1955 Map of White Sands NE

About this map

The Tularosa Valley landscape of the mid-1950s is defined by vast government installations, with the northern portion of the map dominated by the White Sands Proving Ground and the southern half occupied by the Fort Bliss Military Reservation. This survey, based on 1954 aerial photography, documents the infrastructure of the Cold War era, including a series of towers and an Air Weather Station clustered near the Military Reservation Boundary. While the land is largely dedicated to military use, the presence of Hackberry Well indicates the surviving remnants of earlier ranching or surveying water points that predated the expansion of these sprawling desert test ranges. The map provides a precise layout of the roads and fences used to manage this restricted terrain during a pivotal period of aerospace and ballistic development.