I was out there not too long ago, with my fiancee. It was quite a sight to see. We found what I believe to be pretty much all of it, except for the railroad bridge. Unfortunately, they covered up the back entrance pretty well, and I was unwilling to risk the chance of getting caught digging it out because DNR was riding around seemingly bored and looking for someone to yell at.

Another guy was there with his son taking pictures (perhaps another ATSer?), kind of hinted that there was more than one way in to the building, but at that point I had kind of worn out my fiancee's patience (lol, she didn't see the thrill in looking at giant hunks of concrete sticking out from the ground), so we left.

I might wanna go back this summer with my new DSLR to take some pics. If anyone has any alternate ways to get in, feel free to U2U me... I'd be quite interested.

Very intersting replies to this topic...I too have been up there for the first time this year. I have a place near Oakridge, Tn. which also was involved with the Atomic bomb. After showing my neighbor a picture of the SDF test tower facility, he told me of Dawson Forrest. It's hard to believe that I have lived in Forsyth County for nearly 20 years and had no idea of what really took place up there. I'm interested in going back up there and exploring, but I have no intention of digging into any tunnels or underground facilities and creating a problem with authorities. I love to take pictures and will be posting some here in the near future.

It has been a while since I visited this thread. I thought I would post a picture I found so everyone could see the old reactor building. The underground control room is to the right of the reactor building. The pedestrian tunnel is off the screen to the right. If I ever find them, I will post the floor plans for the reactor control room, the reactor building, the hot cell building, and the admin building.

I don't really know where to start here. I began investigating "Dawson Forest WMA" aka A.F.P. 67 - in the late 1970's. Most of my entire family was Lockheed employees ( I was born on a SAC base). I moved to Forsyth County in 1984. I have explored virtually every inch of the Dawson Forest W.M.A. ( 4x4, hiking, cycle & canoed every foot of the riviers) At that time I was working with a consulting firm that had done some work on viability & mitigation of the property. I am actually afraid to state too many details of my experiences here. My experiences there have in all actuality ruined my life. IF you understand a bit about aircraft & nuclear power & civil engineering, a LOT of things about 67 just don't jive. BUt as said previosly I am afraid to divuldge much of my information (experientail ). But, that said... 1st) ever seen many (remote)Air Force facilities with NO air access? 2) Deep in the woods you can find large steel track topped concrete circles. I have only ever seen 2 uses for these - radomes (radar) & weapons. WHy radar with no landing strip? 3) Aerial surveylance or the area is often performed by C-130 " SPECTRE" (counter insugency -COIN) gunships based at L/M /Dobbins. These C-130's are equiped with the latest generation infared & thermal sensors. I have had them track me several times while in the P67 area. With a follow up visit from a Blackhawk. Now whether this was intentional surveylance of P67, or simply a "test bed" to fine tune the eqpt. on the SPECTRE is unknown. (I supose it to be "killing two birds....). I just want to warn people of my experiences about the place. IF - you dig too deep, and IF - you talk to the wrong people, your life may just take a severe turn for the worse. This area is a poster child for botched government technology, poor planning and big $$$$ pentagon politics meets state/local government big $$$ graft & good ol boy politics. They say everyone has their price, & DNA rangers & EPA clerks come cheaper than most.

There are alien bases in Mexico. Mark my words.

Speaking of Air Forse bases with no air strips, The Briceville Airforce Radar Station at Windrock had no landing strip for big planes, only small Cesna type planes could land up there on one of the dirt roads. As a matter of fact, they used a bucket type lift system to transport personel from the bottom of the mountain up to the base itself, cause the roads were so rough and time consuming. Today the 72,000 acres of old mining territory is used for atv recreation. We really love playing with our off road toyz up there!

By the way, thanx for posting the pics...this really gives us a good idea of how things looked & operated back then. Looking forward to seeing more pics and illustrations!

[edit on 11-5-2009 by mm30004]

anyone going out there this weekend?

if so i live nearby i am going to be out there around ten tomorrow(5/23) at the hot cell area if anyone wants to go exploring meet me out there. i will be the one without a horse trailer(there are usually 5 to ten trailers) parked out there and me in my little toyota.

[edit on 22-5-2009 by jga1975]

Howdy! According to their rules & regulations, Dawson Forrest is closed each year from May 15th. to June 1st. I've aquired a geiger counter and I plan to go back up this week and look around some more.

I went up yesterday with my geiger counter...I could not find any traces of radiation anywhere...even directly on top of the reactor pool. I wish I could have gotten closer to the hot cell building, but I wasn't chancing getting caught inside the fence...they've even put up NEW "KEEP OUT" signs since I was up there a few weeks ago. I did notice that at the reactor site that fresh rock and dirt had been place over the pedestrian tunnel entrance and the main bunker entrance at the end of the asphault road.

My next exploration will be at the SDF test area on the north end. Does anybody know exactly where the operations took place on the north end. I know that where the asphault stops and a dirt road splits off to the left is probably the correct area, but exactly where were the test towers? I think they may be to the left of the paved road...can anyone confirm this?

Some Google Earth/Map coords would be nice, for those of you who have been...

Originally posted by James Random
Some Google Earth/Map coords would be nice, for those of you who have been...

Radiation Effects Lab
34*21'04.03"N 84*08'38.75"W

FYI for anyone interested the history of the site is covered in the book Atomic Awakening by James Mahaffey. It also covers a lot of the other interesting and/or bizarre experiments from the "Nuclear Everything!" period in the 50s-60s. IMO a must read for anyone interested in nuclear physics.

This is very interesting stuff, I've long suspected a base near my area thanks to multiple tr-3b sightings and strange balls of light that fade in/out like a miner light. the most commonly seen one is orange, I've also seen blue ones.

too bad there arent any secret bases in NY.....or are there?

Originally posted by strike6
It has been a while since I visited this thread. I thought I would post a picture I found so everyone could see the old reactor building. The underground control room is to the right of the reactor building. The pedestrian tunnel is off the screen to the right. If I ever find them, I will post the floor plans for the reactor control room, the reactor building, the hot cell building, and the admin building.

Did you ever find any more illustrations, floorplans, or pics of the GNAL test facility. I did buy James Mahaffey's book, "Atomic Awakening"...it did answered alot of my questions, but there's alot more that I'd like to figure out!

[edit on 24-7-2009 by mm30004]