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1960 Map of Plutonium Valley

Name: 1960 Topographic Map of Plutonium Valley
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1962
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1962

About this map

Nevada Test Site operations dominate this arid landscape, showing the highly specialized infrastructure of the Cold War atomic age. The map center is defined by Plutonium Valley, which contains four distinct points labeled Blast Center and an adjacent Bunker. This area, designated as Area 11, also includes a Radioactive Waste Dump, marking it as a critical zone for nuclear testing and research during the early 1960s.

The topography transitions from the flat basins of Yucca Flat and Frenchman Flat into the steep terrain of Massachusetts Mountain and French Peak. A web of Jeep Trails provides the only access through this restricted military land, which overlaps with the Nellis Air Force Range and the Desert Game Range. The map serves as a stark record of the intersection between environmental preservation and national security infrastructure.