Hiking Into the Kill Zone: A Guide to Dawson Forest

Somewhere in the hardwoods of Dawson Forest sit the leftovers of one of the Cold War's stranger ideas: a bomber powered by a nuclear reactor. The aircraft never flew, but the Air Force and Lockheed did real radiation research on a patch of north Georgia, and the concrete is still out there.

The atomic-airplane idea

The federal Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program, which Wikipedia dates to Project NEPA in 1946 and a joint Atomic Energy Commission and Air Force effort from 1951, aimed at a bomber that could stay aloft far longer than any fuel tank allowed. General Electric and Pratt & Whitney worked on competing engine designs, and Convair on the airframe. Intercontinental ballistic missiles made the idea look less urgent, and on March 26, 1961 President Kennedy ended the program after roughly 15 years and about $1 billion.

Georgia's piece of the story is the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory, run by Lockheed for the Air Force on land that became Dawson Forest. The site was Air Force Plant 67, and it studied how radiation affects materials, equipment and the surrounding woods. It wasn't a place that built an airplane engine. The lab outlived the national program and closed in 1971. The City of Atlanta paid Lockheed $5.1 million for the site and took ownership on June 23, 1972, partly with the idea of a second airport. The terrain turned out to be wrong for one. Records of what went on at the lab remain largely classified, which is part of why the stories about it grow in the retelling. For the long version, with the reactor, the picnic tables and the pageant queen, read the monster in the Dawson County woods.

What's left

Visitors describe massive concrete foundations, the thick-walled shell of a hot-cell building for handling radioactive material, and an underground structure that has flooded. Accounts of the lab also mention a reactor that was lowered into a deep water-filled shaft between tests and a fenced exclusion zone around it. The details vary from source to source, so treat the specifics as reported rather than settled.

Is it safe?

Short answer: we won't call it safe, but the numbers we could find are low outside the fences. A 1976 state survey found five contaminated areas, and in 1977 fences went up around the two worst spots. The newest state report we could find, covering 2000 to 2002, put man-made radiation from the soil by the reactor site under 10 millirems a year, and it drew no conclusions about levels inside the fences. Plain physical hazards are the more practical worry: crumbling concrete, drop-offs and flooded openings. Stay out of and off the structures, and respect any signs or fences.

Planning the trip from Helen

Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area is managed by Georgia DNR and is about 65 to 70 minutes from downtown Helen by road. Because the ruins are on the City of Atlanta tract and access rules change, call the DNR Region 2 office at 770-535-5700 before you go and ask which areas and trails are open to the public.

Fall and winter are the easiest seasons to see the ruins, when the leaves are down. Check the hunting calendar before choosing a date, because fall weekends can close the trails to everyone but hunters. Bring water, wear orange if you're out in hunting season, and plan the day as a drive rather than a quick stop.

Pair it with a North Georgia day

Dawsonville is also the heart of the moonshine-and-racing story told in How North Georgia Created NASCAR, and the bootlegger's wreck near Amicalola is another piece of abandoned history in the same part of the mountains. Our day trips guide has more ideas, and Helen's own transformation story is a reminder of how much of this region sits under a new coat of paint.