Cedar Pipeline Ranch bomb burial site

I noticed an area that was graded near the Cedar Pipeline Ranch. The grading seemed kind of useless. Digging through some old documents, I believe the area was a bombing range and the graded area contains debris from the bombs. These were only practice bombs, though getting hit with a bomb full of 200lbs of sand could ruin your day.

This is probably only of interest to those that visit the Nellis ranges, just to save those looking for secret bases some reading. The ranch is a well known spot along the road that leads to the Cedar Gate of the Tonopah Test Range.

The new information is at the bottom of the page:
Cedar Pipeline Ranch

reply to post by gariac


S&F Nice post. Thanks for posting this info and saving everyone a little research time. There are so many interesting little areas in this region, that are linked to the U.S. military.

What is interesting in that document is probably the most overlooked part: the military gave up land. They just handed it back to the BLM saying we don't need it. Now on some time table, the DoD has to renew land reservations. They come up with some real zingers for why they need the dirt. Basecamp for instance is required for recreation.

Recreation my arse!

There is part of the Nellis range that hasn't seen military use in easily a decade.
N37 43 11.3 W115 53 59.8
On the map, it is a corner of the range that nearly reaches the ET Highway. It is fenced off. The best any of the locals can recall is a Patriot Missile battery was put here in the 90's during a Red Flag. However that missions has been moved to Delamar. The DoD didn't take land in Delamar, but got permission to use it once every few years.

You can still find 50 caliber shells out near Queen City Summit. One of the ranch hands showed me what looked like a bomb, but matched the "flash" bomb shown in the report.

I didn't bother to save the map from the report, but it shows where there are spent Nike rocket bodies east of the TTR that the range never found.

reply to post by gariac


In the pic provided it did not say anything about Base Camp being for recreation. It said that there was a building for recreatin on Base Camp along with a maintenance building, and a shop. It however say that Base Camp is used for collecting data for Air Force testing programs being conducted in the area. I do find it interesting how the government keeps snatching up land in the surrounding area, for whatever reson, whether it is the BLM or the Air Force.

If you reread the document again, it says:

Base Camp is used as a staging and support area for field personnel and as a recreation area for military and contractor personnel.

reply to post by gariac


Oh haha it does. Thats my bad. What kind of "recreation" is going on? Are they playing volleyball or what?

It is pretty obvious that the "recreation" aspect is a cover-up. Now I suppose if you get your jollies from hunting big horn sheep, then Base Camp is your kind of place.

Let's put it this way. There are jobs where the interview starts out "how often do you..." oh never mind. Basically they want to determine if you can be based in remote locations for extended periods of time without going wacky. Base Camp is such a place.

Now if you look at Base Camp, you can see there is a "tot lot" of sorts. Clearly no kids are living there. There is a theory that someone working at Groom with a family might meet them at Base Camp. Yeah Vegas is closer, but the town is full of distractions, and some parents wouldn't want that atmosphere for their kids. So you meet at Base Camp and I guess just hang out.

There is also an astronomy hut on the base. As far as anyone can tell, it serves no military use, so it is probably part of the "entertainment."

Well I see it is 1 degree F today in Tonopah, which should be similar to the weather at Base Camp. Ah, what "recreation." ;-)