White Sands Missile Range Museum

This museum took a little longer to get into since we are not active duty military. We did not know that prior to going. Basically we parked our car outside the gates and had to wait for a background check by the police on guard. It only took about 5 minutes. We could have driven on, but then we would have had to get our car and all the contents checked. No big deal, but since it was full of luggage it would have required more time. The officer was extremely friendly & helpful.
We were happy we waited. A lot of history here.
Besides the large outdoor area with missles and such, there are 2 buildings. One only holds a V2 missle but the other one holds tons of artifacts & pictures from before it even was a missile range to the Trinity site.
JFK actually visited there in 1963. There is space dedicated to him.

This is a very good site to visit. You will have to go through a security check but the Missile park and museum are worth it. There is a limited gift shop but it does have some great books on missile history. The museum has a very definitive history of the development of missile’s with plenty of examples.

Don’t be put off by all the threatening signs on the way to the museum. We almost turned around thinking we were in the wrong place!
Instead of driving right up to the security gate we pulled off to the right where there was a reception center. It was closed so my husband spoke to the the security guard. He was very nice. Told us to park in the little lot right where we were and took our licenses to run a security clearance. It was just around 4pm and the museum was closed for the day but they were happy to let anyone walk around the missiles just outside the museum. Gave us instructions on where to walk and what to/​not to take pictures of and off we went.
Most of the missiles had information boards. They were a great read with some cool history. We were there or about an hour and we partially know this because the reveille is played at 5pm. We didn’t know the protocol till we noticed that cars were stopped right where they were driving & people were out of the cars standing to attention.
So just a hint: if you hear trumpets playing at 5pm, just stop for a minute and take it in.

So I will start this review with a question. Has anybody been asked to submit to a online background check to enter a museum before? We were. As far as I could tell, most, if not all missiles and other weapons displayed have been a part of America’s arsenal for quite a few years. I was stationed out at WSMR over 30 years ago. We just happen to be vacationing in the area. I decided that it might be cool to show the family some of the missiles, that I worked on, during my tour out there. But to subject my wife and kids to a background check just to enter a missile park of antiquited weapons? That’s taking things a bit too far for me. Great Disappointment.

Very interesting tour. So we didn’t fully realize that this is still an active military installation. We had to go through a thorough check point and had to present DL, insurance and registration to enter the base. The tour itself is self guided inside and outside. The museum is way dated but still interesting. The missiles outside are something to be seen. My personal favorites of the tour was the info on the Manhattan Project and learning about the Trinity site.

Very cool collection of missiles, bombs, rockets, etc. It was a little hassle to get paperwork done and checked out to drive the couple hundred feet into the base and to the museum. Once there, the rocket park is pretty amazing, though there were a few rockets that had fallen over and about a quarter of the rockets had no information by them at all. The museum itself was a big small and closed kind of early (4pm).

This is really just an outdoor exhibit, not a museum. But the missiles and aircrafts are pretty cool. Worth 30 – 60 minutes if you’re driving through, but I definitely wouldn’t make a trip just for this.