Dawn of the atomic age..

[Owd Wullie]

Boker USA stockman. Different than any I've ever seen. The shield is a bear to photograph.. Has the AEC trade mark and ALAMOGORDO under it.
Not sure if the number on the blade is a date of significance or just a number. I do know they had been popping nukes out a Mercury, Nevada a long time before '63.

[smiling-knife]

Hi. I believe that is one of the Great Amercian Story Knives. There were 24 themed knives made over a few years to commemorate the bicentennial in 1976. Alamogordo is a town in New Mexico and was near the site of the first atomic bomb detination in July 1945 on what is now White Sands missle range. s-k

[Owd Wullie]

Thanks S-K!

You drilled it on the nose.

RELEASED Mid April 1976, KNIFE MODEL/THEME 1780 – Dawn of the Atomic Age; EMBLEM & LEGEND Atom “16 July, 1945 – Alamagordo”; pattern- Large stock knife

I forgot about the great American Story series. I've seen several of them on ebay but never one with grey scales.

You are absolutely correct about the lovely little backwater New Mexico town of Alamogordo and the White Sands Missile range. I can remember the road through there being closed on more than one occasion due to the fact that a missile test was in progress. As that place is on both sides of the highway, they just block the road.

Frenchman's Flat out in Nevada is a really strange place. I used to haul 50K lbs of plaster of paris out there a few times a year. They used it to plug the bore hole for the bombs they were setting off under ground until they banned all the Nuke testing. The place is a museum now. Back when I was going there in teh mid-80's, it had "USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED" signs everywhere.

[philco]

Wullie,

Cool knife with a bit of history attached.

That would be a good one for MB's Shields thread too.