It encompasses 801,505 acres (1,252.352 sq mi; 3,243.58 km2) of the Great Salt Lake Desert, an area the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges.

It had a resident population of 795 as of the 2010 United States Census,[1] all of whom lived in the community of Dugway, Utah, at its extreme eastern end.

[4] Dugway's mission is to test United States and Allied biological and chemical weapon defense systems in a secure and isolated environment.

The CWS surveyed the Western U.S. for a new location to conduct its tests, and in early 1942, construction of Dugway Proving Ground began, including the establishment of Michael Army Airfield.

[7] The base was reactivated during the Korean War, under Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Speers Ponder,[8] and in 1954 was confirmed as a permanent Department of the Army installation.

On the official record, the claim was for 4,372 "disabled" sheep, of which about 2,150 were either killed outright by the VX exposure or were so critically injured that they needed to be euthanized on-site by veterinarians.

The incident, coinciding with the birth of the environmental movement and anti-Vietnam War protests, created an uproar in Utah and the international community.

[18] The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, DOD and other national security agencies performed "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of weapons tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.

The quote from the study: ... Dugway Proving Ground is a military testing facility located approximately 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

From 1951 through 1969, hundreds, perhaps thousands of open-air tests using bacteria and viruses that cause disease in human, animals, and plants were conducted at Dugway ...

[citation needed] In May 2015 it was revealed that Dugway lab had inadvertently shipped live anthrax bacillus to locations around the country.

Labs receiving the live samples were in Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia, the Associated Press reported.

[21] In September 2018, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released findings of an investigation into the anthrax shipping lapses made at Dugway.

"[22] Following the public attention drawn to Area 51 in the early 1990s, UFOlogists and concerned citizens have suggested that whatever covert operations may have been underway at that location, if any, were subsequently transferred to DPG.

"[23] Dugway Proving Ground has often made light of the rumors, satirizing the conspiracy on their official social media posts.