Nuclear Testing In Nevada In The 1950's

While many Americans are aware of the fact that there was nuclear testing going on in Nevada in the 1950's few knew or understood what the impacts might be for many decades down the road at the time nor how strange some of the testing proved to be. There were a total of 14 tests of nuclear weapons the first of which was conducted on January 27th, 1951. The test sight was about 60 miles or so from the famed city of Las Vegas. The explosions were even used at the time as an attraction to lure more people into the city to gamble and such. Some of the testing was done at night and when the bombs would go off they would light up the sky in the most amazing way. One of the nukes that was tested was buried in the desert. They were trying to see if you could use a nuclear weapon for purposes of excavating a large area of land quickly. Some of the craters left behind were over 1000 feet across and almost 300 feet deep. The one drawback to this plan was the lingering radiation that would be left behind for years which made the whole idea unworkable. Some of the testing had a bit of a circus atmosphere around it. There were even benches placed in the desert for military V.I.P.'s to sit on so they could watch the explosions and resulting mushroom clouds from about 8 miles away. It was almost like they were watching a movie or some other kind of entertainment and were totally unaware of the risks. It has been long suspected that the famous actor John Wayne may himself have died due to his exposure to these tests while filming some of his westerns. Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979. Most people point to his filming a movie called "The Conqueror" in 1956 in Utah which was just downwind from the nuclear test sight in Nevada. There is some evidence to suggest that there might be something to it. Out of the 220 cast and crew members who worked on that film at the time 91 of them came down with cancer in the years following the shoot.