The Kea Milling Plant in Murrieta, By Kenneth Lafler

The Seventh most haunted site

in the 

United States

From America's Haunted Destinations

Rarely seen shots of the interior

of the 

Kea Milling Plant

The Kea Milling Plant is located in the town of Murrieta. The mill is a large concrete structure that is about 100 feet high. Built in the 1920's  the mill was in operation until about the late 1980's.

The mill was rated the seventh most haunted site in America. The stories center around a girl wearing a blue dress who may be seen at night in the second window in the middle of the structure. 

The building  had wooden stairs at one time leading to the floors above. But due to a fire set in the 1990's the upper levels are completely inaccessible. One may view the upper area's by the stair well  but  climbing this should not be attempted. The Charred remains of the stairs may still be viewed  though.

     The following shots of the interior are rarely seen, due to the fact that the building is usually sealed shut. But on this occasion  I was able to film though an opening in the wooden door bolted to the frame.

The Graffiti , although not recommended still gives the building an interesting look. Some of it is actually quite good, and like they say today's Graffiti are tomorrow's petrogylph's

March Air Force Base. Air Craft Museum - Riverside County.

Article and 

Photography

By

Kenneth Lafler

    Located in Riverside County, March Air Force Base has one of the best Air Museum's in the area. Featuring Vintage Planes and also more modern aircraft, the museum is an interesting site to view these types of aircraft in an excellent state of preservation. All the planes have been extremely well taken care of.








    The exhibit even has an S. R. 71 on display in the main hanger  that is in perfect condition. The S. R. 71 is considered the fastest plane ever manufactured. It is also the two seat training plane so it is one of the most rare S. R.s in existence.





    The plane in the next shot is a B-52 Bomber.This plane has been in service  for almost 70 years starting with the Korean War and was even used in Desert Storm. Most aviation experts feel that the B-52 will have been in service  almost 100 years

  

     The above plane is a model of the Lockheed P-38 Lightening . The P-38  came on the scene in the later part of World War II, and was considered one of the fast propeller driven aircraft of the War . Only the jet propelled German ME-262 could out perform it .

                      By
                            Kenneth Lafler

The Thermonuclear tests and clean up at Enewetak Atoll

  By 
Kenneth Lafler

        


   The Enewetak  Atoll is a coral atoll consisting of about 40 islands in the Marshall island group.  It is located southwest of Hawaii and is near the equator. The islands were the site of violent allied amphibious assaults  in 1944 and also the site of atomic and hydrogen bomb tests between 1947 and 1952 while under United States trusteeship.

 




 The weapons tests were part of the nuclear arms testing done by the United States after world war II ,  Altogether 43 test were  conducted, many leaving huge craters 40 deep  and 150 yards wide.




  

      Before the restoration program, World War II wreckage remained on all the islands. in the lagoons all that was left of the platforms for the nuclear testing were iron and concrete posts used to support the weapons.



  

       Also old military vehicles used to determine the effectiveness of the blasts were scattered and left twisted and rusting, along with other military transportation vehicles destroyed in the blasts
.

     After core samples were taken, it was determined that the radioactivity of the substrate had decreased enough for human habitation. Dosimeter readings (used to detect radiation exposure) also showed little evidence of radiation. But the pieces of metal blasted in to the island during the tests were still contaminated with Plutonium.






  The half life of some radioactive isotopes can be several thousands of years. Any scattered  material could be potentially dangerous . In 1976 the United States   government set aside 20 million dollars for the project. The first phase was begun in 1977 by a joint task force. For over two years scientists and ordinance experts landed on the atoll at 6.00 in the morning every day .









     Protective clothing and dosimeter badges were used . The main problems involved in this project were identifying,  recovering and removing, dangerous contaminated material well as the non-contaminated  debris and unexploded World War II   ordinance.

     The final cost of the operation was 100,000.000  dollars. Locating the debris proved to be extremely difficult  because the material was scattered with a tremendous amount of force by the blasts.










  The instrument used to locate the fragments was called a Total Field Proton Magnetometer.  It works by measuring variances in the earth's magnetic force field. This involves the alignment of magnetic lines of force emanating from the earths poles.  It is a passive instrument able to read the distortion in the earth's lines of force created by an iron object without itself sending out a signal. 





  Once the material was located it was moved to a small uninhabited island called Runit Island. 

  After the project was completed the island was declared off limits. The radioactive material was dumped into a huge bomb crater on the island, which had been widened
by mining some of the dead coral which was killed by the original nuclear blasts. The mined coral was mixed with cement and used to pave over the site to create a permanent seal.







   Another part of the project was the replanting of 80,000 coconut trees. All the original trees were killed by the nuclear tests. The natives had used  the dried coconuts to make oil, which was part of the economic system of the atoll.

    The atoll ecosystem seems to have recovered with marine life in all but the immediate blast area's.





     The cement alone cost 6,000,000 dollars. About 4.000 workers were involved in the projects and approximately 110,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil  and 5,000 cubic yards of contaminated debris were removed and permanently sealed. 


    By

             Kenneth Lafler


  Bibliography 

  The Internet

  The History Channel

   The Discovery Channel

   Declassified Department of Defense video - America's Atomic Bomb Tests - DOD              Files.

    Documents- Declassified

    Sea Frontiers - May , June  by John C. Fine 

   Video - Trinity and Beyond - Declassified

   The effects of atomic and thermonuclear detonations - Glasstone

  



  

    

    

            

      


      

  

   To be continued