Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern, Randsburg Wash Facility Target Test Towers, Tower Road, China Lake, Kern County, CA

Significance: The Randsburg Wash Target Test Towers (Buildings 70021 and 70022) are significant for their role in the naval testing of proximity or variable time (VT) fuzes, a vital element of the Navy's weapons program. The towers played a key role in the Cold War proximity fuze test program at the Randsburg Wash facility, a program that eventually led to the Navy adapting the use of these fuzes to guided missiles. The towers are important on a national level during the period of significance between 1952 and 1960; the years in which the most important achievements in the Navy's developments of the properties and attributes of proximity fuzes. The towers are also significant for their unique engineering achievement, as 360 foot-tall, pyramidal wood towers.
Survey number: HAER CA-353
Building/structure dates: 1951 Initial Construction