In its day, Historic Wendover Field was the biggest military base in the world. And for a few months in 1945, it was one of the most high security places on earth. Wendover could not have been more isolated — right at the Nevada-Utah line, on the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was here the final preparations for the atomic mission on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were carried out. The hangar where the planes were modified still stands following a large renovation effort. The base was used to train bomber crews and saw constant traffic. Now the local community has turned it into a museum — and you really feel what it would have been like during the war.

Jim Peterson runs the museum and has been a driving force in saving the base. Here you will find old buildings, the restored Service Club, the control tower you can now ascend and look down on the flight line, and even the old bomb pit, where the large atomic weapons were loaded into the bomb bay of the B-29.  The Wendover story is a part of our Big Stories called “Boneyard Bomber: Flying Again.” Here is a preview and a brief look at this historic piece of the World War Two story.

Before Restoration                                                After Restoration