When the Sky Betrayed Us

How Mars Bluff, a Small South Carolina Town, Became an Unwitting Participant in the Cold War’s Deadliest Game

I had never heard of Mars Bluff. Not the town, not the bomb, not the crater carved into South Carolina’s red earth by a falling nuclear weapon. The story found me, as these strange things often do, in the dark hours of a restless night.

I was scrolling through articles online, the kind of idle wandering that feels both aimless and inevitable. A headline…