Atomic Bomb Casino
“It was the first atomic explosion in the U.S. Since the historic test at Alamogordo in 1945.” The 12 years during which the site averaged one explosion every three weeks was a boom time for Vegas.
- In the 1970s, the population doubled again, prompting casino owner Benny Binion to declare, “The best thing to happen to Vegas was the Atomic Bomb.” Museum admission is $12 for adults, $9 for children. Open seven days a week, it is located at 755 E. Las Vegas, NV 89119.
- In 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb attacks put the remote Pacific island on the map. WE STOOD AT THE END OF RUNWAY ABLE at the northern tip of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Islands and looked at a wooden 2×4, not quite seven feet tall, jutting straight up out of the tarmac.
Credit: National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office
Sixty years ago Las Vegas was a dusty desert crossroads. Then President Harry S Truman decided to turn 800,000 barren acres of a military bombing range into the Nevada Test Site for atomic weapons. Hundreds of technicians and support crews swarmed into the area to operate the nation’s nuclear proving ground.
“Building Atomic Vegas,” an exhibition at the Atomic Testing Museum, traces the history of Las Vegas’s development in tandem with 42 years of nuclear testing.
The first test began at dawn on Jan. 27, 1951, as a United States B-50 bomber dropped a nuclear warhead from nearly 20,000 feet onto Frenchman Flats in the Nevada desert. The device, codenamed Able, detonated 1060 feet above the desert floor, shaking the earth and echoing through the nearby mountains. The test would be the first of more than 900 documented nuclear detonations that would take place at the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1992.
“Mushroom clouds could be seen from Vegas,” some forty-five miles away, says Karen Green, curator at the Atomic Testing Museum. “Viewing parties were held on casino rooftops and people drove out of town to watch.”
To mark the 60th anniversary of the first nuclear test, the Nevada Humanities Council has helped fund “Building Atomic Vegas” at the Atomic Testing Museum through Jan. 5, 2012.
The doors to the exhibition open onto a view of a giant mushroom cloud against a dark sky. Exhibits feature a B-53 gravity bomb on loan from the U.S. Air Force, artifacts from the testing site, correspondence from Howard Hughes expressing concern that radiation was in the water supply, movie posters, and artwork.
The exhibition at the museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, features the dog tags issued to area civilians so they could be identified in case of an accident. It shows photographers filming mushroom clouds seven miles away from ground zero. It shows young women as “Miss Atomic Vegas,” dressed up as an atomic bomb.
Las Vegas, says Green, was selected as the Continental nuclear proving ground because of its predictable weather and low population—less than 40,000 people. “A committee said there would be little danger to Vegas. If people were exposed they could take showers.”
As the bombs exploded, so did the Las Vegas economy. The test site brought federal funding and jobs. From 1950 to 1960 the population of Las Vegas doubled. By the end of the decade the mushroom cloud symbol was used on billboards, casino marquees, advertisements, and even the cover of the Las Vegas High School yearbook. In the 1970s, the population doubled again, prompting casino owner Benny Binion to declare, “The best thing to happen to Vegas was the Atomic Bomb.”
Museum admission is $12 for adults, $9 for children. Open seven days a week, it is located at 755 E. Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89119
First off by being located in the middle of the desert, it created very little threats to surrounding homes. Additionally, it provided a source of spectacles and entertainment for people who did live in this area. As a result, Vegas began to experience a new influx of people from across the country who would travel thousands of miles in order to catch a glimpse of this new show.
| A Horseshoe Club advertisement touting its excellent views of nuclear tests. |
| Witness the power of the Atomic Bomb. A mere $3 for a safe viewing distance. |
| Bombs over Fremont. |
Soon after Vegas was transformed from the original city of 25,000 people to the world-renown spectacle of three million people. Journalists everywhere began jumping on this new exciting event, and the topic of atomic tourism became the biggest headliner everywhere. Even writers in the New York Times began referring to it as, “the non- ancient but none the less honorable pastime of atom-bomb watching.”
Despite nuke testing occurring in multiple other places during this time, Vegas was the only one to turn it into an attraction. Inherently speaking, Vegas was designed for showmanship. Visitors are encouraged to live in the moment and focus on what is in front of them, by masking the individual from all reminders of time and location. Their motto: pay attention to what is in front of you. Therefore by taking advantage of this concept and its psychological effect, landowners and industry owners began turning these tests into spectacles of themselves. Organizations began hosting parties and picnics around the publicized atomic bomb testing schedule, and photos of these events began circulating across news sources everywhere.
However, in addition to these parties, Vegas also capitalized on the nuclear tests by providing itself as a source of relief and nostalgia from the surrounding terror. Gambling, games, and television were all sources of distraction that provided Vegas guests with an escape from the fear that was surrounding them.
Atomic Bomb Church
| Early morning bathers at a hotel pool in Las Vegas stop to watch the mushroom cloud of an atomic detonation at a test site about 75 miles from the city. May 8, 1953. |
| Guests at the Last Frontier hotel in Las Vegas watch the mushroom from a detonation about 75 miles away. May 8, 1953. |
| Watching poolside. Nuclear tests were a rather ordinary part of life in Las Vegas. |
| Bombs over Fremont. |
| Hotels offered panoramic views of the distant desert skyline for the optimum experience. |
| The Nevada Test Site wasn’t just a boom for travelers. The proving ground flooded the area with federal funds, and the site employed close to 100,000 men and women. |
| Nevada test site. |
| Reporters witness the nuclear test on Frenchman Flat, June 24, 1957. |
| Operation Buster-Jangle - Dog test — with troops participating in exercise Desert Rock I, November 1, 1951. It was the first U.S. nuclear field exercise conducted on land; troops shown are a mere 6 miles from the blast. |
| Atomic tourists taking in the sites. |
| Camera men filming the atomic blast of Wasp Prime Test, during Operation Teapot. Nevada, February 18, 1955. |
| Man sitting near a Nevada Test Site sign, Nevada, United States, 1955 From 1951–1962, Mercury was a town in the Nevada atomic testing site where hundreds of test explosions were conducted. |
Atomic Bomb Casino Bar
Nowadays, the instead of watching explosions go off at the Nevada Testing Site, the main source of atomic tourism stems from the Atomic Testing Museum that opened in 2005. In addition to walking through recreations of old testing sites and bomb shelters, visitors may also take bus tours to the testing site itself.