 WAC and chemist Helen Gowen feeds Timoshenko and friend. Courtesy/Reid Cameron family and Los Alamos Historical Society Archive By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society Many famous names emerged from the Manhattan Project years on the Pajarito Plateau, but not all were scientists. Haskell Sheinberg, who came to Los Alamos as a member of the Special Engineer Detachment and stayed at the lab after the war years, remembered one such name. When Sheinberg was interviewed by the Atomic Heritage Foundation for the Manhattan Project Voices, he commented that dogs “were just allowed to roam” and remembered one such dog named Timoshenko, “the only dog allowed into the Tech Area, the main Tech Area.”
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 In this photo, María and Marcos Gomez are revisiting the site of their homestead on Two-Mile Mesa. Behind them is what was left of a corral. (Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.) By Aimee Slaughter
Los Alamos Historical Society How did people in the Pajarito Plateau’s past get their water? How did they live in a dry environment like ours? Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here hundreds of years ago used ingenious dryland farming techniques, and homesteading farmers at the turn of the twentieth century also conserved water for their farms and families. The Los Alamos Ranch School had to provide water for students, staff, and animals at the school. When the Manhattan Project took over the area, a rapidly growing population strained infrastructure, and providing enough water to homes was a constant concern. For hundreds of years, people have solved the challenges of finding water in a dry environment and have created diverse and vibrant communities here on the Pajarito Plateau.  Barbara Bohr connects with thoughts of her great-grandfather Niels Bohr as she stands on Sawyer’s Hill where he once skied during the Manhattan Project. (Photo by Liz Martineau) By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society In mid August, the historical society was contacted by a young woman who wanted to visit Los Alamos to see where her ancestors had been during the Manhattan Project. She would be flying from Denmark and wanted to learn what might still be here from that era. While there aren’t many buildings in existence on the community side of the fence, there is still an aura of that time, those years in the mid-1940s when scientists came together from many parts of the world to focus on a singular goal. Flash forward to this past Thursday. The woman stood inside the Hans Bethe House, looking at the panels that show the names of Nobel Prize winners connected with Los Alamos. It must have been a moment of pride for her because Barbara Bohr has two family members shown on those panels—her great grandfather Niels Bohr and her grandfather Aage Bohr. By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society This week marks the 73rd anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the end of World War II, the bloodiest conflict in human history. Reaction to the end of the war in Los Alamos, according to those who lived it, was mixed. Eleanor Jette described events in her classic book, Inside Box 1663: “About two o’clock, bedlam broke loose; word of the surrender request had reached the [army] barracks. GIs in trucks, jeeps, and on foot assembled in front of Theater Two, and a good part of the civilian population joined them. An impromptu parade started. Willy Higinbotham, playing his accordion, balanced precariously on the radiator of the leading jeep, and lids snatched from garbage cans clashed merrily. By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society A wrought iron gate, a smudged letter, and an old drum might rarely have intrinsic value. Rather, at least in the case of a museum, their value is in the stories behind them—what they represent—that gives them meaning. Such is the case at the Los Alamos History Museum. By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society Do you remember the last time you received an important letter—a real letter written in ink on real paper? In today’s world of texts, instant messages, and e-mails, it’s rare to get a genuine letter anymore. Yet historians are privileged to make discoveries with historic letters anddocuments on a regular basis, and sometimes, something really special comes along. A few months ago, one of the volunteers at the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and Collections was going through a box donated over a decade ago by Los Alamos resident Bill Bernard when she discovered a letter marked “SECRET.” By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society Sometimes a chance encounter can result in something unexpected. That was the case last August when I visited Mesa Verde National Park. I was wearing my Los Alamos Ranch School shirt with the embroidered logo when I met a volunteer ranger in the park. We were enjoying a nice conversation when she noticed the logo and said, excitedly, “My husband’s uncle was at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project!” By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society Few buildings induce the wonder and awe that Fuller Lodge evokes in first-time visitors. The majestic, three-story building of upright logs is the heart and soul of the community of Los Alamos. From its construction during the days of the Los Alamos Ranch School through today, it always has been. The building was designed by John Gaw Meem, a famous Southwestern architect known today as the father of Santa Fe’s Style. He used the Big House, the Ranch School’s dormitory, which also had upright log construction, as his model. By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society Stan Ulam may be one of the least known of the leading Manhattan Project scientists. A Polish-born mathematician, he was working as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, when he received a letter from physicist Hans Bethe, inviting him to join a wartime project near Santa Fe, NM. He would spend most of the rest of his career working on complex nuclear problems or mathematical issues related to them, such as high-capacity computing. As part of the Manhattan Project, Ulam, with John von Neumann and others, made the necessary mathematical calculations for the development of the “Fat Man” implosion weapon. |
AboutThese articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the Categories
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