In 1958, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped an unarmed atomic bomb near Mars Bluff while it was aboard a B-47E bomber on a training mission headed for England. Its high-explosive trigger detonated on impact, creating a crater as large as 35 feet deep and 70 feet wide. The bomb landed in the woods behind the asbestos-shingle sided home of railroad conductor Walter “Bill” Gregg (b.1921), and Gregg, his wife, their three children, and a niece were injured by the concussion, which destroyed the house and out-buildings and caused slight damage to buildings within a 5-mile radius.