Boating with Sunset Delight: 2025 May: Big Bang event in Holmdel NJ

16 May 2025

One of the reasons Clark was anxious to get home was to attend a special event at the "Robert Wilson Park" in Holmdel, New Jersey at Crawford Hill where Arno Penzias and Robert (Bob) Wilson discovered evidence of the Big Bang Theory. Details of their discovery are included in a newspaper report regarding the dedication of the park in April of last year.

Clark worked for both Arno and Bob during his time at Bell Laboratories. Arno has passed away, but Bob is still going strong. He was in attendance for today's event at the "Robert Wilson Park" on Holmdel Road in Holmdel, New Jersey.

I needed the car to do grocery shopping today, so I dropped him off at the park. While there, I wandered around and took some pictures including the horn that was used when the Big Bang Theory was corroborated when Penzias and Wilson discovered cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for their discovery.

The park is located on property that was a part of the Crawford Hill Research facility belonging to Bell Laboratories. Clark worked in research at Bell Laboratories at the beginning of his telecommunications career and spent some portion of that time working at the Crawford Hill facility with fellow engineers.

Crawford Hill Facility in Holmdel, NJ

I have been in and around this property myself a few times - attended holiday events, went with Clark to picnics on the hill, etc. I never attended one, but I understand from Clark that when this facility was in "full swing", the employees would warm themselves with alcohol and then go play volleyball on the hill around the Christmas season. Bell Labs would have "early closing" for the holiday and the boys would go play.

We did not go in the office building today but continued up the winding road to the picnic site. Clark volunteered to arrive at 10:00 for the 11:00 event to help set up. We arrived before anyone else, and I took a picture of Clark wearing his "Big Bang" t-shirt standing next to the famous horn. The shirt was a gift from long ago when he was still employed in Bell Labs Research. He only wears it when he meets with his cronies from Bell Labs like today!

Clark at Crawford Hill

Horn Antenna
National Historic Landmark

The Horn Antenna used when
the Big Bang Theory was corroborated.

Big Bang Discovery - 1964

I remember walking around up here when the buildings were still in use. It was sad to see the buildings showing their age and neglect over the years.

"BLDG Q"
Was this an outhouse in days of yore?

Besides "the horn antenna", other structures remain on the 35-acre property. Clark told me there was another 7 meter offset cassegrain antenna up the road a bit hidden in the trees, so I strolled over to take a look. This antenna was used for radio astronomy, and Clark remembers a talk at Monmouth University by Bob Wilson discussing the construction of this antenna.

Is that an antenna I see up ahead?

The road was blocked off to cars. I saw no "No Trespassing" signs so I continued in for a closer look.

7 Meter Antenna

As I stepped up to take a closer look of this antenna, I startled two animals - a deer ran one way while a beautiful, large red fox ran another. I have never seen a fox so large, but there was no mistaking the animal and that red coloring! No picture! They were both gone in a flash.

I found the signage on the buildings to be interesting like the one below with two signs.

"Dangerous"
"Caution Hazardous Chemicals -
Authorized Personnel Only"

The tall pipe out front of this building is a shower to be used if someone is exposed to the chemicals in the building.

Shower for Chemical Exposure / Burn Victim

The tower shown below was used in the past for communications experiments with a sister facility located in Murry Hill, New Jersey - another Bell Labs research facility located about 40 miles north of this Holmdel facility. It is quite overgrown now, but Clark said there used to be a clearing in the trees when it was in use. Clearly, none of these structures have been used in quite some time.

Pointed towards the Murray Hill facility
in northern NJ

Overgrown ladder up the tower

Other buildings on the property, like the one shown below, sat unlabeled and a mystery to me concerning their purpose once upon a time.

The weather for today's event was uncertain, and in fact it did rain during part of the day. A tent was constructed for the picnic attendees. A presentation was to be held on site but was moved to the Bell Works building a short distance away and also in Holmdel. The Bell Works building used to be an AT&T Bell Labs research and development facility when Clark and I worked there in the past.

Tent set up in preparation for today's picnic

The presentation portion of the event was supposed to occur at 2:00, but due to being relocated, it started much later than planned. Clark hitched a ride with a friend since I had our only car with me at the food store. Clark finally called me just after 5:00 to ask me to make the 30-minute drive to Holmdel to come get him. I was expecting him to be done around 4:00.

I asked if I would have enjoyed the event, and he replied no. The talks were technical in nature, some hard to hear, and even he knew only a few of the attendees.

The program ...

Project "Echo" Milestone

In addition to the horn antenna being used for Echo project, the Telstar project, and for the discovery of the cosmic background radiation as mentioned above, this prior work opened up the radio astronomy field, and it was used extensively for radio astronomy including use by researchers from Princeton. In addition, Clark's colleague Tony Rustako used this antenna for satellite propagation experiments at 12 and 14 GHz while Clark was in the Satellite Research Department. So, the antenna was well used over the years.

Clark took a few pictures during the event at the picnic on "the hill" and later at Bell Works.

When the engineers have a picnic on "the hill", they actually put the horn into use. They aim the horn towards the picnic site and place a speaker in the horn to play sound out onto the grounds