This is a beautiful spot, near the middle of the state of Nevada. The majesty of the site, with the mountains around it and the wide open sky, hide what makes this site notable. That rusting metal that looks like a trash can marks Ground Zero for an underground nuclear test that took place in the 1960s. The top of it used to be level with the ground. Now it’s about eight feet high — the ground around it sank. Still, it remains one of my favorite places in Nevada for the beauty and the oddity of the whole scene.

Here’s an almanac piece I wrote for the Las Vegas Sun: http://lasvegassun.com/features/finding-nevada/2013/sep/16/faultless-important-site-middle-nowhere/

Nevada was a nuclear proving ground for the United States, but nearly all of the remnants of tests are on the old Nevada Test Site, now the Nevada National Security Site. You can tour the site, but it takes government clearance and chaperones. In northern Nevada, there’s another site you can visit on public land. You can read about it here: http://lasvegassun.com/features/finding-nevada/2013/oct/29/heres-nevada-nuclear-blast-site-you-can-visit-if-y/