The Abandoned Town In Idaho That Most People Stay Far, Far Away From
Atomic City, Idaho: Sitting forlorn at the edge of the sprawling 890-square mile Idaho National Laboratory complex, this modern-day ghost town has a shocking nuclear history that drove residents away in the ’50s and continues to keep visitors at a distance. Here, in 1961, the country’s first fatal nuclear explosion took place – not even a decade after a dangerous reactor meltdown left the town paralyzed with fear. Today, while not fully abandoned, Atomic City stands desolate and scarred by the radioactive fatalities of the past with only a handful of residents remaining as a living legacy of the tragic events.
But while most people stay far, far away from this nuclear town, the haunting remnants of the community do draw a few brave souls every year – one of whom recently documented these bleak modern ruins in his book Wilderness to Wasteland. The book captures the chilling, dystopian afterlife of America’s most polluted and contaminated places via poignant photography. But perhaps even more humbling than the photos is an in-depth look at the history of this forgotten town itself:
The town is a mere shell of its former self and the product of the long-gone Atomic Age of the 50s. A venture down the main road will reveal a once-booming community eerily devoid of life.
Set in the heart of Idaho's most desolate, uninhabited desert landscape, only a few dozen residents remain.
The obscure desert town is now a collection of dilapidated houses, a solitary store, and the Atomic City Raceway. Little else remains besides a never-ending expanse of high desert terrain.
But Atomic City isn't alone in the desert; it's also located just a few miles away from the sprawling Idaho National Laboratory nuclear complex.
Originally called Midway, the building of the INL nearby - a nuclear waste treatment and research complex - inspired the name change.
Before the world's first functional nuclear power plant, the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, was built onsite, the town boomed - a product of the optimistic but ill-fated Atomic Age.
The era was marked by the groundbreaking unraveling of the atom puzzle in the early 40s and was quickly followed by the dropping of the first atomic bomb in 1945, ending WWII.
But after a series of radioactive disasters and the country's first fatal nuclear disaster took place here, townspeople abandoned the area just as quickly.
The highway was also rerouted to go around Atomic City, an economic blow that drove all but the last stubborn homeowners out. Nearby Arco suffered a similar fate.
In 1955, the EBR-1 suffered the world's first partial meltdown.
Self-guided tours of the EBR-1 are available. Here, you can see "the hot cell," which is sealed from the outside world and protected by multiple layers of thick glass. A historical marker at a nearby pull-off boasts: "Since 1949, more nuclear reactors -- over 50 of them -- have been built on this plain than anywhere else in the world."
Six years later, an ill-fated event took place at the nearby SL-1 reactor. It was fatal.
So devastating was the incident that the victims had to be buried in lead coffins encased with concrete. While no more fatal incidents have occurred to date at the INL, multiple radioactive accidents continue to wreak havoc.
But despite attempts at restoration, the area has yet to fully recover from the environmental and energy errors of the past.
Author of Wilderness to Wasteland, David Hanson, writes, "It seems frightening yet somehow appropriate that the most enduring monuments America will leave for future generations will be the hazardous remains of our industry and technology."
Atomic City is just one of the dozens of sites covered in the book.
Where were you when the SL-1 explosion rocked this town? Have you ever visited the area around the INL?
