Atomic Inn

Brief History of the Atomic/Phoenix Inn

Completed in 1980, the 54 room Atomic Inn (originally the Lori Motel) was built to accomodate defense contractor and military personnel working with the Ford Aerospace Corporation who worked at military installations at nearby Nellis Air Force Base - home to top secret installations like the world famous Area 51 (Groom Lake), the Nevada Nuclear Test Site (where over 500 above-ground nuclear bomb tests were tested, and the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.

No wonder we call it the ATOMIC Inn! The Atomic Inn/Phoenix Inn is a retro-themed motel establishment dedicated to great value and great service reminescent of the good 'ol days when Eastern Europe was the Warsaw Pact and the United States was ready to "duck and cover"!

Now a popular Death Valley motel choice, the Atomic Inn / Phoenix Inn has survived the Cold War and has been remodeled into the 21st Century yet is still a classic. Rated as #1 in Beatty out of 6 motels on TripAdvisor!!!

The Greening of the Inn

During our recent remodel - we decided to go "Green".  The Atomic/Phoenix Inn washes our linens and towels from water heated by the sun with a solar water heating system that heats our laundry water often to over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.  The system will pay for itself in only about 4 years!

As a further step, all of our laundry is line dried in the hot Oasis Valley sun when weather permits (which is almost all of the time).  Drying time is ussually less than ten minutes and our linens and towels smell fresher and last longer!

In addition we use post consumer paper products in our rooms to minimize our impact on the environment.  As a further step, all rooms are having dispensers installed to eliminate waste generated from individual packaging of soaps and shampoo.

Ninety-five percent plus of all lighting at the Inn is either compact flourescent or LED lighting including our large signs.

The entire property has been relandscaped in accordance with a xeriscaping approach to plant choices like native and non-native cactus, grass, flower, and tree species that thrive naturally in the Oasis Valley environment without using much water.  Our spring cactus flower display is spectacular.

No other motel in the area has gone to greater steps to "go green"

Brief History of Beatty, Nevada

*Before the arrival of Euro-American explorers, prospectors, and settlers, Western Shoshone in the Beatty area hunted game and gathered wild plants in the region. It is estimated that the 19th-century population density of the Indians near Beatty was 44 square miles (110 km2) per person.

*In about 1875, the Shoshone had six camps, with a total population of 29, along the Amargosa River near Beatty. Some of the survivors and their descendants continued to live in or near Beatty, while others moved to reservations at Walker Lake, Reese River, Duckwater, or elsewhere.

*Beatty is named after "Old Man" Montillus (Montillion) Murray Beatty, a Civil War veteran and miner who bought a ranch along the Amargosa River just north of the future town and became the town's first postmaster in 1905. The town was laid out in 1904 or 1905 after Ernest Alexander "Bob" Montgomery, owner of the Montgomery Shoshone Mine near Rhyolite, decided to build the Montgomery Hotel in Beatty. Montgomery was drawn to the area, known as the Bullfrog Mining District, because of a gold rush that began in 1904 in the Bullfrog Hills west of Beatty.

*In October 1906, the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad (LV&T) began regular service to Beatty; in  April 1907, the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BG) reached the town, and the Tonopah and Tidewater (AT&T) line added a third railroad in October 1907. The LV&T ceased operations in 1918, the BG in 1928, and the T&T in 1940. Until the railroads abandoned their lines, Beatty served as the railhead for many mines in the area, including a fluorspar mine on Bare Mountain, east of town. The town became the economic center for a large sparsely-populated region. Activities sustaining Beatty during the 1920s and 1930s included retail sales, gas and oil distribution, construction of Scotty's Castle, and the production and sale of illegal alcohol during Prohibition.

*Beatty's population grew slowly in the first half of the 20th century, rising from 169 in 1929 to 485 in 1950. The first reliable electric company in town, Amargosa Power Company, began supplying electricity in about 1940. Phone service arrived during World War II, and the town installed a community-wide sewer system in the 1970s. Nevada's legalization of gambling in 1931, the establishment of Death Valley National Monument in 1933, and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center, brought visitors to Beatty, which became increasingly tourist-oriented. As underground mining declined in the region, federal defense spending, starting with the Nellis Air Force Range in 1940 and the Nevada Test Site in 1950, also contributed to the local economy.

In February 2009, the New York Times published a Greenwire article suggesting that part of the economic stimulus money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act might finance the Beatty project. "Studies show that the Beatty area has some of the best solar energy potential in the United States, as well as a high potential for wind-power generation," the Greenwire story said.  Since then Solar Millenium, LLC a subsidiary of Solar Millenium of Germany has announced plans to break ground in 2010 on two (2) 258 megawatt solar reflector trough steam turbine generating palnts in the Amargosa Valley just a few miles south of Beatty.  The two plants would be the largest soalr power generating station in the world.  The project is estimated to be over a $1 billion construction project.

Check out more Beatty history at www.beattymuseum.com

Check out more about the Solar Millenium Project at