 This image was taken during the Ranch School era. The camera is facing East and you may recognize the two parallel roads. Be sure to notice where these roads merge together in the distance. Downtown Los Alamos revolves around two roads, Trinity Drive and Central Avenue. These two roads run parallel to each other and they handle a majority of the traffic for everyday Los Alamos. Our small businesses, restaurants, and some of our residences rely on these roads. When one of them requires construction, the town is thrown into an uproar because our ‘traffic’ builds up for several blocks, blocking the ease of flow for the town.
A little known fact is that these streets have been here almost as long as the town has! Granted, there have been a few bends here and there, but the overall location and direction has remained the same since the era of the Los Alamos Ranch School (1917 to 1943).
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We remember the Trinity test as the changing point for the future of weapons development and the course of the Second World War. The basic details are frequently talked about; it was the first major test of the implosion design, it was successful, it occurred on July 16th 1945, etc, but the steps taken in preparation for this test are not often discussed.
A test explosion was conducted in May of 1945 at Trinity site to do a dry run with the measurement and photographic equipment. 100 tons of TNT were detonated 20 feet off the group atop of a wooden structure. The test was a success, although the explosion was about a 20th in size in comparison to the well known explosion that would take place 2 months later. This month we are exploring #InsideTheArchives to rediscover a lost Los Alamos locale: Higgins Park. Do you recognize the name? Have you heard stories of this Manhattan Project-era park?  The stairway leading from the mesa top to the MP picnic area in 1945 or 1946. Bingham Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.  Los Alamos Historical Society Executive Director Elizabeth Martineau in the Victory Garden behind the Hans Bethe House on Bathtub Row. Enterprise Bank’s support helped create this garden open daily to the public. Photo by Gordon McDonough By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society The Los Alamos Historical Society is planting a victory garden for the second year in a row, an effort that connects us to the Manhattan Project years and the World War II era. It is a living connection not only to Los Alamos history but also to our national history. The term victory garden dates back to World War I, when Americans were asked to grow “War Gardens”, but after the war, when the government encouraged the continuation of producing food in home gardens, the name changed to “Victory Gardens”. With the advent of a second world war, the idea was resurrected. The planning of personal gardens to help with the production of food was in full swing again by 1943, with approximately 20 million victory gardens planted. The national promotion of the gardens was handled by the Department of Agriculture, and despite the fact that most of the citizen gardeners were unskilled, they managed to raise approximately 8 million tons of food. The following year, they produced 40 percent of the vegetables grown in the United States, accounting for more than a million tons of food.  Master Cottage #1 shown in 2018, now known as the Hans Bethe House and Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery. Photo by Todd Nickols By SHARON SNYDER
The Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) was in its seventh year when Director A.J. Connell had a small wooden building constructed to the west of the Big House to use as director’s quarters, giving him some privacy and freeing up space in the main building. However, there was a slight miscalculation, and long foul balls from the nearby baseball field had the potential to land on his roof. When Fuller Lodge was under construction in 1928, Connell moved to the third floor and turned over the small plank house to two young masters—Lawrence Hitchcock and Art Chase. In 1931, during a cold winter, the wooden cottage caught fire. With nearby Ashley Pond frozen over, there was little water to fight the flames, and the structure burned to the ground. There was, however, something odd about the fire. May Connell, A.J.’s sister, noted that one corner of the house burned much longer than the rest of the building. The explanation revealed that a 30-gallon keg of corn whiskey was stored in that corner! (Prohibition was still in force but winding down, and the young men said they were aging the keg in case prices increased when prohibition ended.) By SHARON SNYDER
In this very different Christmas season, I find comfort in the words of Edith Warner, the woman who lived at Otowi Bridge. Life hands us challenges in many different ways. The challenges we are facing now are different from the ones she faced during World War II, but the way she faced them with strength and hope can be a comforting inspiration. Edith wrote Christmas letters to her friends each year. In sharing this one with you, I’ve had to delete some parts to stay within the publishing space available, but the flow of her thoughts and the message are still there. On Facebook this month we're going #InsideTheArchives to explore Manhattan Project secrecy.  A military examiner, identified only as #2034, used these two censor form slips to return a letter to Edward Wilder. Wilder Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and Collections.  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.”  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. |
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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