Next to one of the signs for the “Virginia War Museum” is one of the “T1 240mm Guns” that the U.S. Army began developing towards the end of World War II. In 1953, this massive artillery piece was utilized to test fire nuclear artillery rounds in the Nevada Desert, two years before the construction of a top secret installation, commonly known as Area 51.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Army transferred ownership of this “to scale prototype” of a nuclear weapon, that President Eisenhower considered deploying against Chinese and North Korean forces during the Korean War, to the Virginia War Musuem, an institution that will be celebrating it’s 100 year anniversary in 2023.
Hamilton Historical Records 