Editing Arco, Idaho (section)

== History ==
Arco was named as early as 1860 based on the name of a local rancher, Louis Arco.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Abraham C. |author-link= |date=1940 |title=Trails of Early Idaho: The Pioneer Life of George W. Goodhart |url=https://www.abebooks.com/Trails-Early-Idaho-Pioneer-Life-George/17098100769/bd |location=Caldwell, Idaho |publisher=Caxton Printers |page=257 |isbn=}}</ref> Louis Arco is also mentioned in the National Park Service’s Teacher's Guide to Craters of the Moon with the line “[around] 1862 Louis Arco establishe[d] a ranch and trading post at Arco." 

Arco was the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated solely by [[nuclear power]]. This occurred for about an hour on July 17, 1955, powered by [[Argonne National Laboratory]]’s [[BORAX experiments|BORAX-III]] reactor at the nearby National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS),<!-- which eventually became the site of the Idaho National Energy Laboratory,--> now the [[Idaho National Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/borax3/index.shtml |title=AEC Press release for BORAX-III lighting Arco, Idaho |publisher=United States Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory |year=1999 |access-date=2012-07-26}}</ref> NRTS made further history on January 3, 1961, when the [[SL-1#Accident and response|SL-1 reactor]] was destroyed through an operator maintenance error, with the ensuing steam explosion causing the deaths of all three personnel present.  It was the world's first and the United States' only fatal reactor accident.<ref>See [[List of nuclear power accidents by country]].</ref>