Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
on all sides by water as you exit through a glass tunnel. But it's still genuinely
entertaining and educational. In fact, this is the only wildlife exhibit in all of
Nevada to win accreditation from the respected American Zoo and Aquarium
Association.
Allot about an hour to see the exhibit, another half-hour to stand in line (go
early if you can), and a good twenty minutes for the endless walk through the
casino to get to the exhibit. A warning for parents: You exit, of course, into a gift
shop (so what else is new?), and it's a difficult one to get out of quickly (
hint
: If
you have to ward off a tantrum with a purchase, the key chains aren't too pricey).
OFF THE STRIP
No thrill ride on the Strip will scare the wits out of you as effectively as the
Atomic
Testing Museum
555
(755 E. Flamingo Rd.;
%
702/794
-
5161; www.atomic
testingmuseum.org;
$
10 adults,
$
7 seniors, children 7-17, and military with ID,
free under 7; Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; AE, DC, MC, V).
That's not its pur-
pose, of course. This is a science and history museum (an affiliate museum of the
mighty Smithsonian Institution) covering the 50 years of atomic testing, from
1951 to 1992 (928 nuclear tests in all), that occurred in the desert outside Vegas.
But there comes a moment in the exhibit when your heart will race, your stom-
ach will drop down to your knees, and all at once the reality of the power of the
nuclear bomb will hit you with the force of a nightmare. I was a teenager in the
'80s at the height of the anti-nuclear movement, so I spent my youth worried
about nuclear proliferation and attending protests. But it wasn't until I visited
here that I ever felt, viscerally, to my very bones, the gut-wrenching evil and
majesty of a nuclear explosion. The moment comes early in the exhibit. After an
effective and dramatic retelling of the history that led up to the invention of the
bomb, you'll be ushered into a small room resembling a concrete bunker for a
video about the testing, with shots of actual explosions. As the mushroom cloud
rises in front of you, the lights flash a blinding white, subwoofers send vibrations
to the center of your sternum, your bench shakes, and air cannons blast you with
wind. It's intense.
After that wrenching start the rest of the exhibit helps visitors put into context
what they've seen. You'll learn about the physics behind the bomb; the myriad of
innovations, from high-speed photography to bigger drills, that emerged from the
scientific work going on at the testing site; and the cultural “fallout,” if you will, of
the Cold War, from advertisements glamorizing the bomb to panic-provoking
bomb shelters. Iconic items from the test site—a decoupler, a massive drill bit, a
farm silo—are interspersed with news clips and state-of-the-art, truly whiz-bang,
interactive exhibits. Pull your attention from these, however, if a docent happens
by. Many of these volunteers are former employees of the Testing Site; no they
don't glow, but get one talking and they'll regale you with insider's tales of what it
was like to wrestle with the bomb, live in its shadow, and work for the government.
A number of people protested the opening of the museum, convinced that it
would be a jingoistic, one-sided endorsement of the testing that was done in
Nevada. Lawsuits have been brought, after all, by the so-called down-winders—
people who lived near the site and later developed all sorts of horrific cancers.
They and their descendants claim that the government put them in harm's way
with these tests, never fully informing the public of their risks. It's a debate that
