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Author Topic:   Long-lost Bumper 8 blockhouse unearthed
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 52940
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-09-2023 02:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Cloaked by choking green vegetation, a small exposed patch of concrete caught the eye of college students and volunteers searching off an anthill-dotted dirt lane for signs of the long-lost Bumper 8 blockhouse at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, reports Florida Today.
After chopping away thorny brush and thick roots with hacksaws and shears, the University of Central Florida archaeological team unearthed the 20-by-20-foot foundation of the crudely built structure at historic Launch Complex 3.

This makeshift blockhouse marks where technicians launched Bumper 8 on July 24, 1950 — America's first rocket from the Cape.

"This is just incredible. We've got the Marsten matting located at the rear of this. Right now, that's one of the most exciting parts to me," said Jamie Draper, director of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, standing atop the concrete foundation.

Above: UCF student Ivanna Marrero Diaz cleans off a Marston's mat, buried near the site. A team of UCF students working with archeologists have spent weeks trying to locate the Bumper blockhouse at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The site was the blockhouse for the first launch at the Cape. They have recently found the site, buried in heavy scrub. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today)

mgspacecadet
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Registered: Apr 2012

posted 03-28-2024 04:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mgspacecadet   Click Here to Email mgspacecadet     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Pete Chitko, George Cole and I rediscovered the Bumper 8 blockhouse pad on June 19, 2015, and it is written up in the September 1, 2015 Neat Information Update.

mgspacecadet
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posted 04-21-2024 10:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for mgspacecadet   Click Here to Email mgspacecadet     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Florida Today provides an update on the Bumper 8 blockhouse archaeological dig. The Marston matting find is neat.
"Next year is the 75th anniversary of that first launch. Even these students' parents weren't born when Bumper launched," said Roger McCormick, a Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum docent.

McCormick rattled off a list of artifacts unearthed thus far at the blockhouse study site:

  • Mirror fragments from the periscope rocket viewing system.
  • A Coca-Cola bottle that was distributed from Cocoa.
  • Sections of tarpaper from the roof.
  • Burlap from sandbags piled around the building.
  • Part of a comb.
"I wonder if the people who were working here back in 1950 thought, 'Hey, 75 years from now, they're going to be doing archaeology right where we're standing. We're going to be that important,' " McCormack said.

mgspacecadet
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posted 04-21-2024 01:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mgspacecadet   Click Here to Email mgspacecadet     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
For clarification, the Bumper 8 blockhouse was at ground level in 1950, the same ground level as today. It was not below ground. An earthen berm was built around the blockhouse in 1950, since removed.

mgspacecadet
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Registered: Apr 2012

posted 08-22-2024 10:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for mgspacecadet   Click Here to Email mgspacecadet     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This photo was taken August 15, 2024, at the Bumper 8 blockhouse site. Dig areas have been covered. I think this project is essentially complete. The next Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project is to locate the site of a B-52 crash that occurred in August 1968, in the vicinity of LC44, close to the Trident Turn Basin.

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