Speak of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the significance is obvious. "Trinity Site?" Most people are still unaware that it was the location of the world's first nuclear explosion and endures as one of the most consequential sites in human history.

Drifting packs of tourists take turns snapping photographs in front of a 3-meter obelisk where a plaque explains that Trinity is where the first nuclear device was ever detonated on July 16, 1945. Most seem indifferent to what many view as the stage for a dry run to the devastating atomic bombings of the two Japanese cities.

The site, part of the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, opened to the public on Oct. 2 for the first time in two years and saw about 2,500 visitors, a modest downtick from previous years, which site officials attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.