Wendover, Nevada and Utah, is a town of about 1600 people and a half-dozen casinos. It is right on the border of Nevada and Utah with the prosperous part of town in Nevada and the poor side of town -- trying to get annexed by the Nevada side -- in Utah. Who says sin doesn't pay? The two towns share fire, police and school systems. I'm guessing that the casinos do a brisk business with folks from Salt Lake City about 100 miles straight east. Wendover's location is on an ancient beach of Lake Bonneville, which is now the Bonneville Salt Flats. The place was originally a watering stop established by the Western Pacific Railroad in 1907. Given it's position on the far side of the salt flats from Salt Lake City it became a service and supply point for the railroad, because there's virtually nothing between Wendover and Salt Lake City. The name of the town may have come from the name of a surveyor employed by the railroad, Charles Wendover. When Wendover, Utah was incorporated on 25 October 1950 it had 149 qualified electors and a population of more than 400.
Wendover is an up and coming town, finally, but it really boomed during the WWII -- some of a pun intended -- when the Army Air Corps built a bomber training base there. The B-29 crews that dropped the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima trained for their missions there. It's funny how things work out. Socorro, New Mexico, where I live, is about 35 miles from where those bombs were built and tested.
Some of the Wendover Army Air Field had been converted for civilian use by 2005, but most of it had simply been left as a monument to the past. The roaring engines of planes like the Enola Gay long since faded away.
There were about a dozen markers like the one above that described the various areas and remaining buildings left on the base. Above was the marker for the atomic mission hanger that is in the picture above.
And he was probably the type to make you laugh while your mouth was full of dentist stuff too.
2018-01-27