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Conqueror Film Location Site


Name: Conqueror Film Location Site
Category: Nuclear / Radioactive
Archive ID#: UT3174
 
Description: In 1954, a dust-filled movie called "The Conqueror", starring John Wayne as Genghis Kahn, was shot in this valley, on ground that had been recently subjected to fallout from a series of nuclear tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site (especially dirty at this time was the 1953 above-ground test  code-named "Harry", which spread fallout over the down-wind portions of Utah). The contemporaneous death of thousands of sheep has been attributed to the blast, and around half (more than 90, at last count)of the cast and crew of 220  contracted cancer, many of whom died of their illness, including Susan Hayward, the director Dick Powell, Agnes Moorehead, and John Wayne himself. Statistically, this number should have been around 30. Howard Hughes produced the film, and even had some of the soil trucked back to hollywood for use on the set.
Location: 15 miles NW of St George, in Snow Canyon
(POINT(-113.64262104034 37.217445341811))
(show on map)
Address: UT
Visitor Info: The area now shows no measurable radiation.
LCS: Film / Entertainment Location, Nuclear / Radioactive
   
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