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After 80 years of struggle for acknowledgment, the State of New Mexico Department of Transportation is setting up a sign at the Stallion Gate entrance to the Trinity Site that recognizes the sacrifice and suffering of the Downwinders of New Mexico.
At 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, the U.S. government detonated the first atomic bomb at the White Sands Missile Range in Socorro County, New Mexico. At homes and farms as close as 12 miles away, many people were still asleep. Others had started on morning chores. After the blast, radioactive ash fell from the sky for five days — onto water sources, kitchen countertops, clothes hung up to dry, grass grazed by cattle and vegetables still in the ground. Children played in flakes that they thought were from a miraculous summertime snowfall.
The sign dedication will take place at 11:00 a.m. at the Stallion Gate entrance off Highway 380 east of San Antonio, NM. Melissa Parke, the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2017) will be in attendance along with other dignitaries. The sign was made possible via State House Memorial 50passed in 2025 Legislative Session and sponsored by Representatives Ferrary, Lujan, Silva and Block.
Later in the day there will be a mass at the St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa, NM at 6:00 p.m. with Archbishop Wester, Bishop Baldacchino and Bishop James S. Walls presiding. All denominations are invited. Dinner reception to follow the mass at the Parish Hall.
After the reception, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will be hosting their 16th annual Candlelight Vigil at 8:30 p.m. at the Tularosa Veterans Park, 901Bookout Rd. Bring your own chairs.
Please contact Tina Cordova for any questions or more information at
505-897-6787 or at tcordova@queston.net. You can also visit the Downwinders website for updates:
This is in followup to recent action in congress that the people of New Mexico have now been added to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. While this is great news, please note that the Department of Justice is not ready to process claims yet. There are many companies and attorneys from across the country that will be glad to help individuals with a claim, but you will be required by them to pay a fee and give up part of your claim. There is no need to do that.
The Downwinders Consortium will soon have people in place to help file claims.
They are advising claimants to please be patient until the time all of the details are sorted out and you can be assisted by a local organization/person that will not require claimants to pay a fee.
The application process can be easy for some and more difficult for others, but be assured the consortium will do all they can to assist.
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