Wood Island – The Military Testing Site I Found on Google Earth
Google Earth and Wikipedia are my absolute favorite digital spaces. It has to do with how they act as platforms for crowd sourced projects, how personal they feel when you’re using them, and how their only mission is providing information to the public. There’s something impersonal about being one of the million people reading an article because it’s in the top news stories of some digital magazine. And it’s stressful to have to filter through the bullshit when listening to or reading a story from a for-profit news source. Especially today, when the news and social media algorithms have an incentive to weave together information into stories which incite negative emotions and bolster specific political ideologies. When I feel like I’m trapped in a tornado of lies, misdirection, and misinformation, I find it grounding to dive into a wholesome Wikipedia rabbit hole or exploring some distant land through the eyes of Google Earth. It’s inevitable, whenever I do this, that I will find some interesting gem of a fact that brings me some personal awe and satisfaction.
So, as I mentioned in a previous post, the family went down to Emerald Isle for a week back in July. Shortly afterward we came back, I checked out the area using Google Earth and found one of these hidden gemlike factoids.
Emerald Isle is the town located on the Bogue Banks Island. Bogue Banks is a barrier island that is about three to four blocks wide and runs parallel to the coast of NC. Our house was on the South facing, ocean / beach front side of the island. Google Earth revealed that the North side of the island faced into the Bogue Sound and was lined with private boat docks. The Bogue Sound had quite a few small islands scattered within it. I noticed that the closest of the Bogue Sound islands, Wood Island, is only about 400 yards for our former location. Little islands have always been an interest of mine so I zoomed in. (I took a screenshot of Wood Island and have it pictured above) Getting a closer look revealed a curiosity.
It doesn’t take a trained eye to notice that Wood Island is covered with some strange circular marks. At first, I wondered if these were sinkholes and caves formed by limestone erosion, but I decided to google search it to make sure and I found that those marks have an even cooler explanation that odd erosion. Multiple articles popped up stating that Wood Island (and in fact most of Emerald Isle) was a bomb target practicing spot from 1943 to 1955. Apparently, the island is off limits due to there still being the very real presence of live munitions scattered across it!
Here’s some clips I copied from an article I’ll link below:
According to a report provided to the town, in spring 2009 the military prepared a digital geophysical map, using a commercial helicopter flying over the part of Bogue Sound that surrounds the island.
“The purpose was to detect and accurately map metallic items (referred to as magnetic anomalies). In addition, samples of soil, surface water, and sediment were collected and analyzed for munitions-related chemicals, such as metals and explosives residues,” the report states.
The Navy and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point conducted the potential impact study of the past training operations as part of a nationwide evaluation of historic military training sites. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command led the investigation, in partnership with MCAS Cherry Point and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies provided technical support. According to the report, a site inspection of Wood Island found remnants of old munitions and fragments on the surface, along the shoreline and partly buried on the island.
In the aerial DGM survey of Bogue Sound, magnetometers were mounted on booms attached to the helicopter. Magnetometers measure the strength or direction of the earth’s magnetic field. A mass of metal creates a detectable disturbance in the magnetic field. The helicopter flew back-and-forth passes at four to five feet above the water to locate and create the digital map of magnetic anomalies, essentially metallic objects. These anomalies could be munitions submerged under water or buried under the surface of the ground, or they could be unrelated metallic objects related to recreational or commercial use of Bogue Sound, such as crab pots or anchors or tools.
According to the report, the survey identified approximately 10,400 magnetic anomalies.
“There are several clusters of concentrated anomalies near Wood Island,” the report states. “The rest are irregularly distributed throughout the 10-square-mile investigation area. The highest concentration of metallic objects is clustered within approximately 650 feet of Wood Island. Three much smaller clusters of metallic objects were found in the investigation area, further away from Wood Island in Bogue Sound.
“One cluster is located approximately 2,500 feet southwest of Wood Island. The second cluster is located about 2.5 miles east (of the range), directly off the northern shoreline between 1st and 2nd streets in Emerald Isle, near some docks and piers that extend into Bogue Sound. The third cluster is located near Dog Island, about 3,000 feet north of the shoreline near the Emerald Isle/ Indian Beach town boundary.
“Except for these small clusters, the density of metallic objects decreases as you move from Wood Island toward Emerald Isle,” the report continues. “Many munitions remnants and fragments were observed on the surface of the island during site visits.”
The report says that the site inspection also considered potential environmental risks, but “little or no risk was identified. For a health risk to occur, people or wildlife have to be exposed to chemicals. This is called a complete exposure pathway. A human health risk screening, considering the sampling data and potential exposure pathways, did not identify unacceptable short-term or long-term human health risks from exposure to surface soil, sediment, or surface water …
“Similarly,” the report continues, “an ecological risk screening found that no significant risks are expected for wildlife … exposed to surface soil, sediment, or surface water… Based on the results of the preliminary human health and ecological risk screening, no further evaluation of chemicals in the surface soil, surface water, and sediment is recommended …
“Unexploded ordnance, however, is a potential risk to human safety. The old munitions visible on the surface of Wood Island and the high concentration of magnetic anomalies in the waters around the island show that further munitions investigation is needed.
“After a site inspection, the next phase in a munitions investigation is to determine the nature (types and physical condition) and extent (affected areas, including depths) of the magnetic anomalies that are likely to be munitions and explosives of concern.
“The Navy will evaluate alternative methods that would allow such an investigation to be safely carried out. The suspected munitions are mainly underwater or underground and are expected to be in poor condition, weathered or corroded, like the munitions observed on the surface. Those factors make this identification process complicated, as well as potentially dangerous for the investigation team. Because of this, considerable time will be required to plan and carry out the investigation.
“Meanwhile, MCAS Cherry Point and the Navy are considering how best to protect the public. Protective measures could include removing potentially hazardous munitions and fragments from the surface of Wood Island … installing additional warning signs or restricting bottom-disturbing activities in the waters adjacent to the island…
SO FREAKING COOL! Now I have a burning desire to explore the island, or at the very least use it as a setting for a horror story.
https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/tideland_news/news/article_f6ed079f-4713-5956-b831-862308e820e4.html
