Discreet 24/7 Biohazard Remediation in White Sands, NM

White Sands is a census-designated place (CDP) in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, made up of the main residential area of the White Sands Missile Range, and it is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The population of White Sands was 926 at the 2020 census.

White Sands counted 1,651 residents in the 2010 census and 1,323 in the 2000 census, so its on-post resident population has shifted considerably between censuses as military assignments change.

In the 2000 census, White Sands had 432 households and 667 housing units, and its median age was just 27 years, reflecting its population of young military families.

The CDP sits at the southern end of the White Sands Missile Range in eastern Doña Ana County, about 27 miles east of Las Cruces, the county seat, and 4 miles south of U.S. Route 70.

White Sands Missile Range is the largest military installation in the United States, covering almost 3,200 square miles across parts of Doña Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln counties.

The range began in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range and became the White Sands Proving Ground on July 9, 1945; the Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was tested that same month, lies at the range's northern end.

The White Sands dune field near the range is the world's largest surface deposit of gypsum — its white dunes are made of gypsum crystals rather than quartz sand, which keeps them cool to the touch — and the entrance to White Sands National Park is about 34 miles northeast of the CDP via U.S. Route 70.

Children living at White Sands attend White Sands School, which sits on missile range property and is operated by Las Cruces Public Schools.

The White Sands CDP covers about 4.2 square miles at an elevation of about 4,236 feet, and its ZIP code is 88002, the missile range's own postal code.