Sedan Crater

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

From the record

“Storax Sedan was a shallow underground nuclear test conducted in Area 10 of Yucca Flat at the Nevada National Security Site on July 6, 1962, as part of Operation Plowshare, a program to investigate the use of nuclear explosives for mining, cratering, and other civilian purposes. The radioactive fallout from the test contaminated more US residents than any other nuclear test.”
Wikipedia article Sedan (nuclear test), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 53 National Register listings published here for Nye County · listed in 1994 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. Area 10, Nevada Test Site, Mercury
When was it listed? March 1994
Category. site
Census division. Yucca Flat
National Register reference number. 94000183 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

1 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Sedan Crater in 2006, burning about 8,500 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 July 2006	Natural	8,500 acres	Nevada National Security Site	DOE 1 (MID-VALLEY)

Every fire recorded in Nye County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 27 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Sedan Crater: 12 prospects, 8 past producers, 6 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Tungsten, Copper, Silver, Lead. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Climax Mine	Gold, Silver, Molybdenum, Tungsten	Past Producer	1937
Hardhat Workings	Molybdenum, Copper	Occurrence	Molybdenite
M-9 Adit	Silver, Lead, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum	Prospect
Ne Michigan Boy Prospects	Copper, Iron, Manganese, Silver	Prospect
Oak Springtungsten Mine	Tungsten, Gemstone, Copper, Silver, Gold	Past Producer	1905
Prospects Ne of Michigan Boy Mine	Silver, Copper, Manganese, Iron	Occurrence	1940
The Climax Stock	Copper, Gold, Silver, Gemstone, Lead, Molybdenum, Tungsten	Occurrence	1905
The Climax Stock	Copper, Tungsten, Silver, Molybdenum, Lead, Gold	Prospect
Unnamed Prospects	Copper, Gold	Prospect
Unnamed Shaft and Prospects	Copper, Gold	Occurrence	1905

Every working recorded in Nye County

Storms near this property

17 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mercury, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 2000 and 2026: 16 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	A thunderstorm wind gust was recorded at an automated observation station on the Nevada National Security Site.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	This gust occurred 9 miles NW of Mercury.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	The peak gust of 64 mph occurred 9 miles NW of Mercury.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	Three stations measured gusts of 58 to 61 mph from a dissipating thunderstorm.
August 2000	Lightning	Mercury	-	Lightning started a wildfire in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge that burned an estimated 1,200 acres.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
March 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
May 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Mercury	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Nye County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 94000183 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Nye County	All 53 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.