The county's establishment was a response to plans by the United States federal government to create a disposal site for radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, then within Nye County. Alongside Texas with a site in Deaf Smith County and Washington with the Hanford Site, Nevada was one of three states to be considered for such a site, and like the other two fought it bitterly. The federal government agreed to provide grants equal to taxes (GETT) to Nye County for the site per the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, bypassing the state government. In response, Nevada Assemblyman Paul May introduced AB 756, a bill declaring a area around the proposed nuclear waste site to be a new county, Bullfrog County. The name derived from the Bullfrog Mining District in the area, in turn named due to the area's gold ore being colored like a bullfrog. There had been an earlier attempt to create a Bullfrog County out of southern Nye County in 1909, but Nye County blocked the proposal.