History
Atomic Tourism in 1950s Las Vegas
The atomic tests were a huge crowd draw and inspired pop-culture
In the 1920’s Las Vegas was not the same flashy tourist magnet that it is today. The economic bust and disillusionment from failures at social reform led to a population decline of nearly one-fourth. Nevada had degenerated into a “beautiful desert of buried hopes”.
This all changed for Nevada with two important turning points making it the popular tourist and gambling destination it is today.
— In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling
— In 1951, Nevada started promoting Atomic tourism
Atomic Tests of Nevada
Nuclear bombs hit the height of its (ill)fame when the US used it to bring World War 2 to a sudden and devastating end in 1945.
By this time, it was clear that whomsoever holds the most stockpile of nuclear weapons, would be held in the highest respect in politics and diplomacy around the world. The nuclear weapons were starting to get treated as deterrents and more paradoxically a ‘soft-power’. The US government thereafter wanted to test nuclear devices in an aim to harness the untapped atomic power in everyday objects and depict a future where fossil fuels would go unused.
