Wendover was established because it was out of the way, a
place where people wouldn't want to live. The first modern
settlement in the area was an airbase built at the beginning
of World War II. Through the 40's and 50's, the land around
Wendover was bombed, strafed, and dusted with chemical and
biological agents.
Today, though the region is remote, it is intensely industrialized.
Military operations continue in the 3 million surrounding
acres of restricted-access lands. Large-scale industries remove
salt, and process magnesium chloride from the flats, and copper
is extracted from giant pits in the mountains. Hazardous waste
facilities and obsolete chemical weapons have found refuge
in the remote, nearly uninhabitable landscape.
In Wendover itself, an interstate highway passes through
town, making Wendover a pit stop for travellers from San Francisco
to New York City, and points in between. In 1977 the military
surrendered hundreds of buildings to the small civilian community
that had developed around the base. It is in one of these
unused structures that The Center for Land Use Interpretation
has chosen to initiate its Land Use Museum Project...
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Building 2514, the CLUI Exhibit Hall.
CLUI photo
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The CLUI has acquired an exhibit space at Wendover, Utah.
The space is the first of The Center's regional exhibit halls
that will collectively comprise the Museum of Land Use. The
Wendover exhibit hall is in an old army barracks at the Wendover
Airbase.
The exhibit hall provides the region with a forum for addressing
the area's landscape and land use issues, and is a display
space for The Center's regional Site Extrapolation projects,
as well as a gallery for other related work.
The structure, designated as building number 2514, was singled
out due to its ideal configuration and appearance for use
as a display space.
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The interior of Building 2514: the 2000 square feet
of display space.
CLUI photo
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Aerial photo of the now largely abandoned Wendover
Airbase. At the top of the photo are the munition storage
facilities, and at the bottom are the base's barracks,
administration, and flightline.
Photo courtesy of Icarus Aviation, rephotographed by
Clay Babcock
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Construction for the Wendover Airbase, where The Center's
Wendover Exhibit Hall is located, started in 1940, and by
1943 it was one of the largest military reserves in the world.
23,000 military personnel were based in 668 buildings and
trained on 3.5 million acres of the surrounding desert.
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The Enola Gay hangar.
CLUI photo
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Wendover Air Base became the home for the training program
for the first atomic bombing missions, later carried out on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Enola Gay was housed in a hanger
now used for miscellaneous storage.
The town is bisected by the state line, forming two very
distinct communities. The Utah side is a neglected small town
dominated by old buildings and debris from the airbase. The
Nevada side is a boom-town, with three casino/hotel complexes,
built to accommodate travellers on the interstate, and gamblers
from Salt Lake City.
On the threshold, West Wendover, the Nevada side of town,
contains most of the area's population and new construction.
The casinos have brought jobs and lots of money to West Wendover,
as is reflected in a new school and golf course.
As the first of the exhibit areas that are part of the Center's
nationwide Land Use Museum, the Wendover Site will be a model
for future venues that will open in the coming years. We look
forward to initiating the Land Use Museum project at Wendover,
and invite everyone to visit the Site.
Starting with the Wendover Site, The Center for Land Use
Interpretation's museum complex will be composed of a network
of exhibit sites located throughout a boundless geographic
area. Each exhibit location will address Land Use themes and
perspectives related to the local environment.
The museum will bring together some of the divergent perspectives
on land use, creating a public forum where disparate ideas
can meet and reflect off of one another.
The exhibit halls will be situated in structures that reflect
the architectural styles of the region, usually occupying
existing structures. The exhibit areas will be incorporated
into the venue with minimal modifications to the exterior
of the structure.
Similar to interpretive stations operated by the National
Park Service, and others, these exhibit sites will house displays
of photographs and artifacts and will be available for viewing
by the general public.
Collectively these exhibit spaces will comprise the Museum
of Land Use, a museum both situated in and made up of the
landscapes of America. A central exhibit space, designated
as the Museum of Land Use Museum, will locate and describe
the individual museum sites.
