On January 27, 1951, the government detonated its first bomb at the Nevada National Security Site, previously known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The test site is located 65 miles northwest of the city, and in typical Vegas fashion, the city capitalized on the bombings. The atomic bomb’s mushroom cloud could be seen for miles around. Suddenly, a new tourist attraction in Vegas was born. From 1950 to 1960, the population of Las Vegas doubled, the economy boomed (pun unintended) and the mushroom cloud became a symbol for the city. People came from miles around to see night turn into day as the bombs at the test site detonated. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce released a calendar reporting the dates, times, and best viewing sites for the bombings were released to the public. And with bombs being dropped approximately every 3 weeks, many businesses figured out how to capitalize on the spectacle. Casinos that had a clear view of the detonations proudly boasted their location and threw parties that started at midnight and lasted well into the night. Casino owner Benny Binion says the atomic bomb was the “best thing to happen to Vegas.”
Suddenly, the newly nicknamed Atomic City was more popular than ever. The city even hosted a “Miss Atom Bomb” beauty pageant. Drinks like the atomic cocktail were regularly served.
Tourists packed “atomic box lunches” and traveled to have picnics as close as they legally could to see the mushroom cloud fill the sky. The mushroom was brandished everywhere from billboards to yearbook covers.
Underneath the glitz and the glamour, though, was a very real fear that citizens had of the bombs. In the wake of the bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was an underlying fear that came with the Atomic City. People knew of the effects that nuclear weaponry had on living organisms. Both the government and the Nevada Test Site tried to reassure citizens that the atomic bombs weren’t dangerous, on the contrary, they were fun. A 1955 brochure on atomic tests advertised to citizens that the radiation levels were only “slightly more than normal radiation which you experience day in and day out wherever you may live.” Those living downwind, as far as Utah, were negatively affected. Livestock began to get sick and started dying. By 1955, “downwinders” began to develop leukemia. As time progressed, these downwinders developed high rates of thyroid ills and cancer. All the while, both news outlets, and federal government denied that the above ground bomb testing was harmful to the citizens’ health. Despite the rising cancer rates, the atomic bomb testings continued until 1963, until the Limited Test Ban Treaty, ended above-ground nuclear trials. In 1988, the United States Congress passed a bill to grant soldiers whose health was negatively affected by nuclear exposure. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was passed, and as of 2001 have compensated around $232 billion to those effected.
