Above: The five specimens as they were sold individually from the Lincoln La Paz collection.

Over the past couple of years, I have purchased the Lincoln La Paz trinitite collection. This collection consists of a lot of red and black trinitite as well as over 100 specimens of large green trinitite specimens in the 10 to 174 gram range.

These pieces pictured here were sold in the collection individually as separate specimens. As I was sorting through the pieces, I realized that two of them fit together. I thought it was interesting and I mentioned it to my friend, Scott Campbell, aka; The Trinitite Man. Scott had also bought some pieces from the La Paz collection and he later called and said he had matched two of his pieces together.

At that point, we started comparing photos of our specimens and realized that the two pieces he had, matched up with a 146 gram piece I had. Several months later, we got together and he gave me his pieces and I took them home with me.

The two pieces Scott had matched perfectly to my large 146 gram specimen, and then I realized that the two pieces I originally put together fit to the other side of Scotts pieces. Five pieces altogether make up this large specimen. La Paz must have collected it as a large plate, which, over the years broke apart. I have a feeling that it may have been even bigger, but other connecting pieces may have been sold off from the original collection.

On the left are the five individual pieces that make up the large piece. The far left two are the first pieces that I was able to match together. The middle two pieces are the ones that Scott fit together and the right is the large 146 gram individual piece.

The first step I made was to attach the pieces together with Elmer's glue. I chose this glue as it is easy to reverse if I want to take the specimen apart for any reason.

Once the specimen was put together, it still had several fractures/cracks from decades of sitting in a metal container outside, before the pieces were recovered in 1985 by La Paz's son-in-law, Harry Baldwin. Once Harry retrieved the specimens, he wrapped them individually to collect and for re-sale. I don't believe Harry ever considered that any of these were all part of one big piece, there were dozens of specimens in the container and I imagine they all looked the same at first glance.

My next step was to minimize the amount of cracks and fractures. I look at this piece as I look at a fossil or mineral specimen in need of repair, many of which I have worked on over the years. I used a crushed mix of fragments of La Paz trinitite mixed with a glue/water mix, this made a sort of 'trinitite paste' which I applied to various areas where needed. As I said before, all this can be reversed by simply soaking in water. I wanted the specimen to look as close as possible as it would have looked the day it was collected by La Paz in 1945.

This is the finished product (So far) Actual specimen weight is 345.2 grams. Measures: 6 7/8" wide x 4 3/8" tall x 1 1/4" thick.

I will note that the color in this photo most accurately represents the piece. Some of the photos shown above while I was repairing the piece had a yellow tint due to my kitchen workshop light.

Special thank you to Scott Campbell for working with me to reconstruct this specimen, which may be the largest trinitite specimen known at this time.

I will be adding more photos to this page soon. Side shots and a small blue section I found on the piece. Stay tuned!