A portal to another place and time.

Where the heck is Yucca Fountain? You might be asking yourself what the heck is Yucca Fountain? In the 1950s, the dusty desert badlands of Nevada were not as barren as the government’s nuclear scientists would have liked you to believe.  At the edge of the Yucca Flat atomic blast zone was a thriving soda fountain frequented by cowboys, Native Americans, conspiracy theorists, alien abductees, desert weirdos, and the residents of Survival Town.  Yucca Fountain served as a watering hole and gathering spot - an important part of the Amargosa Valley community.

In 1958, the Fountain was damaged in a suspicious fire and it never reopened.  The Fountain would have faded into obscurity if not for the efforts of Bert Tuttle.  An enthusiastic patron, Tuttle salvaged from the wreckage of the diner two neon signs, parts of the original soda fountain, paper ephemera, glassware, and anything else that he could carry out.  Tuttle obsessed over the Fountain’s mysterious demise and kept remnants of the diner for decades until they were collected from his estate in 2018 by artists Helen Popinchalk & Andrew Bablo.

By all accounts (including his own), Tuttle was ornery, reclusive, and conspiracy-minded.  Like all the most enduring conspiracy theories, his included a kernel of truth - it’s grounded in the historical record.  In 1958, with atomic testing moratoriums on the horizon, researchers in the Nevada desert scrambled to evaluate new designs.  In their haste to test the bombs above ground, Tuttle was convinced they made egregious miscalculations that placed Yucca Fountain in the danger zone.  Mistakes had happened before; “down-winders” in southern Utah were showered with radioactive fallout when winds shifted unexpectedly.  Windows shattered in Las Vegas from aggressive shock waves.  Perhaps Yucca Fountain suffered a similar fate…

Where the Heck is Yucca Fountain? pays homage to Tuttle, a silent collaborator, and painstakingly recreates his desert shack, workshop, and “mobile research lab,” where the remains of Yucca Fountain were discovered.  Tuttle’s collection, through the interpretive lens of Popinchalk and Bablo, serves as a window into the past.  This installation is rooted in collaboration - across time and place.  The soda fountain may or may not have existed as remembered; it is a co-created myth that blurs the line between archive and dreamscape.  Yucca Fountain explores the idea that meaning and place are made with others - whether they’re artists, lost community members, or fellow desert dwellers.

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