consisted of 668 buildings including a large hospital, a gymnasium, swimming pool, library, two theaters, bowling alley, chapel, two fire stations, dining facilities, maintenance shops and warehouses, and 361 housing units for married officers and civilians.

When I worked in Wendover, I used to hear the airfield manager at that time, Jim Petersen, talk about the “Tokyo Trolley” and the old gunnery range. I became very interested because this gunnery range was not part of Wendover Airfield proper, but was located around the mountain which contains Danger Cave, and up into a little box valley. One day in 2004, I decided to go and check it out, and to my surprise I found some very interesting remains of the camp.

There were several concrete foundations, and after some searching through the sagebrush, I came upon some pristine concrete fighting positions which were about 10 feet by 10 feet with concrete steps descending down into them. What was amazing is the fact that the concrete, even though it was over 60 years old, looked like it was poured yesterday. There were about 10 of these fighting positions in a north-tosouth orientation facing west up the box valley.

‘Tokyo Trolley’ technology

Standing at this firing line looking west, you can see a large berm about 1,000 yards away. I had heard stories of the “Tokyo Trolley” and I wondered if there was anything left of it, so I began walking towards the far off berm. The “Tokyo Trolley” in its day was cutting-edge technology for training aircraft machine gunners. It consisted of a train car or a jeep that was positioned on a circular concrete track — say a quarter mile long total — and the jeep or rail car was attached to a wooden rail in the middle of the concrete track.

All of this machinery was hidden behind the berm so the gunners in their fighting positions along the firing line couldn’t see it. What they did see was the silhouette of a German or Japanese fighter plane that was attached via raised poles to the jeep or rail car behind the berm. This would replicate an aircraft cruising along and the machine gunners would start blasting. As I walked through the ruins of the range, I considered the other great lengths our grand parents went to in order to provide realistic training for these pilots. Mock cities of Salt were built and used as targets for B-17s, B-24s, and other aircraft. Full-size fake battleships were erected on the salt desert, and many of these targets were illuminated by electric lights so they could be used at night. All in all, 21 bomb groups and over 1,000 air crews were trained at Wendover during the war.

Knowing where to go

As I thought back to my first visit to the old gunnery range, I decided to make another one to see what else there might be out there in the sage brush. If you don’t know exactly where to look, you will not find this place, as most of the remains are at ground level in the sage and salt brush. If you take Exit 4 off of I-80 and park in the Metro Truck Stop west lot, you can look to the west and against the mountains and you will see a very large excavation that looks like an old gravel pit. This is where all of the fill material for the I-80 causeways across the salt flats was obtained back in the 1960s and ’70s.

When the Department of Transportation excavated this material, they destroyed half of the old gunnery range — then located on top of where the pit is today. The west footprint of the range remains intact, however, and is well worth a visit. If you climb one of the surrounding knolls and look down on this canyon, you can see all of the old fighting positions, the “Tokyo Trolley” track and several other ruins I cannot identify.

In addition to the fighting positions, there is a row of old machine gun mounts in block concrete, and they look like you could still take a .50 Cal weapon and mount it on top of them and go to work on downrange targets. Up on the hill is what looks to be a cave. If you follow the obvious road up to that point to the northwest, you will have a fine view of the entire area. Each time I visit this old range I am always crunched for time and in a hurry. I am certain that if you took a few hours, you could turn up many more ruins and evidences of the past activity in this area. I looked at a satellite image of the area on Google Earth when I got home, and I was surprised to see clearly all of the ruins mentioned and what appeared to be the layout of a sizable garrison right at the range.

I counted the footprints of at least eight barracks buildings, other foundations, and parade grounds arranged in a sort of oval configuration. The main firing points and the trolley were located about 200 yards off to the southwest of this footprint, which is totally invisible from ground level.

More adventures

If you plan on making a visit to this historic place, first stop in at the Wendover Airfield and look around the museum so you can get a better understanding of what was going on out there. Please be respectful of the historic structures and remains, as they are a link to the past and the sacrifice of the greatest generation. When you are at the old range in the box valley, notice the watermark of ancient Lake Bonneville about 800 feet up on the surrounding sun-blasted mountains, and realize that the place you are standing was submerged to that depth many thousands of years ago.

A good side adventure is a short hike up to the ancient water line — an interesting place in itself. The ancient sands of the beaches of the lake have been turned into a sort of natural concrete, which in many areas makes the waterline much more visible. Just be careful to wear good boots and probably gloves, as the rocks are very sharp, abrasive, and unforgiving if you happen to stumble on them.

This old range and box valley is an intriguing place. It is a place that should probably be protected as a nationally significant historic site. This is the real history of our country, the kind you seldom find in books. Take the time go out and visit and then share the story so that we can make sure that the memory of the sacrifice made by the greatest generation will not be forgotten.

For a detailed account of Wendover Airfield’s history, you can go to the Web site www.wendoverairbase.com. There you will find all kinds of interesting information on the base. Another great resource is found in the Historic American Building Survey, which is part of the Library of Congress’ American Memory holdings. If you query the name (HABS) and enter Wendover in the search box, you will find hundreds of pictures of the old structures and buildings at Wendover Airfield.