Arco, Idaho

When I reserved a room in Arco, Idaho from the comfort of my bed in Washington DC it was because of its proximity to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  When we arrived, the small town had plenty of wonders to wonder about.  Like why were there a bunch of numbers painted upon the town’s most prominent mountains?  Why was the motif one of my favorite eBay searches: “vintage atomic”?  

In the brief time we spent in the lovely town, we got the answers.  The numbers were part of a tradition dating back over 100 years.  The graduating class of the local high school have been adorning the mountain with their graduation year since 1920.  We spent some time analyzing the placement of the years and inferring the “badassness” (Is there another word for this? Let me know.) of the kids of Arco and how this year’s “24” will differentiate itself from 1924.

As for the atomicness of the city… It was the first community in the world to be powered by nuclear power.  The BORAX-III reactor lit the community for one single hour on July 17, 1955.  It was also the place of the first and only nuclear reactor accident–on January 3, 1961 when operator error resulted in a steam explosion that killed 3.  

The town had some lovely dilapidated signs, a favorite to photograph.

Another wonderful stop in Idaho.