In the 1960s, the US government came up with an experimental plan supported by the oil companies to try using nuclear explosions to extract natural gas in the American West. The tests set for Wyoming were known as the Wagon Wheel Project.
Direction
Asay finds poetry in declassified footage and town halls
Editing
Jarring cuts between pastoral Wyoming and atomic test reels
Production
Incredible archival access to buried government documents
Director
Gregory Asay
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The government detonated 27 nuclear devices for 'peaceful' purposes between 1961-1973; Wagon Wheel was canceled after public backlash made it politically toxic.
The same Wyoming counties that fought atomic fracking in '69 now lead the nation in conventional fracking—showing how resistance adapts but extraction always finds a way.
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