[1] Ranchers protested the loss of their grazing land, which they claimed would wipe them out and cost the state of Utah $1.5 million annually.

They took their complaints to Governor Henry Hooper Blood, but the War Department pressed on with the development of the bombing range.

In April 1942, the Wendover Sub-Depot was activated and assumed technical and administrative control of the field, under the Ogden Air Depot.

By May 1945 the base consisted of 668 buildings, including a 300-bed hospital, gymnasium, swimming pool, library, chapel, cafeteria, bowling alley, two movie theatres, and 361 housing units for married officers and civilians.

[25] Although not as suitable for the atomic mission as the British Avro Lancaster with its cavernous 33-foot (10 m) bomb bay, Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., the director of the Manhattan Project, and General Henry H. Arnold, the Chief of United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), wanted to use an American plane, if this was at all possible, so the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was chosen, even though it required substantial modification.

[27] Arnold selected Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets, an officer with a distinguished combat record in Europe and North Africa, who had expert knowledge of the B-29 as one of its test pilots, to form and train a group to deliver atomic bombs.

[28] Tibbets chose the Wendover over Great Bend, Kansas, and Mountain Home, Idaho, as the location for his training program.

[35] The 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Special) constructed prototype atomic weapons (without nuclear material) and drop tested them.

Each bombardier completed at least 50 practice drops of inert pumpkin bombs before Tibbets declared his group combat-ready.

[38] The ground support echelon of the 509th Composite Group received movement orders and moved by rail on 26 April 1945 to its port of embarkation at Seattle, Washington.

[44] In early September 1944, a detachment of the Special Weapons Branch, Wright Field, Ohio, arrived at Wendover with thirteen Republic-Ford JB-2 flying bombs.

The JB-2 was a United States copy of the Nazi V-1 flying bomb, which was reverse-engineered from malfunctioning wrecks of V-1s recovered in England.

The fortunes of war in Europe in the spring of 1945 led to the decision to use the JB-2 in the Pacific Theater, to be used as part of Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan.

[45] The training of B-29 aircrews and the testing of prototype atom bombs was the last major contribution of Wendover Field during World War II.

[3] A fast-moving fire on the night of 6 July 1946 destroyed a hangar and seven buildings, described as "mobile-type, wooden structures", as well as six training planes, before it was brought under control.

[47] In March 1947, the Air Proving Ground Command research programs were moved to Alamogordo Army Airfield, New Mexico.

As a result, 1,200 personnel from Wendover Field were moved to New Mexico from Utah and were relocated to Alamogordo to conduct guided missile research projects.

Three ongoing projects were transferred: Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft (GAPA), JB-2 Loon flight testing, and ASM-A-1 Tarzon gliding bomb.

The General Services Administration (GSA) wanted to sell the base to the town of Wendover, leaving only the bombing ranges and radar site with the Air Force.

[49] The base continued to be used occasionally for training by Air National Guard units, and the firefighting detachment remained until 1977.

[50] The entire facility was declared surplus in 1976,[3] and on 9 July 1976, the water system and its annexes were transferred to the city of Wendover, Utah.

The GSA deeded most of the base, including runways, taxiways, hangars, hospital complex, and several warehouses to Wendover for a civil airport on 15 August 1977.

[48] Beginning in 1980 the 4440th Tactical Fighter Training Group began holding regular exercises known as Red Flag from Nellis AFB, Nevada.

[51] The airfield is very isolated in northwest Utah, sitting in the middle of a vast wasteland miles away from any major population center.

Most of the hospital complex and many barracks remain, as does a chow hall, chapel, swimming pool and many other World War II-era buildings.