Category Archives: Cold War

Download March 2025 Atomic Tourism Calendar

Featuring the M65 Atomic Cannon (“Atomic Annie”) across from Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas.

March’s calendar features the M65 Atomic Cannon (“Atomic Annie”) which is right off I-70 outside Junction City, Kansas. This view shows Fort Riley in the distance. The calendar also features some interesting March Atomic Events as well as a complete listing of all atomic shots during March from 1955 through 1984.

This Atomic Annie is located in Freedom Park near Junction City, Kansas, at exit 301 on I-70. The trail to the top of the hill with the cannon has recently been improved and was reopened for visitors.

Atomic Annie Kansas — M65 Atomic Cannon (“Atomic Annie”) atop a hill in Freedom Park, Junction City, Kansas

The M65 Atomic Cannon was built by the United States and capable of firing a nuclear device. It was developed in the 1950s during the Cold War and fielded between April 1955 to December 1962 in West Germany, South Korea, and on Okinawa.

On May 25, 1953, the Atomic Annie was tested at the Nevada Test Site as part of the Upshot-Knothole series of nuclear tests. Codenamed “Grable,” it resulted in the detonation of a 15kt shell at a range of 7 miles. This was the first and only nuclear shell to be fired from the cannon.

Of the 20 M65s produced, seven are on display. Only two have their original prime movers:

United States Army Field Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This is the original cannon fired with the live nuclear shot. Restored in 2010, original prime movers were restored and added.
The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in their Heritage Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico
United States Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center, Petersburg, Virginia

Atomic Annie in Albuquerque — Atomic Annie at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, NM

You can visit any of these Atomic Annie cannons. However, if you’d like to visit the one featured, and you’re traveling through Kansas, be sure to stop and take the hike to the top of the hill.

Download your calendar for March:

AtomicTourism March 2025 Download

The Apocalypse Factory

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Steve Olson at the Graham Pierce County Library

Steve Olson presented a talk and question & answer session about his newest book, The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age, at the Graham Pierce County Library on Saturday, February 11, 2023.

The Apocalypse Factory tells the story of plutonium from it’s discovery by Glenn Seaborg at the birth of nuclear fission, the technology of using and testing plutonium as a weapon, the development of Hanford and the reactor complexes, and the Cold War aftermath and reliance on the manufacturing of plutonium.

Much has been written about uranium, the Manhattan Project, and the development of the first atomic bomb used on the citizens of Hiroshima. Mr. Olson’s book looks at the second atomic bomb, using implosion and plutonium, which was used on the citizens of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. More importantly, plutonium pits became the standard for the U.S. stockpile of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, creating the Cold War and the arms race.

As Glenn Seaborg noted on his discovery of plutonium:

I was a 28-year old kid and didn’t stop to ruminate about it… I didn’t think, “My God, we’ve changed the history of the world.”
(as cited in Olson, 2020, The Apocalypse Factory, p. 31)

Steve Olson is the author of Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens (winner of a Washington State Book Award), Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes (a finalist for the National Book Award), and other books. He has written for the Atlantic, Science, Smithsonian, and more. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Model 2302 Super Sniffer

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On the corner of Ruby Hill Avenue and Monroe Street is the Eureka Sentinel Museum, housed in the old Eureka Sentinel newspaper building in Nevada.

Nuclear-Chicago’s Model 2302 Super Sniffer

An unassuming display case of artifacts from the Sentinel offices contains the 1954 Nuclear-Chicago Model 2302 Super Sniffer.

To capitalize on the uranium fever spreading across the West, Nuclear-Chicago created this low cost, general purpose instrument for the detection of x-rays, gammas, and high energy betas, specifically designed for uranium prospecting. Using standard flashlight batteries, it could be used continuously for up to 2 hours. The unit came with earphones, batteries, radioactive check source, a U.S. government prospecting book and instructions — all for $49.50.

Nuclear-Chicago was founded by Jim Schoke, and later joined by John Kuranz and Thomas Mitchell, in 1946. All three were members of the Army’s Special Engineer Detachment of the Corps of Engineers and worked on the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory (MetLab) at the University of Chicago working for the instrument group.

Enjoy the 1955 Warner Bros. short film, “Uranium Fever.”