why dont you guys go and report back here? I would have if i was anywhere near GA...

I am from Atlanta and moved to Dawsonville in 1999. I was in business with a prominate familys son in Atlanta and he persuaded me to get some "cheap land " in Dawsonville. I did and built. There family is like my on extended family. My old business partners Father had an old jeep and they used to drive down an old shaft/road that went way into the earth. It is true that it has been flooded in some parts. I have been in the area so, so many times. I thought the place was common knowledge. Everyone here knows about it. There are many sites out in the forrest where you can see evidence of it. There are places that you can still get into actually. I have never had problems with DNR or anyone in our adventures out there. You will find many concrete structures, and some underground room that are still pretty easy to gewt in to. RUmor has it that that thing goes miles underground. Its common knowledge that it was some sort of test or skunks works facilty. I deer hunt out there a lot. It is owned by the city of Atlanta now I think. I could be wrong. At least parts of it are , because there were talks of having an over flow airport for hartsfield there or something like that. It was something, not positive, but ut went something like that. I do know it is all wildlife management area and free for hunting and horseback riding. There are local rumors that at night when its foggy you can see a glowish plume arising from the ground. That I do not know, sounds like bolony, maybe not. I do know that it is a somewhat contaminated area and occassionally that topic gets brought up in local government meetings, then quickly gets forgotten. SO yep its all true its all out there. If anyone wants to see it or cares to explore it contact me marktaylorphd@aol.com. I was shocked to see this subject on here. Our friend cant get flamed because he is spot on on this one.

I was in the Dawsonville Forest yesterday. I live 10 miles away. There is no doubt that this was at one time a highly developed,expensive operation. Yesterday was the 4th time being there. Every time I go I find something interesting. I would be willing to show someone around the areas that I know. I will not cross any perimeter fences however, of "force entry" into any location. I work in the Radiation Physics field and can acquire a very sensitve Geiger-Muller for surveying(could be fun). Shoot me an email at jackwburtonATgmaildotcom. Winter is the best time to look around as visiblity is greatly improved. A canoe or two would make the exploration even more interesting. Oh yeah, I am a SCUBA instructor with masses of equipment including drysuits so if we find an appropriate location to dive so be it.

I am going to go take some pictures of the site. Anyone want to join me?

Firestorm, I don't know the reaction from others about this post on an old thread, but I found it interesting. I'm glad you posted, as I might not have found this otherwise.

I once long ago ( Early '60s ) lived a ways south of Robbins AFB. Some 'friends of the family' had relatives that worked at Robbins, and there were always some 'stories' floating around. I was in grade school at the time so I can't give details, as too many years have come and gone. (*Sigh*)

I lived at Abbeville, Ga., which back then was really a clone for Mayberry, RFD. The only two 'industries' in town were the peanut dryer and the cotton gin, so anyone connected to something as exotic as Robbins was a minor celebrity. I do remember that there was a rumor back then that the "government" was going to put in *something* around our town. Nothing came of it, though I think it caused one of those small town 'land booms' that everyone hoped would make them rich. We moved away in a few years and I forgot all about it.

Anyway, from a kids perspective anyway, there was a lot of talk by the grownups about secret projects being done by the 'government' in Georgia at that time. After all these years, it's interesting to find that there was a few things really going on, even if not of an earth shattering level.

Back then the deep south was very rural, so it's not too surprising that some secret projects could have been located there.

What ever became of all the stories and pictures that were to be taken of this 'base' at around Dawson? Did any of these trips pan out? The story has been left hanging.

It seems that maybe %10 of the people here who say they're gonna go to or take pictures of some place will actually do it (better than on most forums, actually). Not such a big loss; from what I've heard there's really not much to see.

Thank you for updating me, Firestorm. I was curious, but not enough to drive halfway across America with these gas prices.

i know this thread died a long time ago
but i was reading up on the d'ville forest, and this stuff is awesome

but the reason im posting is because 3 of my friends got busted by forest rangers trying to climb onto the roof of the lab and sneak in a window, and the park owner called them and said he understands that they were just curious, so he is gonna give them and a few of their friends(me included) a tour of the WHOLE facility, underground base included

ill bring yall some sweet pics of it

ill bring yall some sweet pics of it

WOW! You'd better! LOL

I live in Jackson County Georgia, and, in 2004, I was dating a VERY level headed guy (not some crack-pot) who mentioned some sort of abandoned base up there. I said I wanted to see it, and he drove me to the area, but someone had blocked/destroyed the driveway with HUGE trees that had been cut down and used to block the path. I have some disabilities from a car wreck in 1992, and he did not want me to get hurt, so we ended up having to leave. Now... I wonder if this is the place everyone here is talking about. I'd love to try to find it again. He still lives in the area and could probably help me find it, if the directions I've seen so far are good.

Anyone want to meet up there?

Hello all,

GNAL or Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory was built using Air Force funds by Lockheed. The plan was to build a nuclear powered bomber that could stay in the air indeffinately. This was called the ANP program (Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion). Lockheed was a small part of a multi-billion dollar program, which in the end, did not make much sense. For example, the airplane's reactor would put off so much radiation in flight that it would likely kill the crew over a period of time.

All in all, the idea was ok, but kind of crazy. Can an aircraft be powered by a nuclear reactor. You bet. They successfully tested an engine on Jack Ass flats in Nevada in the 60s.

I first visited GNAL when my mother and father took me there in 1977. I was six at the time. GNAL was closed in 1971 so everything was still open. At that time, the Hot Cell building had not been closed off yet with concrete. You could walk in through the large doors where the trains backed in. Inside there was several sets of rail road tracks. The offices were empty, nothing other than a big concrete building.

Advance to 1986. Several of my friends and I drove around the area. The Hot Cell building is connected to the reactor by a paved road and a trail that used to have rail road tracks. No RR tracks remain (The trail is now named Rail Road Road). Rail Road Road is now a horse trail and terminates at the bridge over the river. The best way to reach the reactor is to take the road. The pavement will end at the reactor. This reactor was a 10MW open air type designed to bombard aircraft parts with radiation. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Being a teenager, we found the tunnel entrance approximately 100 yards from the reactor. The tunnel entrance is ten feet high by ten feet wide. The entrance was sealed with dirt. Someone had dug a hole big enough to climb in, and once again being stupid, we crawled in. You walk roughly 75 yards and hit water.

We decided to take another trip. I went to my high school physics teacher and asked to borrow a Geiger counter. We took a small inflatible raft and two scuba tanks. We made entrance again and blew the raft up with the air in the tanks. Three kids in a little raft, me with a Geiger counter and one with a shotgun. I guess we expected to run into a two headed snake.

The needle on the Geiger counter stayed constantly pegged to the far right. Inside are numerous rooms that look like... well concrete offices. Nothing that was that big a deal. There are several large rooms. There is an elevator shaft and two flights of stairs that go to a second level. Yes there is only two underground levels. How do I know? One friend, who was cave dive certified, scuba dived to the second level. Second, I have the floor plans taken out of Lockheed's Marietta facility. The reactor control room is on the lower level. I have two artifacts from there. A radiation warning sign and a manual on the radiation effects on certian aircraft materials.

Was it a secret facility? Yes and no. Yes, it was classified. It had a perimeter fence that went around the entire facility. It had guard post. It had lethal fences around the reactor and Hot Cell building. Did it have anything to do with aliens? Very doubtful.

Should you go in?

Nope.

My father died of a radical form of renal cell cancer at the age of 55. He never smoked and was in top physical shape.

My mother died of a radical form of breast cancer one year later at age 55. She never smoked and was in top physical shape.

Me. I have a 7 year old daughter that has serious genetic deformities. She cannot walk or talk and has the mind of a six month old.

Did my or my parents trip into the Hot Cell building in '77 or my trips in the late 80s cause these problems? I don't know.

I do know that it's not worth taking the chance. Trust me when I say this. Georgia may check for radiation. But only on the outside of the buildings. The insides are still smoking hot.

I starred the above poster very heavy, at least by my standards. Everyone should read this and then tattoo it on a body part.

We all love a mystery. And at heart we all want to find someplace or something that no one else has seen in a while. But you always take a chance.

Sir, you have my sympathies. Maybe your post will stick in someone else's mind and prove of value.

Indeed. The story mentioned above was quite amazing and certainly clears up any outstanding questions or mysteries surrounding this facility. Has anyone been there recently? Have these tunnels or entrances been permanently blocked to avoid these very possible health risks?

On a seperate note, how possible is it that a cleanup effort could be made to eliminate the radioactive pollution?

granoladude,

To answer your question regarding GNAL. When Lockheed left, they dumped one load of dirt out of a dump truck at each entrance. The Hot Cell building was left open for years, maybe as late as 1980. That is 9 years for people to walk in.

You could drive there right now and with a shovel and pick make entrance into the reactor area in 30 minutes.

If you were really serious and did not want to crawl through a small opening, you could make entrance in 5 minutes with a Bobcat or back hole digger and walk in standing up.

Yes, most people think the place is pretty cool. I don't know why. I am sure hundreds of people have gone inside. The first thing you see when you enter the tunnel is spray painted names and a date of 1973 on the right side wall. I wonder if those people are still around.

In my opinion, when they decommissioned the site, they should have imploded the tunnel and the elevator shaft entrance so no one could get in.

Unfortunately, I know for a fact there is buried nuclear waste at the site. It is approximately 2 miles from the administrative complex. Cross the river, this is where the concrete pump house still stands on the left. The buried waste is on the right hand side back in the woods. It is protected by a small 4' fence that is broken in many places. Look for the 2" metal pipes sticking several inches out of the ground. Place your Geiger counter within a foot of the pipes and watch what it does. This is where I found the radiation warning sign. My friend Clint still has his as well. It sits on the wall in his garage.

Remember, the state of Georgia says you are safe and want you to ride your horses and bring your kids. Heck, pack a picnic.

Anyhow, good luck to you and NGC2736.

Alan

OK conspirators, I've been there and much of the speculation in the posts are relatively accurate. When I say I've been there, I was there when it was being decommissioned. It was an incredible complex completely underground.

They did not pour concrete over it, those are three thick layers of shielded concrete (bomb resistant) that could be removed with a crane to allow them to lower large aircraft parts into and out of the radiation effects lab (there were two). The idea, I am told, was to determine the effects of extreme doses of radiation on aircraft components -- thus the cooling off area and the railroad.

It was well guarded and secure, but far from secret. If you check the stacks of the Gainesville Times, you will find many articles published about the construction. You will also find the information about the reactor (the big one was underground) up, unshielded for maybe two ten hour periods. That, in part, explains that as a child there were no adult trees visible, only dead trunks (maybe circa 1965).

There were times when friends in school who lived near the site were told not to harvest things from their gardens because "the radiation was outside the fence."

A friend crawled into a reactor chamber, is still alive and a successful businessman. Why were we there? Seventeen years old, looking for aluminum and titanium for a well known racing team.

I can go on and on. I have fly-over photos from the time it was finished, photos of the reactor controller (and did know where it is in a local barn), the whole collection of articles.

I helped a student in the late 1980s write a research project on the lab. At the time the stenciled words REACTOR ACCESS were still visible on the underground facility. We did radiation tests on some soil around the hot cell and had inconclusive results. The student got a "B," but the attention we raised by hitting the Times' stacks and used the information to help stop a second Atlanta airport resulted in the Gainesville Times winning a journalism award called "The Nuclear Forest."

The important thing to keep in mind was the hot cell building that is just inside the gate and the concrete slab, which housed a cafeteria is NOT the real nuclear lab. There was a small reactor up there. There was a shuttle that carried researchers down to the pedestrian tunnel (mentioned in earlier posts) and underground to the lab.

Dawson County High School salvaged lab equipment and a model of the reactor (I'd love to know where that went). Local businesses bought many of the metal outbuildings.

The next part is not personal knowledge but came from reputable people that I have known my entire life. Once the nuke-plane didn't fly they had these two reactors and nothing to do with them. Nuclear energy was in its infancy and the promise at the time was that electricity could be generated so inexpensively that it would be "Too cheap to meter."

Well, it was the Cold War and someone wanted to see what radiation could do to a number of materials. Supposedly JFK was given a desk that was 'treated' with radiation to show him the progress of the research.

From a researcher that actually worked there came the weird story, much like the movie, where chimps are trained, then given supra-lethal doses of radiation (drop your bomb and fly back through the mushroom cloud). How far, they wondered, could they get the bomber back across friendly lines before the pilots were unable to fly. It seems that skin would begin to fall off in 12 hours or so and the limit, so I was told, for the mental ability to fly was eight hours or less.

Another close friend was a worker there. His job was to take skeletons, place them into vehicles, expose the vehicles, then test the skeletons -- exposed behind metal doors and through an open window or glass.

As to cancer, I've had doctors, coroners and residents remark that the cancer rate is much higher in that area. As an aside, The Etowah River was used to cool the reactor...

I found it funny for people to actually care about gooberment fences when the gooberment doesnt even care about that. lol and the un-encouraging post are a bit eye-raising.

I would watch out for yer locla hunters maybe DNR will pose as one and shoot you saying it was a cheney acident lol

No five-legged deer, but definitely a good number of "downsized" deer. I have family and friends all around that area, and have heard lots of stories about GNAL.

Simple directions: Take GA400 north to Dawson Forest Rd, which is on the south end of the outlet mall (you shouldn't miss that) and turn left. Proceed thru another stop sign which is at the rear of the mall (also known as Hwy 9E), and then go four miles and cross Hwy 9, then you'll drive right up to the gate. Watch for DNR personnel or hunters.

I've also heard about increased cancer rates in that general area, and can only wonder if indeed it had anything to do with GNAL. I do not think it is, nor will it ever be (in our lifetimes) a safe area whatsoever.

As Amicalola would probably agree, that area was rife with moonshine and white supremacists back in the day, and cops would hardly go into southwestern Dawson county. I'd really appreciate seeing those flyover pictures, as I'm trying to remember where everything was. Today's satellite shots on Google Maps aren't that good.

I'm just glad Atlanta did not build another airport in that area. It would only have ruined what forest has grown there, and would have probably still been a hot spot airport or no. Plus, we'd only be moving pollution right up against the mountains, which would do no good.

[edit on 23-7-2007 by Dale Gribble]