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Signature place Wendover

A preserved WWII flight line at the Utah and Nevada line

Historic Wendover Airfield.

On the far western edge of Utah, where Interstate 80 runs out toward the salt and the Nevada line, sits what the airfield itself describes as one of the most intact and original World War II training bases left in the country. Wendover was a secret desert base built for its emptiness, the place where the crews of the 509th Composite Group, including the men who flew the Enola Gay, trained through the winter of 1944 and into 1945. Today its restored flight line is a museum you can walk, hangar by hangar.

On this page The short answer The base The 509th Visiting today FAQ
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah Updated August 2026

The short answer

Historic Wendover Airfield is the preserved World War II base just south of Wendover, Utah, where the 509th Composite Group and the Enola Gay crew trained for the atomic missions of August 1945. The museum in the old Service Club is open Monday through Saturday, and a guided tour walks the restored flight line most afternoons for a separate charge. It is a long, remote drive, about two hours west of Salt Lake City on Interstate 80, past the salt flats, and it repays anyone who cares about the history. The town side of Wendover, the caves and the desert lake, is covered on the Wendover guide.

Where Just south of Interstate 80 at Wendover, on the far western edge of Tooele County at the Utah and Nevada line
From Wendover Right at the edge of town, a couple of minutes south of the interstate
Season Year round, Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday; the flight-line tour runs most afternoons
Cost A modest museum admission; the guided flight-line tour is priced separately for a bit more
Time needed An hour or two for the museum, about half a day if you take the tour

What to know before you go

  • It is a working general-aviation airport as well as a museum, so the flight line is seen on a guided walk, not wandered on your own.
  • The museum is closed Sunday, and the daily tour has started around the early afternoon, so time the drive to catch it.
  • The nearest fuel, food, and lodging are in Wendover; there are no services out on the salt flats to the east.
  • Hours, admission, and tour times shift with the season, so call ahead at 435-665-7724 or check the airfield site before a long trip.

The base

A secret base built for its emptiness.

The reason a piece of the Second World War sits at the edge of the Utah salt is the emptiness itself. When the Army needed somewhere to practice bombing and gunnery far from anyone, it looked at the west desert. Congress funded the land in 1940, and that September the Interior Department transferred more than a million and a half acres to the Army Air Corps. Later additions pushed the total past three million acres, which the Army called at the time the largest bombing and gunnery range in the world. The first military crews arrived in August 1941.

Wendover Army Air Field was activated in 1942 and spent the early war as a heavy-bomber school, where crews learned to fly the B-17 and B-24 over the open desert and drop practice loads on the ranges. Thousands of airmen rotated through. The town beside the field, a tiny railroad and salt stop on the Nevada line, was swallowed by the base almost overnight, and for a few years this was one of the busiest airfields in the country in one of its loneliest corners.

What makes the site rare today is how much of it survived. Because the base kept a military role for years after the war and then sat in dry desert air, the flight line was never bulldozed the way most training fields were. The control tower, the long rows of barracks, the Service Club, the bombsight vault, and the hangars are still standing, and a volunteer foundation has spent decades restoring them. The daylight side of the town itself, the caves north of Wendover and the desert lake to the south, belongs to the Wendover guide; this page stays on the field.

The 509th Composite Group

The unit that trained here, and why the desert suited it.

In September 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets chose Wendover as the training site for a new and highly secret unit, the 509th Composite Group. It was activated at the field on December 17, 1944, more than 1,700 officers and men, along with a detachment of civilian and military scientists. The group flew a specially modified version of the B-29 and drilled for one demanding job: to carry and release a single very large bomb, precisely, from high altitude, and turn away.

The desert was the point. Wendover gave the group the isolation to keep the work secret and the wide-open ranges to practice over without an audience. Crews flew long navigation legs across the Great Basin and dropped weighted practice shapes on desert targets again and again, refining the release and the sharp turn that followed. The concrete loading pit that visitors still see is where crews practiced hoisting the heavy shape up into the aircraft.

From Wendover the group moved out to the Pacific island of Tinian in the summer of 1945, and in August its crews flew the two atomic missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The crew of the B-29 named Enola Gay, and the aircraft itself, had come up through the training here. That is the plain history of what this quiet field prepared, and the museum tells it at the level of the crews, the machines, and the work, which is how it should be told.

Visiting today

A museum in the Service Club, and a walk down the flight line.

The visit has two halves. The museum lives in the restored John T. Brinkman Service Club, the base's old recreation hall, with exhibits, photographs, and artifacts you can see on your own. The flight line, the working heart of the base, is seen on a guided tour that walks you through the actual World War II buildings.

The museum has generally been open Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday, with a smaller display in the airport operations building open every day, and hours that shift a little between the summer and winter seasons. Admission has been modest, in the range of ten dollars for an adult, with lower prices for youth and military and free entry for young children and members. The daily guided tour is priced on its own for a bit more.

The tour is the reason to come. It has run most afternoons, started around the early afternoon, and lasted a little over an hour, walking the restored buildings along the flight line: a squadron maintenance hangar, the restored fire station, the Norden bombsight building, the great B-29 hangar, and the concrete pit used to practice loading the bomb. A far longer All-Access tour runs on a handful of set dates through the year and covers much more of the sprawling base, closer to most of a day on its feet.

Restoration is the ongoing story here. The volunteers and the airfield's foundation have finished work on the control tower, the barracks, the bombsight vault, and the Service Club that holds the museum, and the big B-29 hangar tied to the Enola Gay has been under restoration for years. Because the work never really stops, what is fully finished changes over time. The aircraft itself is not here; the Enola Gay is displayed at the Smithsonian near Washington. What Wendover keeps is the ground and the buildings where the training happened.

The details

WhereHistoric Wendover Airfield, just south of Interstate 80 at Wendover, at the Utah and Nevada line
From WendoverA couple of minutes south of the interstate exits
SeasonYear round, Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday
CostA modest admission; the flight-line tour is separate
Time neededOne to two hours for the museum, about half a day with the tour

Before you go

  • Confirm the day's tour time before you drive; the guided walk is the part of the visit worth timing your day around.
  • Bring water, sun cover, and closed shoes. The flight line is open desert with little shade and a lot of walking.
  • Wendover sits on Mountain Time on the Utah side; the Nevada town across the line keeps the same clock, so no time change to track.
  • The Bonneville Salt Flats are a few miles east on the same interstate, which makes the two an easy pair for one long day.

Two ways to see it

The museum, the daily tour, and the occasional All-Access tour are three different depths of visit. Times and prices are what these have been running and they do change, so treat them as planning numbers.

The visit What you see When How long Cost
Museum on your ownThe Brinkman Service Club exhibits and the groundsMonday to Saturday, closed SundayOne to two hoursA modest admission
Daily flight-line tourThe restored WWII buildings along the flight lineMost afternoons, early afternoon startJust over an hourPriced separately, a bit more
All-Access tourA far wider walk across the sprawling baseA handful of set dates a yearMost of a dayA higher, separate ticket

A working airport in empty country. The airfield is an active general-aviation airport as well as a museum, so stay with your guide on the flight line and off the runways and taxiways. It sits in open desert, with the nearest fuel, food, and lodging back in Wendover and no services out on the salt to the east. Fill the tank, carry water, and check that the museum and the tour are running before you make the long drive, since hours and dates change with the season.

Put it together

A quick stop, a half-day tour, or a full west-desert day.

Four ways to shape the long drive out, sorted by how much time you have and what you are after.

A quick stop

  • Exit at Wendover and drive south to the field
  • Walk the Service Club museum on your own
  • See the control tower and the flight line from outside
  • Back on the interstate inside an hour or two

The half-day tour

  • Time your arrival for the daily flight-line tour
  • Walk the restored hangars and the bombsight building
  • See the B-29 hangar and the loading pit up close
  • Add the museum before or after the walk

Pair with the salt

  • Do the airfield in the cooler morning hours
  • Drive a few miles east to the Bonneville Salt Flats
  • See the speedway and the white hardpan when it is dry
  • Fuel up in Wendover before the drive back

A full desert day

  • Add the caves and the desert lake on the town guide
  • Or take an All-Access tour on one of its set dates
  • Watch for the Tree of Utah heading west on the drive out
  • Plan for two hours of interstate each way from Salt Lake

Living near Historic Wendover Airfield

A day trip from most of Utah, and a long way from the county seat.

The airfield is history and open country, not an address. For anyone weighing a move to Tooele County, it helps to be honest about the map: the county stretches more than a hundred miles from the Salt Lake edge out to this far western line, and the two ends are different worlds.

The address, honestly

Nobody lives at the airfield. The nearest town is Wendover, a small border community of roughly 1,100 built around the interstate, the airport, and the Nevada line, with the salt flats at its doorstep and a lot of empty miles in every direction.

Where the county lives

Tooele County's real communities sit at the eastern end, near Salt Lake: Tooele, Grantsville, Erda, and Lake Point, in the green valleys under the Oquirrh and Stansbury mountains. That is more than a hundred miles east of Wendover, a different climate and a daily commute to the city.

If the west desert draws you

Wendover suits people who want space, big skies, and life on the state line, and it runs on the airport, the salt-flats trade, and the traffic across the border. It is remote by any measure, and that isolation is the whole character of the place.

Most people meet Wendover as a day trip, not a hometown. If you are weighing where to actually land in Tooele County, the practical choices are at the valley end near Salt Lake. The Tooele city guide covers what daily life looks like at the county seat, and the Tooele County overview maps how the valleys and the west desert fit together. The town side of Wendover itself is on the Wendover guide.

Keep reading

More of the west desert, and the county behind it.

The town side

Wendover

Danger Cave, the desert dive lake, the Silver Island byway, and the honest line on the casinos across the state line.

Read the guide

A few miles east

Bonneville Salt Flats

The white hardpan where cars have chased land-speed records for a century, and the honest guide to when you can drive on it.

Read the guide

The emptiest quarter

The Pony Express Trail

The drivable 1860 mail route across the west desert, past a restored station, a free campground, and a famous wild-horse herd.

Read the guide

Silver and gold

Ghost Towns and Mining Camps

Which of the county's mining camps you can legally walk today, and which sit behind a company gate, from Ophir to Gold Hill.

Read the guide

The whole county

Tooele County overview

Three green valleys and then the west desert, the pronunciation question answered, and every guide in the county in one place.

Open the overview

The city guide

Tooele homes and neighborhoods

Prices, neighborhoods, schools, and current listings at the county seat, for anyone weighing a move to the valley end.

Open the city guide

Quick answers

The airfield, answered.

Yes. The 509th Composite Group, the handpicked B-29 unit that flew the atomic missions of August 1945, was organized and trained at Wendover Army Air Field starting in late 1944 under Paul Tibbets, and the crew of the Enola Gay was part of it. The base was chosen for how remote and secret it was, and the group used the vast desert ranges around the field to train.

Yes. The museum in the John T. Brinkman Service Club is open Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday, and a guided tour of the restored flight line runs most afternoons for a separate charge. The airfield sits just south of the town of Wendover on the far western edge of Tooele County, right at the Utah and Nevada line.

A modest museum admission, in the range of ten dollars for an adult, with lower prices for youth and military and free entry for young children and members. The daily flight-line tour is priced on its own for a bit more. These figures do change, so treat them as planning numbers and confirm the current rates before a trip.

The main museum in the Brinkman Service Club has run Monday through Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday, with a smaller display in the airport operations building open daily. Hours shift a little between the summer and winter seasons, so check the current schedule before you drive out.

The daily tour walks the restored World War II flight line and its buildings, which have included a squadron maintenance hangar, the restored fire station, the Norden bombsight building, the big B-29 hangar, and the concrete pit used to practice loading the bomb. A longer All-Access tour runs on a handful of set dates each year and covers far more of the base.

The B-29 hangar tied to the Enola Gay has been under restoration by the airfield's volunteers and foundation for years, alongside finished work on the control tower, the barracks, the Norden bombsight vault, and the Service Club that holds the museum. It is an ongoing effort, so what is finished changes over time. The aircraft itself is not here; the Enola Gay is displayed at the Smithsonian near Washington.

About 120 miles due west on Interstate 80, a drive of roughly two hours across the desert and the salt flats. Wendover is the last Utah town before the Nevada line, and the airfield is just south of the interstate. There are no services out on the salt, so fill the tank and carry water.

They are two towns sharing one spot on the map, split by the state line. Wendover, Utah holds the historic airfield, the salt-flats staging, and the desert country; West Wendover, Nevada holds the casino resorts. The daylight side of Wendover, the caves and the lake and the town itself, is covered on the Wendover guide.

For anyone drawn to World War II history it is, by the airfield's own account, one of the most intact and original training airfields left in the country, and the flight-line tour puts you inside the actual buildings where the crews prepared. Paired with the Bonneville Salt Flats a few miles east, the far western desert makes a full day out of Salt Lake.

Scott Buehler, Moving Utah

A day at the edge of the state, and a county worth knowing.

The airfield is a day trip and a piece of history, not a place to set down roots. What a page like this cannot answer is whether Tooele County works for a household, and that turns on things a guide cannot carry: which valley town fits the commute to Salt Lake, what a given street actually costs, and where the schools and services sit. Tell me what you are weighing and I will introduce you to a Tooele County partner agent who knows the valley, and stay on the file for the research and the financing side.

Explore Tooele County Talk to Scott

Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.