The Carrizo Impact Area was used by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

as an air-to-ground

bombing range A bombing range usually refers to a remote military aerial bombing and gunnery training range used by combat aircraft to attack ground targets (air-to-ground bombing), or a remote area reserved for researching, developing, testing and evaluatin ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. It is in the Anza-Borrego desert in south central

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and covers about . The majority of the range is in

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, AN-zə bə-RAY-goh'') is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of Southern California, United States. Created in 1932, the park takes its name from 18th ...

and about a third is owned by the

United States Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one-eighth of the ...

, including the Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness. The Navy currently only owns about 2 percent of the land and about 5 percent is privately owned. There are no structures or habitations within a radius of the site. The range is closed to the public due to the hazard of

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

. Bombs ranging from 3 to 1,000 pounds, rockets, 20-millimeter cartridges and 50-caliber bullets were dropped and fired on the range from 1942 until June 1959. After that, the range was only used a few times. The first clearance of material occurred during late 1959 and early 1960 and the second in January 1965. A large amount of unexploded bombs and wreckage were found. An inspection in 1970 found only detonated or non-explosive ordnance, but it took place in only one day. Additional unexploded ordnance has been found on a regular basis since then. Clearing the area of bombs is made difficult by the large number of munitions and the fact that they burrowed up to into the ground after being dropped from aircraft, although some have worked their way up to the surface through natural processes. Despite the area receiving the highest classification of hazard from unexploded ordnance, the area is considered low priority for cleanup because its remote location makes it unlikely that anyone will be hurt by it.

References

San Diego Reader: "Carrizo Impact Area, risky wasteland"
{{authority control Bombing ranges Installations of the United States Navy in California Geography of Imperial County, California Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Bureau of Land Management areas in California Closed installations of the United States Navy