On April 22, 1952, about 200 reporters from across the country gathered on a mound of volcanic rock on the edge of Yucca Lake in Nevada. The journalists and cameramen were there to witness the detonation of a nuclear bomb on United States soil. Journalists were posted only 10 miles from ground zero, giving Americans, from the safety of their living rooms, a front seat view of the explosion. Journalists put on dark goggles and waited for the signal, bracing themselves. Finally, the bomb was dropped — a fantastically bright cloud climbed upward like a huge umbrella as the journalists waited for the shock wave that follows an atomic explosion. First came a heat wave, followed by a shock that was strong enough to knock down an unprepared person. After what seemed like hours, the man-made sunburst faded away. The 31-kiloton bomb — nicknamed “Big Shot” by the press and “Charlie” by the Atomic Energy Commission — was enormous compared to the 13-kiloton bombs the U.S. had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The broadcast of the explosion awed Americans and officially touched off the atomic craze that swept the nation, for which Las Vegas, merely 65 miles away and the closest city to the testing site, became ground zero. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce issued a stream of press releases, excitedly describing the new testing grounds as one of the many attractions Las Vegas had to offer. It wasn’t long before bomb testing schedules were posted on a calendar for tourists, and visitors began flocking to Las Vegas. Some businesses even held “Dawn Bomb Parties, where, beginning at midnight, guests would drink and sing until the flash of the bomb lit up the night sky. However, as the tests continued, people in northeastern Nevada and southern Utah began complaining that their pets and livestock were suffering from beta particle burns and other ailments, and by 1963 the Limited Test Ban went into effect, banning above ground nuclear testing at the site.
