Focus on City (artwork) and discuss the Conservation.
Garden Valley has been eyed for several major projects in the years since Heizer started working on his sculpture. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the government planned to crisscross the valley and others nearby with railroad tracks that would carry MX missiles to and from hidden silos. The program was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan.The proposed Yucca Mountain Repository, a U.S. Department of Energy terminal storage facility for spent nuclear reactor and other radioactive waste would have included a new railroad line across Garden Valley, and would have come within its sightline. Heizer reportedly considered burying City if this line was built.In September 2014, U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada introduced the Garden Valley Withdrawal Act, a bill that would preserve the land around City and protect 805,100 acres of federal land from mineral and energy development. Reid had visited the area around City in 2007, and tried to pass a similar bill in 2010 that would designate part of Garden Valley and nearby Coal Valley as a national conservation area. In early 2015, a group of American museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Walker Art Center, and the Nevada Museum of Art joined together to urge preservation of the area.In July 2015, the area became part of the newly created Basin and Range National Monument. The national monument designation prevents new railroad or power lines and other development.
Yucca Mountain Repository Harry Reid radioactive waste Ronald Reagan Basin and Range National Monument Los Angeles County Museum of Art Nevada U.S. Senator U.S. Department of Energy MX missile Museum of Modern Art Walker Art Center Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Nevada Museum of Art spent nuclear reactor