A view of Occoquan Bay on the Potomac River. This was taken from Deephole Point in the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Deephole Point is on Deephole Point Road Trail. This trail is accessed from Easy Road Trail or Fox Road Trail. The trails are crushed gravel roads for bikes and pedestrians only. These are short flat trails. #OccoquanBay #sunstars #OccoquanBayNationalWildlifeRefuge #PotomacRiver #river #bay #water #Wasser #川　#rivière #baie #Bucht #DeepholePoint

The land between Occoquan Creek & Marumsco Creek is now referred to as Deep Hole Point and Deep Hole Farm. Before it became the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge, Virginia on Dawson Beach Road, it was a tobacco plantation purchased in 1690 by Martin Scarlet, Stafford County representative in the Virginia House of Burgesses between 1680 until his death in 1695. He was a close friend and political associate of George Mason, John Washington, and William Fitzhugh. In 1909, Deep Hole Farm was conveyed to John Lindsey Dawson of Fairfax County. He raised cattle (Angus) and wheat on Deep Hole Farm. The Potomac River Beach on Deep Hole Point became known as Dawson Beach. It was a popular local attraction until the Dawson family sold the farm in 1949. This area later became known as Dawson Beach Road.

This property is now the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It is located in Woodbridge on the Potomac River. This was the site for U.S. Army Harry Diamond Laboratories (HDL) research facilities until 1994. Important development work on electromagnetic research was conducted here contributing to the development and practical application of electromagnetic pulse by the War Department

In 1940, the National Defense Research Committee organized the Ordinance Development Division of the National Bureau of Standards to develop advanced ordinance. The initial mission was the development of advanced fuses for bombs, mortar rounds, and rockets. The Woodbridge laboratory was one of seven research facilities working on this project. Harry Diamond was a pioneer in the field of radio signals and engineering who became the technical director of this program.

In 1950, the Department of the Army purchased 649 acres of Deep Hole Farm for a transmitting station. In 1952, the site was designated as the Department of the Army Transmitting Station under the U. S. Army Command and Administrative Communications Agency, Chief Signal Officer. The station became one of the largest communications facilities in the world.

On May 19, 1952 a transmitter station began operation here replacing an earlier transmitter site at Battery Cove, Virginia on the George Washington Parkway near Alexandria. In 1962, the Woodbridge station officially became the U. S. Army CONUS Regional Communications Command, East Coast Radio Transmitting Station, Woodbridge, Virginia. In 1962, military scientific research became a corporate laboratory assigned to the Army Materiel Command. This produced the name change to Harry Diamond Laboratories. On February 18, 1969 the Secretary of Defense consolidated all high frequency (HF) radio facilities in the Washington Metropolitan Area to Naval and Air Force installations. In 1965, Woodbridge station was placed under the United States Army Strategic Communications Command. The existing communications equipment was removed after this change. On July 1, 1970, the Woodbridge Transmitting Station became a electromagnetic pulse development and test site. It was designated USAMC Woodbridge Research Facility.

In July 1971, Harry Diamond Laboratories (HDL) acquired the Woodbridge transmission station from the U. S. Army Mobility Equipment Research & Development Command (MERDC) as part of nuclear weapons effects research. The primary mission of the Woodbridge Research Facility was to conduct experiments into the simulated effects of EMP normally generated by a nuclear detonation, on strategic and tactical electrical and electronic systems. HDL also developed and operated simulators providing the EMP environment for testing permanent and mobile military systems. The primary purpose of this satellite scientific testing site was to support the military systems survivability studies conducted by scientists at the U. S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphia, Maryland.

In 1972, the mission of Harry Diamond Laboratories became finding scientific alternatives for crowd control. During 1992, the United States Army consolidated its seven existing laboratories into the Army Research Laboratory. In 1989 the electromagnetic pulse testing stopped at the HDL Woodbridge Research Facility. On July 1, 1991 the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) was endorsed by President George H. W. Bush and the Woodbridge Research Facility was slated for closure. In 1994 all research at the Woodbridge laboratory on the Potomac River had stopped, and the facility was no longer under intense security. The United States Army needed to conduct more powerful testing, and the Woodbridge area was too dangerous for modern electromagnetic pulse testing as the surrounding area became heavily populated.

After it was closed, the buildings of Harry Diamond Laboratories were dismantled. In 1997, the 580 acres of the Woodbridge Harry Diamond Laboratories site became the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge of the Department of the Interior United States Fish & Wildlife Service. It is frequently visited by birdwatchers as predatory birds of the region are frequently observed here hunting the Potomac River. There are more than 200 identified species of wildlife now reside among the concrete foundations of the former military communications transmission station.

Related link:

www.fws.gov/occoquanbay

Courtesy of Dwayne & Maryanne Moyers, Realtors in Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Stafford County. Visit us at www.TheMoyersTeam.com