In May, 2019, I became interested in the Manhattan Project. I had purchased a Manhattan Project silver workers pin at a gem show in Asheville, NC and a dealer showed me a faceted stone made from the leaded glass that was used during the development of the first atomic bomb. I began researching the project and the bomb. That was when I discovered the trinitite.

I actually had a nice specimen of trinitite that I acquired from the Ken Kyte collection in 2000. I had not seen it in years and it took me a few days to locate the piece. I finally found it and spent a day or so studying it.

I bought the book, Trinitite, the Atomic Age Mineral by W.M. Kolb, and learned that there are a few collections that have been well documented.

I began hunting for sources to locate pieces from these collections. I was finally able to make contact with a woman in New Mexico who had inherited the Wallace T. Smith collection. Over the next few months, I made several purchases from her through the mail. In August, 2019, she suggested I come to New Mexico and obtain a quantity of the trinitite. It would be easier for me to go there and hand select the pieces I wanted and it would keep her from having to separate and wrap the specimens to ship.

At the end of August, I left North Carolina and headed west to New Mexico.