If you're looking for something to do in Las Vegas that's not on the strip, The National Atomic Testing Museum is 1.4 miles away on East Flamingo Rd. Atomic, you ask? Is this bomb related, you ask? Yes. Yes it is. This particular museum is dedicated to all of the nuclear weapons (AKA bombs) testing at the Nevada Test site. As such, this is also the pick-up and drop-off point for the Nevada Test site tour. If you want to read more about my tour of the site you can check it out HERE!
The National Atomic Testing Museum has some pretty interesting artifacts. The picture on the left is of a patch that represents the Manhattan Project Insignia and the picture on the right is of a variety of Geiger counters. Quick refresher: nuclear weapons create radiation, and Geiger counters detect and measure those radiation levels. I was hoping the gift shop would have replicas of the Manhattan Project Insignia patch because it looks cool, and it would be an interesting conversation piece, but they didn't.
Interestingly, there are a total of 11 test sites in the United States and more than half of them are outside of the state of Nevada. I have been to two of those: Nevada Test Site and Alamogordo. These sites are not to be confused with the other locations that were all involved with the Manhattan Project, such as Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Los Alamos, New Mexico and Hanford, Washington.
The picture on the left is one of the exhibits in the museum, and the picture on the right is a B-53 Thermonuclear Weapon. The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico produced these from 1961 to 1965 and there were over 350 built! If you were to turn around in the first picture, there is a theater which shows a short movie and simulates what it might feel like witnessing an above-ground nuclear bomb test.
If you plan on visiting, make sure to check the operation days and hours first because they are limited. At the time of this writing, adult admission is $22. Also, the museum is ADA compliant. Even if you aren't interested in any of this, if you end up going you just might find yourself stopping to read plaques, and, maybe even be curious about this extraordinary piece of American history.
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