Building a Town to Destroy It
In early 1955, the United States government did something that sounds like the plot of a horror film. At the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Federal Civil Defense Administration built a complete suburban neighborhood from scratch — two-story houses with furnished living rooms, a school, a fire station, cars parked in driveways, electrical lines, and water towers. Then they populated it with mannequin families. JC Penney provided the clothing. Mannequins were dressed in suits, housedresses, and children's outfits, then positioned in domestic scenes: sitting at dinner tables set with real food, lying in beds, standing at kitchen counters. Some were placed in basement shelters to test survival scenarios.
The purpose was grimly practical. The Cold War was at its peak, and the government needed to know exactly what would happen to a typical American town if a Soviet nuclear weapon hit it. Could basement shelters save a family? At what distance would wooden houses survive? Would canned food remain safe to eat after a blast? The answers required building a town and blowing it up. They called it "Survival Town." The press called it "Doom Town."
Operation Cue: Nuked on Live TV
At 5:10 a.m. on May 5, 1955, a 29-kiloton nuclear device codenamed "Apple-2" was detonated from a 500-foot tower above the test site. The blast — nearly twice the power of the Hiroshima bomb — was broadcast on live television to millions of American viewers. Cameras captured the shockwave racing across the desert, the wooden houses closest to ground zero disintegrating in a fraction of a second, and the massive mushroom cloud rising over the Nevada landscape.
The results were as devastating as they were scientifically valuable. Wooden-frame houses within 5,000 feet were obliterated. Reinforced concrete structures further out survived with heavy damage — walls cracked, windows blown in, interiors gutted by the thermal pulse. The mannequins closest to the blast were vaporized. Others were found thrown across rooms, their JC Penney clothes singed or melted. Some, eerily, survived nearly intact in underground shelters. The footage became iconic Cold War imagery, used in civil defense training films for decades. Today, several of the concrete structures still stand in the Nevada desert — windowless, scorched, but stubbornly upright after 70 years of sun and silence.
Key Facts
29-Kiloton Blast
The Apple-2 device was nearly twice as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was detonated from a 500-foot tower above the fake town on May 5, 1955.
JC Penney Mannequins
Department store JC Penney provided the mannequins and clothing used to dress the fake families. The eerily lifelike figures were posed in everyday domestic scenes throughout the town.
Live Television Broadcast
Operation Cue was broadcast on live TV to millions of Americans — one of the first nuclear tests shown in real time. The footage was later used in civil defense films for decades.
The Ruins Still Stand
Several reinforced concrete houses from Doom Town survive in the Nevada desert to this day, 70 years after the blast. Windowless and scorched, they are among the most haunting ruins in America.
Visiting Doom Town
NNSA Guided Tours (Free, Limited Schedule)
Location: Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site), approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV
Access: Doom Town is accessible only via free guided tours operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Tours run on a limited schedule — typically a few dates per year — and fill up months in advance. Registration and a background check are required. No walk-ins are permitted.
What to See: The tour includes the surviving Doom Town structures, Sedan Crater (a massive crater from a 1962 underground test), and other historic test locations across the site. Photography is allowed at designated stops.
Tip: Book as early as possible through the NNSA website. Tours depart from the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas (755 E Flamingo Rd).
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