In addition to generating tourism, the Nevada Test Site also brought thousands of military personnel, thousands of jobs and more than $176 million in federal funds to the region, two-thirds of which went back into Las Vegas' economy. Scoobs! Share on Facebook Pin . I’m not sure about Las Vegas cancer rates (more research!) !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) It had been deemed necessary to conduct tests on nuclear devices in order to develop sufficient protection should such a device be used against Americans. #tahoe #laketah, Yesterday's afternoon sun. Are cancer rates higher in Vegas than the rest of the nation? In 1951, the Nevada Testing Site became the location for atomic bomb testing, located just 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But in Las Vegas, the nuclear bomb continued to be popular with a certain type of people – Nuclear Tourists. Atomic Tourism: Vegas Visitors Watch Nukes ExplodeLas Vegas is known as the city of lights and, at one time, that light was the glow of a nuclear detonation in the Nevada desert. Flashes from the explosions were so powerful that they could reportedly be seen from as far away as Montana. Many tourists packed "atomic box lunches" and had picnics as close to ground zero as the government restrictions would allow. As one official described, "The angle was to get people to think the explosions wouldn't be anything more than a gag.". Starting in 1951, the US Department of Energy began testing nuclear ordinances just 65 miles from the city of Las Vegas. A heat wave comes first, then the shock, strong enough to knock an unprepared man down. #tahoe, Colorful time of year in Hope Valley This period in atomic history seems so ludicrous and shocking, that it could be interpreted as a black comedy, but the consequences of these tests were devastating and widespread. Many casinos hosted “dawn bomb parties,” extravaganzas that drew visitors to witness one of the greatest shows on earth—a nuclear explosion. There’s little known about Miss Atomic Bomb herself besides her stage name, Lee A. Merlin. Please ge, Still plenty of time to hit some high country road. My office lights-up this time of day, this time of, Another cabin in the woods. After reading your short story it was a great historic follow up. Specialty drinks included the “Atomic Cocktail,” a near-toxic concoction of vodka, brandy, cognac, sherry, and champagne over ice, shaken well, then poured into an oversized champagne glass and topped off with an orange wedge on the rim. As they had done with the construction of the Boulder Dam more than twenty years before, Las Vegans jumped at the chance to market themselves as a tourist attraction. Chris Winters. For twelve years, an average of one bomb every three weeks was detonated, at a total of 235 bombs. In spite of wild Las Vegas parties and increased tourism, impacts from nuclear testing, and how it has affected the land, plants, animals, and human lives, is incalculable. Now -- the bomb has been dropped. Thanks for commenting, Frank. Beginning at midnight, guests would drink and sing until the flash of the bomb lit up the night sky. The mushroom cloud associated with the bomb became an icon for Las Vegas, adorning postcards, candy, toys, showgirls' headdresses and more. t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; “The best thing to happen to Vegas was the Atomic Bomb,” proclaimed Horseshoe Club casino owner Benny Binion. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce issued a calendar for tourists, listing the scheduled times of the bomb detonations and the best places to view them. The Department of Energy (DOE) continued to detonate underground nuclear devices at NST until 1992, when the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty finally put an end to testing. Nuclear Defense Courtesy: Las Vegas News Bureau, Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! The city of Las Vegas transformed itself into “Atomic City, USA,” with atomic cocktails, atomic hairdos, and atomic festivities. After the April 22, 1952, televised broadcast of the bomb, atomic culture swept the nation, and Las Vegas became the epicenter of the craze. Scientists claimed that the radiation's harmful effects would have dissipated and been harmless once the shock waves reached Las Vegas, and they scheduled tests to coincide with weather patterns that blew fallout away from the city. Nuclear testing was taking place about 80 kilometers (50 mi) from Las Vegas, and civilian tourists would get as close to the blast as they could to throw all-night parties in sight of the mushroom cloud. Americans were in the midst of the Cold War, building bomb shelters and practicing air raid drills, when President Harry Truman selected 640 square miles in Nevada, once a part of the Nellis Air Force Base, as the Nevada Proving Grounds, the only peacetime, above ground nuclear testing site in the continental United States. Perfect time of year for camping, but dress warm! Las Vegas establishments like the Flamingo and the Sands hawked the Atomic Cocktail, the Atomic Hairdo and Miss Atomic Bomb beauty contests. In fact, part of the reason that Nevada was chosen for the nuclear test site was because, at the time, Las Vegas’ population was small enough (under 40,000).. . fbq('init', '271837786641409'); One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, The Vote tells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote, a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history. Back in the 1950s, Las Vegas was not quite the same glitzy tourism magnet that it is today. n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};