Ah Wendover, what an enchanting place-----not! It’s a remote watering hole on the border of Nevada and Utah at the edge of the great Bonneville Salt Flats. On the Nevada side (West Wendover) there’re mostly casinos and some commercial enterprises. On the Utah side there’re some run down houses mixed in with a couple nicer ones, some more commercial enterprises, funk, junk and rust, and a then there’s the very big ancient playa off to the east. There are perhaps three reasons to stop: get gas, have a bite to eat, or play a game of chance. But if you're like I am, you'll have a fourth reason; you're curious. I stopped and found some things that made the place interesting.
#1 ... If you had
been standing in that desert about 16,000 years ago, you’d have been 1,000 feet
under water. How could that be? Well, over a 3,000,000-year period the
climate
of North America went from wet to dry several times. Glaciers formed and then
receded leaving behind pluvial lakes, great bodies of landlocked water that sit
in natural basins. In the southwestern United State several of these
prehistoric lakes were the result of the wet periods. One such lake was named
Bonneville. It formed about 32,000 years ago and covered 19,800 square miles.
Over time, as the climate changed to dry, Lake Bonneville slowly disappeared,
leaving behinds salt. Today, the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats
are reminders of the ancient lake.
#2
... In 1907, a trio of men wanted to find out if they could drive an automobile
across the salt flats. They succeeded and that opened the door. But it wasn’t
until the mid 1920’s that a highway (US 40) was built across it. Much later the
route was improved and it became Interstate 80. Back in 1924, entrepreneur William
“Bill” Smith seized the moment and with $500 he had saved and a partner, built
a gas station and garage to service all the travelers brave enough to the cross
the salt flats. Smith hooked up a light bulb to the top of a flagpole. This
beacon burned brightly 24/7 and as a result, Wendover became known as “the
light in the desert.” He later added a café and a few bungalows. In 1931, they
received one of the first gambling licenses issued in Nevada and so began the
Wendover Hotel and Casino. All went well until Smith and his partner’s family
had a falling out. They agreed to flip a silver dollar, winner take all. Bill
Smith won. Years later the light bulb was replaced with a waving neon lit
statue of the “World’s Tallest Cowboy,” Wendover Will. He has been welcoming
travelers since 1952. He’s 63’ tall and includes 1,1184’ of neon tubing.
Several years ago he was given a new home on the old highway into town. 
#3
... The
Stealth Gallery located in the historic and fast deteriorating Wendover Air
Force Base is one of the funkiest, if not the funkiest galleries in all of
gallerydom. Picture a broken-down, single story military barracks hidden
amongst similar ghostly buildings inside a compound marked by a chain-linked
fence. The gallery is not easy to find because it hides behind the other
abandoned barracks and it hides well. But after a couple false positives I found it and once I entered the door's lock combination (1,2 for any of you
incline to wander there) I went inside. Nothing had changed from my last visit. There were the same land use pictures
and information and the same rather ugly pictures. I think the high water mark
came when friend Richard Menzies had his show there. He brought a lot of class to the place. Unfortunately it's been downhill ever since.
#4 ... Wendover
Field, a WWII Air Force base is slowly decaying. But a small band of devoted
enthusiasts are hard at work raising funds to restore portions. There's a very
nice museum, which depicts the base's important contributions to the war
effort. It became the largest Air Force base in the world.
During WWII it provided training for B-17 and B-29 flight crews. Once they
reached reasonable skill levels, they took off, and either flew to Germany to
drop bombs on Hitler or off to Japan to do the same to Tojo. No less than the famous
Enola Gay was based here. This is where the crew trained. Col Tibbets, its
pilot, chose this spot because of the isolation. Big Boy and Fat Man (Atomic
bombs) were tested out there in the great expansive desert. Kaboom! and a
mushroom cloud!
The
air base is now a civilian airport with what amounts to an unusually long
runway. It has been turned over to Wendover and was given a new name, Decker Field. Buildings have been leased
for storage, but the hanger that housed the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress
that was used to drop the atomic bombs, remains much as it once was. A devoted
group of people is in the process of restoring some of the old base as a
lasting tribute to its historic value.
Wendover
is a town caught between two states, Nevada and Utah, but it’s not only the
border that separates. West Wendover, Nevada is prosperous; Wendover, Utah is
not. West Wendover has gambling; Wendover, Utah does not. The only place where
they seem to come together is time; both are in the Mountain Time Zone. For
years Utah and Nevada have endorsed the idea of only one Wendover. The plan
called for the eastern part to be annexed into Nevada, but Wendover’s town
council voted against it, so until such time as there is annexation, Wendover
will remain a place with a split personality.
k
