About 80 people Saturday took part in the first public tour of the former Seneca Army Depot’s Q-Area. The area at the north end of the former depot is where nuclear weapons were stored and worked on.
Seneca Army Depot was a 10,587-acre former military facility located in Seneca County in Romulus and Varick. It is located between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in Seneca County and is bordered by New York State Highway 96 to the east and New York State Highway 96A to the west.
The depot opened in 1941 and closed in 1995. Starting in the 1940s, the Army stored radioactive materials in connection with the Manhattan Project in igloos E0801 through E0811, on the north end of the Depot. Despite no formal confirmation from the Department of Defense, it is known that during the cold war the depot held the largest stockpile of Army nuclear weapons in the country.
The depot is home to the world’s largest herd of white deer. The deer began appearing after the fence was erected in 1941. A handful of white-tailed deer that carried a recessive gene for all-white coats were isolated within the depot. The white deer are naturally occurring, not albinos, and have not pink, but brown eyes.
All Photos by Greg Cotterill, Finger Lakes Daily News.
Dee Calvasina was a tour guide during the depot tour. Calvasina is the author of “Beyond the Fence. The amazing World of Deer Haven Park” She is a freelance writer and monthly columnist for the Finger Lakes Times.
