The community of Wendover came into existence in 1906 as a railroad town, serving the steam engines of the Western Pacific Rail Road, which is now part of the Union Pacific Rail Road. The community boasted a population of around 150 people. Wendover included a train depot, water towers, a round house and other ancillary buildings needed for the operation of an emerging and growing railroad. Wendover became a main stop on this route, which provided service across the Great Basin deserts of Utah and Nevada connecting Salt Lake City to San Francisco. During the early 1900’s, Wendover was a cross roads for many significant undertakings including arsenic mining 25 miles south of Wendover mainly for the efforts of World War I and the connection of the first transcontinental telephone line connecting the U.S. from east coast to west coast.

The Wendover area saw its first boom in the 1930’s and 40’s with the introduction of legalized gambling in the State of Nevada. Mr. Bill Smith founded a small cobblestone service station that provided a needed rest to weary travelers crossing the desert terrain of western Utah and eastern Nevada. Today this facility is known as the State Line Hotel and Casino. It has been to date the oldest continually operating licensed casino in Nevada. As equally important to this new business spirit in the area was the role the United States Military played in building and operating Wendover Field. Construction on Wendover Field began in November of 1940. By 1943, Wendover had become the largest military reserve in the world with over 23,000 military personnel, a total of 668 buildings and encompassing 3.5 million acres of property.

This facility became the mainstay of the United States Military’s training mission for bomber crews. All told Wendover field was home to 21 heavy bomber groups including the most notable; the 509 th Composite Group commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, along with its counterpart the 1 st Ordinance Detachment which was responsible for the assembly and modification of the atomic aerial devises. The 1 st Ordinance Detachment later became part of the Manhattan Engineers. These two groups’ mission which were recorded in history as the atomic missions over Japan (Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945) was to be the first and to date, the only atomic bombardment exercised by one nation against another.

Along with these and other significant events, Wendover has also been home to one of the most time-tested man vs. the elements matches. This would be the Bonneville Speedway, which is founded on the salt desert left by Ancient Lake Bonneville. Here world land speed records have been set for nearly a century and the salt floor of the speedway has been witness to hundreds of individuals and their cars, rather they be stock or modified, internal combustion or rocket, attempting to reach for speeds on land which no other human has. Most notable is the record set by Gary Gabelich and the “Blue Flame”, in 1972, of over 626 M.P.H.

Through the 1970’s and 80’s Wendover began to emerge as a destination resort. Additional businesses arrived constructing more casinos, hotels and many different types of service establishments as well as recreational venues such as the Toana Vista Golf Course. As growth continued to spiral up, the citizens of Wendover, Nevada, which operated by a town board under the Elko County Commission, elected to incorporate under self-rule. On July 1, 1991, West Wendover, Nevada came into existence and since incorporation, West Wendover has been one of the fastest growing border towns in Nevada with an average growth rate of between 8 and 10 percent and today boasting a population over 5,500.