Go West, Nuclear Technology!

Reporters Viewing Shot Priscilla on Frenchman Flat

As you have probably guessed, I have a slight affinity for atomic history. Just a slight one. I swear I didn’t jump up and down like a kid when I got to go on a tour of the Nevada Test Site (now Nevada National Security Site). Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from that tour (they strip you of all non-essential electronics), but I did get to pick the brain of our tour guide, a talkative older gentleman who has lived in Las Vegas and worked at the “Site” since it first came into existence during the early 1950s. I strongly suggest bothering the old timers when you can, as the way they tell the story of nuclear technology in the American West is as valuable as the story itself. 

Still, why care about nuclear history? It's the past, right?

Nuclear history isn't a static subject; it lives, breathes, and gives identity and purpose to places throughout the American West. Some of these places (White Sands, Los Alamos, Nevada Test Site) are well known. But have you heard of Naturita? Grants? Jeffrey City? Monticello? Arco? Almost every state in the American West has a town (or two) with a long history of nuclear technology, and each tells a different part of the bigger story. 

Over the next few months, I want to take you on a digital "driving tour" of the American West and visit some of the major towns in nuclear history. So get your backpacking gear, pull out the cowboy hat, and brush up on what "Rocky Mountain Oysters" are because we're kicking this trip off in the Mile-High City of Denver, Colorado!

No, we aren’t going to hit the slopes. At least not yet.