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Allan Anderson
- Allan Anderson was born and raised in southern Utah. Anderson talks about being let out of school one day when the Nevada Test Site was conducting a test. He talks about seeing what looked like soot. Anderson’s mother died of cancer that was most likely related to nuclear fallout. After high school, Anderson joined the Navy, where he became a pilot. His job was related to nuclear weapons, so he learned much more about nuclear weapons and testing.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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2 |
Norman Jeffery Baker
- Norman Jeffrey Baker’s family is from southern Utah and Nevada, near the Nevada Test Site. Baker’s grandparents lived on a ranch in Lund, Nevada, where the witnessed several nuclear tests. For several years, Baker’s grandfather worked as a security guard at the Nevada Test Site. He witnessed several tests there, including one in which an atomic bomb was placed inside a mountain, and one in which a bridge was exploded. Baker’s father remembers representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission frequently visiting Dixie College to collect and replace radiation badges. His mother and his sister both died of cancer, which he believes was caused by exposure to nuclear fallout from the Nevada Test Site.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2016 |
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3 |
Craig Booth
- Craig Booth was born and raised in St. George, Utah. Booth has worked as a physician for over four decades. When he was a boy, he and his father would go watch the flashes and feel the aftershocks of atomic tests at the Nevada Test Site. Booth describes the effects of the testing on people in his family and in his community, particularly the high rates of cancer he has observed in Southern Utah. He also expresses his feelings of disappointment and distrust in the Federal Government because of the nuclear tests and their consequences.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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4 |
Von Del Chamberlin
- Von Del Chamberlain was interested in science, particularly nuclear physics since he was young. Chamberlain remembers hearing over the radio about the first atomic bomb being dropped on Japan. He talks about preparing for nuclear attacks and nuclear fallout. Chamberlain and his friend once played a prank in which they were able to access a radio frequency and announce a fake nuclear attack. He describes his feelings about nuclear weapons and nuclear testing. Eventually, Chamberlain studied astronomy. He became the director of the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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5 |
Orrin Tether Colby Jr.
- Orrin Tether Colby, Jr. was raised in Sanpete County and Sevier County. His parents and grandparents were farmers. Colby’s father was also a lineman for a power company. Colby talks about the effects nuclear weapons testing had on his family and his feelings about the tests and their consequences.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams and Robert Nelson.
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2016 |
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6 |
Anne Collins
- Anne Collins shares some of her thoughts and feelings about nuclear weapons testing. She expresses fear and concern about the effects of testing on people and the environment. Collins works with seniors and describes the effects nuclear weapons testing has had on one of her residents and her resident’s family.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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7 |
Juleen Dalton
- Juleen Dalton’s mother Julia Michaelson Burr was a Downwinder and died from pancreatic cancer. Juleen grew up in Marysvale and Monroe, Utah. Her father David Nelson Burr was a uranium miner in Marysvale and died in mining accident. While living in Monroe, she recalls that her mother and neighbors would watch the clouds come over from the Nevada Test Site. One of their neighbors died of pancreatic cancer as well. Dalton and two of her sisters have thyroid problems that is often attributed atomic testing.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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8 |
Bonnie Deem
- Bonnie Deem was born and raised in Cedar City, Utah. When she was in elementary school, her teacher took her and her fellow students out on the playground to watch one of the nuclear tests. Deem remembers seeing a flash of light and a cloud in the sky. She has had health problems throughout her life, including lymphoma, that she attributes to exposure to radiation. Her family had a farm, and the vegetables and livestock were badly affected by radiation as well. Deem describes health problems and deaths in her family that she also believes were caused by radiation.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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9 |
Mary Dickson
- Mary Dickson is a Downwinder who has worked as an activist on behalf of victims of nuclear fallout. She has written a play about Downwinders and has advocated for Downwinders on Capitol Hill. Dickson has also been on panels and spoken at conferences around the world. She talks about the effects nuclear fallout has had on her health and the health of her family and friends.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams and Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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10 |
Jason Eargle
- Jason Eargle shares a brief thought about nuclear weapons testing and about his grandfather, who died of cancer caused by radiation from the Nevada Test Site. He believes testing should be done underground.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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11 |
Joyce Eargle
- Joyce Eargle was born and raised in Cedar City. Her father died of multiple myeloma, a disease which was caused by radiation fallout from tests at the Nevada Test Site. Eargle talks about other family members and friends who were affected by tests, as well as the affect the tests had on livestock and farming in southern Utah. She does not believe the Government has done enough to make amends for the consequences of the nuclear testing done in the Southwest.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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12 |
Fred Esplin
- Fred Esplin was born and raised in Cedar City, Utah. Esplin’s family was involved in livestock and agriculture. He describes how nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site affected his family, his ranch, and his community. Several members of his family and many of his friends have contracted cancer and died over the years since the testing. Esplin also talks about the culture of the Cold War and how people’s feelings about the Government have changed because of the nuclear testing. Esplin and his family also lived in Pennsylvania at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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13 |
Robert Chris Fee
- Chris Fee tells the story of his wife, Eve Evans, who was a Downwinder. Eve and her parents grew up in Winslow, Arizona. Eve and her mother were eventually diagnosed with breast cancer, and Eve’s father had leukemia. All three have passed away. Fee talks about learning that Downwinders were being compensated and describes the process he and his wife went through to receive compensation for her family’s illnesses.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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14 |
Sherre Finicum-H
- Sherre Finicum-H recounts two stories of seeing a large cloud from a nuclear weapons test. Finicum-H talks about a conversation she had with her father, who tried to explain to her what the clouds were.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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15 |
Russell Fjeldsted
- Fjeldsted was part of the Air Force Strategic Air Command in the 1950s and was required to observe underground atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site. He noticed that clouds from the testing moved toward southern Utah and the surrounding area. Fjeldsted outlines how he was exposed to radiation from working in underground bunkers during tests. He also discusses his training as a pilot during the Cold War regarding the deployment nuclear weapons and conducting flyovers in Russia from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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16 |
Joyce Gardner-Tibbits
- Joyce Gardner-Tibbets grew up in Richfield, Utah. Her family lived and worked on a ranch. Several members of her family and many of her neighbors have been diagnosed with cancer. Joyce’s father died of multiple myeloma. She describes her father’s illness and taking care of him and talks about getting compensation from the Government for his exposure to radiation fallout from nuclear weapons testing.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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17 |
Ilene Hacker
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Ilene Hacker talks about losing her father to cancer that was caused by exposure to nuclear fallout. Her family is from St. George, Utah. Hacker describes her feelings about nuclear testing at the nearby Nevada Test Site. Hacker and her mother applied for reimbursement from the Government for her father’s death. She describes the application process.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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18 |
Donna Hamblin
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Donna Hamblin grew up in Cedar City. Hamblin tells stories that her father and her brother told her about seeing clouds from the nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site. Her father eventually passed away because of multiple myeloma, which was caused by exposure to radiation fallout. Hamblin also talks about her feelings about the nuclear testing and the importance of saving and sharing the stories of Downwinders.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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19 |
Leonard Heaton
- Leonard Heaton recounts waking up early in the morning to watch atomic tests from his bedroom window at Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona, where his father was Acting Custodian. He recalls seeing the flashes and feeling the vibrations from atomic testing. His youngest sister died from breast cancer and his wife from lung cancer, which his family believes is from living downwind from the Nevada Test Site.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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20 |
Kevin Snow Holt
- Kevin Holt was born and raised on a farm in Beryl Junction, Utah. Growing up, Holt worked on the family farm and remembers seeing clouds from the explosions at the Nevada Test Site. Holt also talks about clinics that were set up several times at his high school where his community was examined and questioned. Holt’s mother died of lymphoma and his father died of a rare form of leukemia.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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21 |
Mavourneed Lamb
- Mavourneen Lamb worked for the Aerojet General Corporation at the Nevada Test Site in the 1960s. She worked as a floating secretary. In the 1950s, Lamb’s husband worked at the Nevada Test Site on a cleanup crew. She and her husband applied for reimbursement from the Government because he contracted cancer from his time at the test site.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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22 |
David Lister
- David Lister lived in Cedar City, Utah during atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site. His uncle had a sheep business and many of his sheep died from the fallout. He also recalls waking up early in the morning while he was in grade school to watch the sky light up from the tests.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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23 |
Alva Matheson
- Alva Matheson was born and raised in Cedar City, Utah. He recounts how his neighbors would come his family’s house to sit on haystacks and watch atomic tests from the Nevada Test Site. He recalls how his school teachers handed out iodine tablets that were supposed to limit radiation exposure. Matheson also spent twenty-five years in the United States Air Force and transported nuclear weapons from storage facilities for part of his tenure.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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24 |
Connie Wasden Mayer
- Connie Wasden Mayer talks about her husband, who was exposed to radiation fallout while working as a heavy equipment operator on the Arizona Strip. She also recounts what she heard about the tests being conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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25 |
Claudia Peterson
- Claudia Peterson talks about growing up during the Cold War, fear of the Russians, duck-and-cover drills, and feelings about nuclear war at the time. Peterson also remembers hearing about sheep, which her neighbors herded, being affected by radiation. Several members of Peterson’s family have died of cancer caused by radiation. She talks about her loss and what she has done to help victims of nuclear weapons testing.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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26 |
Chester Reed
- In the early ’50s, Chester Reed’s father was a carpenter at the Nevada Test Site. He built structures that were destroyed by the weapons testing at the site. Reed himself worked at the Nevada Test Site during the underground testing. He worked in radiation control. Reed remembers witnessing a test from the Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas. He also witnessed more tests in the South Pacific when he was in the Navy.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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27 |
Joyce Rhodes
- Four out of seven Joyce Rhodes’ immediate family members have been diagnosed with cancer. Rhodes, her mother, and twin brother were diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and received Downwinders compensation. She recalls the blasts waking her up in the early morning that her uncle Clifford Heaton’s sheep died from radiation exposure.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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28 |
Jamie Stewart
- Jamie Stewart spent all her summers in Meadow, Utah. In 1954, when Stewart was in her mother’s womb, over 80 nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Stewart talks about the health problems she has had to live with since the time she was a young child, which are related to her and her mother’s exposure to radiation. She attended the first annual Radiation Victims Conference in New York City.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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29 |
George Merrill Webb
- George Merrill Webb grew up in St. George, Utah and recalls seeing flashes from the Nevada Test Site while he and his father milked cows on their farm before dawn. He said that clouds and dust would then come over later in the day. His two siblings and several of his nieces and nephews have thyroid problems and Webb has been diagnosed with a tumor in his parathyroid glad. Webb and his family believe that their illnesses are related to atomic testing. He also questions how much their farm crops and dairy cattle were exposed to fallout.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
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30 |
Richard Whitehead
- Richard Whitehead remembers when he was a child and he saw mushroom clouds from nuclear testing being conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Whitehead also talks about drivers being stopped on Highway 91 so that nuclear fallout could be washed from their cars. He talks about how he and his family have been affected by cancer and other illnesses that may be related to exposure to nuclear fallout. Whitehead’s father ran the only dairy in southern Utah that pasteurized milk; so he would often deliver milk to movie sets. Whitehead delivered milk to the set of The Conqueror with John Wayne.
- Interviewed by Justin Sorensen.
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2017 |
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31 |
Yvonne Wilson
- Yvonne Wilson’s mother moved from Hatch, Utah to St. George in 1964 where she lived for the rest of her life. She was diagnosed with hypopharyngeal carcinoma in 1993. She had surgery and radiation that was successful in killing the cancer. She died of heart complications in 2004. While growing up in Hatch, Wilson recounts running outside to see the atomic tests in the distance. Wilson’s husband, Russell M. Wilson was also a Downwinder. When he was a student at Dixie College, one of his teachers took his class onto Utah Hill to watch the tests. Russell was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had part of his thyroid removed in 2008. He died in 2011.
- Interviewed by Anthony Sams.
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2017 |
