posted 04-09-2023 02:17 PM               

After chopping away thorny brush and thick roots with hacksaws and shears, the University of Central Florida archaeological team unearthed the 20-by-20-foot foundation of the crudely built structure at historic Launch Complex 3.

This makeshift blockhouse marks where technicians launched Bumper 8 on July 24, 1950 — America's first rocket from the Cape.

"This is just incredible. We've got the Marsten matting located at the rear of this. Right now, that's one of the most exciting parts to me," said Jamie Draper, director of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum, standing atop the concrete foundation.

Above: UCF student Ivanna Marrero Diaz cleans off a Marston's mat, buried near the site. A team of UCF students working with archeologists have spent weeks trying to locate the Bumper blockhouse at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The site was the blockhouse for the first launch at the Cape. They have recently found the site, buried in heavy scrub. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today)

posted 04-21-2024 10:06 AM               

"Next year is the 75th anniversary of that first launch. Even these students' parents weren't born when Bumper launched," said Roger McCormick, a Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum docent.

McCormick rattled off a list of artifacts unearthed thus far at the blockhouse study site:

• Mirror fragments from the periscope rocket viewing system.
  
• A Coca-Cola bottle that was distributed from Cocoa.
  
• Sections of tarpaper from the roof.
  
• Burlap from sandbags piled around the building.
  
• Part of a comb.

"I wonder if the people who were working here back in 1950 thought, 'Hey, 75 years from now, they're going to be doing archaeology right where we're standing. We're going to be that important,' " McCormack said.