Atomic City

By the 1950’s, Las Vegas was already a bustling desert city. Its reputation for casino gambling of the highest quality, luxury hotels of legendary comfort, and the very best in entertainment, was at this stage of the game, well established. It would be hard to imagine adding anything whatsoever to this impressive list of attractions, but one day in 1951 another “sight to see” became a common draw for Las Vegas tourism —

A Mushroom Cloud..

Throughout the fifties, the US Government conducted extensive nuclear tests in the desert regions around and near Las Vegas. While most of the nuclear experiments in the Nevada desert between 1951 and 1992 took place underground, in the fifties, open air testing of nuclear devices occurred quite frequently and it was very common to be able to see a nuclear mushroom cloud from the rooftops of prominent Las Vegas hotels.

In fact, during this period of time, many visitors to Las Vegas came not for the poker, roulette or blackjack, but to see the destructive force of the creation that ensured American victory in the Pacific. At one point in time, Las Vegas was even given the nickname of, “The Atomic City.” The local tourist bureaus made schedules of the nuclear tests and made them readily available, even suggesting the best places in the city from which to view them.

Waitresses, showgirls, card dealers and bellhops adorned themselves with flair associated with the nuclear tests, and as a result of the new attraction, the city’s economy receive a more than significant boost.

The additional business provided by increased tourism brought more money into a city already enriched by its unique attractions. As well as spending by the thousands of soldiers stationed at the testing sites for various military exercises and on leave from their duties, the amount of new money flowing into Las Vegas was unprecedented and the development that followed was no less than staggering in its proportions.

Although the number of bombs detonated over time varied, on a rough average, during the fifties at the beginning of the tests, an open air explosion was visible at least every three weeks, and sometimes more frequently.

All of this, of course, was not all honky dory with the public at large and especially with the local residents of Nevada and the citizens of Las Vegas. From the moment the tests began to the time they were terminated in 1992 there were protests on both the state and local level decrying the wisdom of detonating nuclear weapons within such a small distance of a major, metropolitan, urban center.

The arrests that go along with any protest were no less common and although estimates vary, somewhere between a range of 13,000 and 17,000 people were arrested and detained from 1951 to 1992. The establishment of a nuclear waste storage facility/depository was no less controversial in Nevada and Las Vegas political circles.

As paradoxical as it may sound, the presence of the most detrimental weapon ever invented

not more than 100 miles from the city of Las Vegas had a profound impact on the economy and culture of the nation’s gambling and entertainment capitol. The Nevada Test Site can still be visited today at the city museum’s exhibit of nuclear testing, as can be seen at Atomictestingmuseum.org