Broncos/Horses and Rocky Flats

These depictions of horses and broncos draw on the long tradition of equestrian and bronco iconography in the Rocky Mountain West, where they have historically symbolized power, conquest, and military service. Within this visual language, and in the context of Rocky Flats, the horse becomes a metaphor for the Cold War.

During the Cold War, Rocky Flats served as the ‘workhorse’ of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, manufacturing roughly 70,000 plutonium triggers—each designed to ignite a nuclear explosion up to one thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. These metaphorical depictions set aside victory or defeat and instead reflect on the lasting physical and moral consequences of nuclear weapons production.