THE ROAD TO SKULL VALLEY

The road to Skull Valley leads to the Tekoi Test Range, a rocket test facility built by Hercules Inc. in 1976, on the Gosuite Indian Reservation, in remote Skull Valley in northern Utah. Later operated by Alliant Tech Systems (ATK), which bought Hercules, along with its primary rocket facility near Magna, Utah, in the early 1990's. Activity at Tekoi has decreased since the 1980's, with some of the testing moved to the Thiokol plant near Promontory. However, Chief Leon Bear is now actively attempting to establish the Gosuite Res. as a repository for high-level nuclear waste, in a controversial move to revitalize his community. As he sees it, he is surrounded on all sides by high-level toxicity, and though they didn't ask for it, this is now what his people are living with.

Russian signage on the perimeter of the Tekoi Range (and at the U.T.T.R.) is due to the fact that this site was designated as "inspectable" for Russian inspectors as part of the START Treaty (as were other sites in Utah that were used for the development and storage of submarine launched ballistic missiles, at Oasis, Hill AFB, and ATK at Magna). This Russian prefab was one of the units shipped from Russia for the inspectors. All units were imported complete with Russian furnishings, kitchenware, literature, and even electricity scrubbers, reflecting the political climate of mistrust during the cold war. The units now reside in Wendover, Utah.