The Mapes Hotel Implosion

The morning was a little cold; there was still snow on the mountains. I hadn't been up this early since the Reno Balloon Races, but this was a special day. Dad had gotten the whole family tickets to the parking garage across the street from The Mapes; it was being imploded this morning.

I had seen things like this on TV, but never thought I would get to see it in person. There had been lots of talk over demolishing this historic building. Lots of people wanted it to still stand, but the truth was it would fall down on it's own in time. It had been closed since before I was born, and at 19 years old, even I knew the building was no longer up to code. Everyone thought something could be done to save it, but there was nothing more to do. To this day there are websites that are angry the building came down.

They had been working on the building for a long time, preparing it for implosion. They brought work to my father so that they could get all the asbestos out, so when it blew we didn't get the whole city sick. The day had come when it was going to come down.

Thankfully we were around people who were excited to see a building come down like I was. We had to be up in the Cal Neva Parking lot hours before to ensure our safety. After an hour or so they moved us up to a higher level, saying the dust would reach us if we weren't high enough.

Finally the time came. Everyone was worried we wouldn't get to see it come down at all, because sometimes after the detonate the explosions, it still wouldn't come down. Anticipation reached an all time high, I could almost feel the tension in the air.

Everyone on our floor counted down with the crew. 5....4.....3.....2.....1 and the explosions went off, starting from the ground floor and working it's way up with a boom that sounded far away even though it was across the street. Seconds went by, and I thought the building wasn't going to go down. After all this waiting I felt myself get a little disappointed. Then I saw it start to slide...The whole building like it was made out of legos imploded into itself with a great crash. I felt my eyes grow wider as I watched the last of the building sink into the dust it had already kicked up.

The dust grew closer to the parking garage, and suddenly the whole crowd realized we were not up high enough! There was a mad dash for the elevator, and my sister, mom, dad, and I dashed to the elevator. I felt elated running, like I was in the middle of an action movie, and we had to not get caught by the giant dust rushing to meet us. The glass elevator was almost full when we reached it, but we squeezed in just as the doors were closing. We looked out the glass just in time to see the dust envelope the elevator. I remember thinking "That was one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me." I felt the smile move across my face and looked up at my dad, only to meet the same expression. At that moment I knew what he was thinking, and he knew what I was thinking because we felt the same way.

I looked down at my 12 year old sister and saw the blank stare. I smiled at her, and she burst into tears. I was completely taken aback, and asked her what was wrong. She was upset that something that big had been destroyed. This was a new experience; I felt almost wrong for being so excited seeing The Mapes destruction. My dad told her that no one was in there and not to be so silly as to be upset over a building, but she was upset. She stayed that way all through breakfast at Cal Neva, but managed to cheer up a bit afterwards because I was making jokes with her.

After breakfast we went down to the site and bought one of the bricks from the Mapes, and we still have them to this day. To this day I think it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, regardless of what people thought of the building.