What (else) happens in Vegas? There’s more than gambling for adventurous tourists in ‘Sin City’ – Journal Inquirer

LAS VEGAS What kind of weirdo would come to this city and not gamble? No poker, no slots, no craps, no roulette, no sports betting, not even baccarat: not a penny spent on the fickle whims of Fortune.

Presumably youre familiar with the world-famous charms of this sprawling city in western Nevada: the show business, the glitz, the $7.99 buffets, the ease of access to every single vice known to human civilization.

Above all, the gambling, or gaming, as the industry prefers: an entire urban economy rooted in games of chance that, almost by definition, favor the house at the expense of the gambler.

As someone who doesnt gamble or drink, and who regards lavish stage productions with the kind of low-intensity dread young children feel before visiting a particularly dull grandparent, it would seem that Las Vegas had little to offer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Because, in this desert of 24-hour casinos built to look like famous structures in Europe and pedestrian-hostile thoroughfares, there are plenty of oases of quirky interest that can satisfy even the most discerning seeker of offbeat fun.

Perhaps the most impressive and informative of these sites currently sits about a mile and a half east of the famed Strip, with its garish hotel casinos and packs of wandering showgirls drumming up business for their employers. The National Atomic Testing Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is a jaw-dropping collection of artifacts and displays related to nuclear weapons, which grimly seems more relevant than ever.

Arguably as important to the development of Las Vegas as gambling, the Nevada Proving Grounds, about 65 miles north of the city, was the main U.S. test site for nuclear weapons for four decades starting in 1951. Nearly 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated here, with most of the explosions occurring underground, although many of the iconic images of mushroom clouds soaring from desert flats were from tests conducted here in the 1950s.

At the time the atomic testing began, Las Vegas was a sleepy gambling town with a population of around 40,000. The test site brought a massive influx of federal employees and contractors more than 100,000 at its height plus families moving into the area.

The tests also brought tourists: casinos with north-facing views held rooftop bomb parties, and beauty pageants were organized to crown Miss Atomic Bomb, invariably pictured wearing a bathing suit designed to look like a mushroom cloud. By the early 1970s, when the citys population had more than quadrupled since 1951, casino magnate and mob boss Benny Binion proclaimed, The best thing to happen to Vegas was the atomic bomb.

This odd local pride in the most destructive weaponry ever devised by humans is on full display at the museum, which houses some 3,500 artifacts and 16,000 photographs related to the nearby atomic testing. You can see just about everything here, from literal nuclear weapons to pop culture ephemera produced during the atom craze of the 1950s if youve ever eaten a spicy Atomic Fireball candy, youve got Vegas bomb test site to thank.

Exhibits range from a model bomb shelter designed for a family of four, bringing new meaning to the term nuclear family, to the multimedia experience of the Ground Zero Theatre, where sounds and vibrating seats replicate the experience of watching an above-ground nuclear test. The museum isnt above whimsy, either, with smaller displays devoted to Atomic Age science fiction, and the fevered speculation about space aliens being housed at Nevadas Area 51 military site.

There are also displays with slightly less prominent positioning that detail the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, sober reminders that for all the campy Cold War enthusiasm, the purpose of these weapons was to kill as many human beings as possible.

If all that seems a little grim for a vacation, the Neon Museum, about 5 miles north of the Strip, should provide a whimsical alternative. A repository for abandoned casino and hotel signs spanning the citys history, the 2.25-acre campus has about 200 examples of the garish, distinctly American pieces of advertising. Youll want to visit after dark, when the Neon Boneyard is lit up, creating an eerie effect as you wander among the glitzy detritus of past decades.

Finally, if you absolutely insist on having a gambling-related experience, head to the Flamingo Hotel and casino in the heart of the Strip. Follow the signs for the Flamingo Habitat, and soon enough youll encounter an outdoor preserve where a flock of slightly sad-looking Chilean flamingos strut around for the cameras of tourists. If you walk the winding path through the preserve, eventually youll find one of the oddest memorials in any American city: a commemorative plaque dedicated to Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, the gangster and mass murderer who oversaw construction of the original Flamingo in 1946.

Siegel, who was himself murdered by erstwhile chums less than a year later, seems like an odd candidate for a sincere memorial, but what else do you expect from Las Vegas? At least he never got his hands on an atomic bomb.

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What (else) happens in Vegas? There's more than gambling for adventurous tourists in 'Sin City' - Journal Inquirer