The village started in 1950 at the beginning of operations of the Nevada Test Site as
Base Camp Mercury, a military-style encampment built to provide basic facilities for personnel involved. As the scope of the testing program expanded, so did the number of personnel required to fulfill the site's mission, and beginning in 1951 a $6.7 million construction project was undertaken to provide adequate individual housing, office, and service structures with a civilian village-like design. With the acquisition of a full-service
post office in the mid-1950s, Base Camp Mercury was formally renamed Mercury, Nevada. In 1957, the US Navy launched nine atmospheric sounding rockets to measure nuclear radiation and other atmospheric data, using Mercury as a staging area. The
Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory conducted its first test flight in 1956. This test rocket lifted to an altitude of . In the early 1960s the village population grew to over 10,000, and further construction work was undertaken to upgrade the permanence of the village. A school was established, and numerous recreational and shopping facilities were added, including a movie theater, bowling alley, recreation hall, swimming pool, and hobby center, as well as a full-care health clinic, library, lodging (the Atomic Motel being the most prominent example), a non-denominational chapel with a cadre of chaplains, a service station with a garage, and a bus station. In 1962, the
Desert Rock Airport was added for the visit from President
John F. Kennedy on December 8. The village flourished until 1992, when all but
subcritical nuclear testing ended at the Nevada Test Site, as a result of the United States honoring the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (even though the U.S. has not yet ratified the treaty). The population shrank rapidly thereafter, leaving most of the facilities abandoned. A skeleton crew of scientists and military remains in Mercury, conducting limited testing and research. Most of the amenities have closed, and the village has become a shell of its former self, although dining, bar facilities, and a gym remain. The population is unknown and fluctuates. The last known census recorded about 500 people. ==Geography==