Grasshopper Junction is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Mohave County Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United St ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States. Lying four miles (6 km) west of the town of

Chloride The chloride ion is the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. It is formed when the element chlorine (a halogen) gains an electron or when a compound such as hydrogen chloride is dissolved in water or other polar solvents. Chloride salts ...

, Grasshopper Junction provides access to a lone surviving mining camp along County Road 125. The area features the Grasshopper Junction restaurant as a roadside attraction.

History

In January 1951, the United States government established the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of th ...

, a

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

testing reservation located in

Nye County Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, about 180 miles (290 km) northwest Grasshopper Junction. During the 1950s, the

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently ener ...

from these tests could be seen for almost in either direction, including in the city of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

where the tests became tourist attractions. Between May 28 and October 7, 1957, the Nevada Test Site ran a series of

nuclear tests Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

called

Operation Plumbbob Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests that were conducted between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site, following ''Project 57'', and preceding '' Project 58/58A''. Background The operation consisted of 29 explosions ...

. In 1958, the site carried out low-yield atmospheric and underground tests identified as

Operation Hardtack II Operation Hardtack II was a series of 37 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1958 at the Nevada Test Site. These tests followed the ''Operation Argus'' series and preceded the ''Operation Nougat'' series. With test moratoriums on ...

. As a result of Operation Plumbbob and Operation Hardtack, Grasshopper Junction became part of the June 22–26, 1959

hearings In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency or a legislative committee. Description A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and ...

before the Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the

Joint Committee on Atomic Energy The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE) was a United States congressional committee that was tasked with exclusive jurisdiction over "all bills, resolutions, and other matters" related to civilian and military aspects of nuclear power from 1946 ...

. At the time, the population of Grasshopper Junction was two, and the first session of the

86th United States Congress The 86th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1959 ...

determined that the estimated radiation dose received by the Grasshopper Junction population was 0.03 roentgen (8 microcoulombs per kilogram) before Operation Plumbbob (Pre-Plumbbob) and 0.03 roentgen (8 µC/kg) after Operation Hardtack II (Cumulative). In December 1975, a marker was erected across from Grasshopper Junction to honor the bicentennial of Chloride. From 1988 to 1991, Grasshopper Junction had a population of six, which included Dean Morrison and Jackie Appelhans as co-owners of a store and restaurant and their four children. Although their children had moved away by 1991, they were included in the population count. In May 1991, both Morrison (age 65) and Appelhans (age 60) were found murdered in their home. Brothers Robert and Roger Murray were each convicted on June 12, 1992 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery, and were sentenced to death. In October 1995, the sentencing was affirmed by the

Arizona Supreme Court The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justice, and five associate justices. Each justice i ...

. In May 2008, Roger Murray's petition for writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

was denied. In July 2005, the Twin Mills wildfire was ignited by lightning and burned Grasshopper Junction, which received air drops of flame retardant. In a 2006

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

survey of the depth to water and water-level altitude in Arizona, the younger

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

surficial deposits atop Grasshopper Junction were viewed as ranging from unconsolidated to strongly consolidated alluvial deposits. Residing in the Detrital basin, the ground water in Grasshopper Junction is contained in a basin-fill aquifer and other water-bearing sediments at a depth of approximately below the land surface. Additionally, the underground water level resides approximately at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 3700 feet (1130 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

and is moving directly South.

References

{{authority control Landmarks in Arizona Unincorporated communities in Mohave County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona

History

See also

References