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​History Blog

The Slotin Accident: Inside the Archives

6/10/2021

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Identification photograph of a man with dark hair and wearing round glasses, below his face are the numbers 561
Louis Slotin’s pass photograph. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.
Louis Slotin started working on the Manhattan Project in Chicago in 1942 and came to Los Alamos in 1944. Slotin assembled the core of the Gadget at Trinity—if you have seen photos from the Trinity Test, you have probably seen him in them.

On May 21st, 1946 Louis Slotin was killed in a nuclear criticality accident. Slotin worked on a team involved with experiments meant to study nuclear materials at the edge of a nuclear chain reaction, without fully bringing the fissile materials to criticality.

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What’s In A Name, Even For A Goose?

5/7/2021

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Homer and Edna enjoying a sunny day with friends at Ashley Pond. Photo by Sharon Snyder
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society

Two snowy white geese on Ashley Pond have captivated the community in the past months. The male goose, Homer, has lived on the pond for several years, but in January, an elegant companion was seen swimming next to him. She was soon referred to as Homer’s  “girlfriend,” his “feathered beauty,” and sometimes “Homer’s Honey.” 

Although those tributes were nice, it was clear that his lovely lady needed a name. At that point, the community gladly became involved, submitting ideas for the name. The Daily Post accepted suggestions, and two names—Edna and Marge—were the most popular. Votes were sent to the newspaper, and in the end, Edna won out. 


​A number of residents were disappointed, but historically, Edna was a good choice. Our geese aren’t the first couple with those names in the history of New Mexico. 


In 1927, a young man named Homer Pickens traveled from the Texas Panhandle to join his older brother, Albert, at a mountain camp near Cuba, NM. Albert Pickens was a hunter and trapper and ultimately worked for the U.S. Biological Survey. In the time Homer spent with his brother, he observed and learned and eventually was also hired by the Survey.

With a secure job, Homer’s thoughts turned to a girl back home, and he asked Edna Burton to marry him. She agreed, and they rented an apartment in Roswell, where Homer was based with the Biological Survey. His first assignment after they were married took him away for two weeks. When he returned, Edna put her foot down and decreed that she would go with him when he returned to the camp. “I was going to live in the tent with him,” she recalled. 


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Fuller Lodge … Centerpiece Of Community

5/6/2021

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Historic Fuller Lodge in springtime. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archive
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
On Sept. 17, 1928, the Santa Fe New Mexican ran a headline: “Los Alamos School Opens, Fuller Lodge Is Completed”. The article referred to a beautiful log edifice two and a half stories high, with “its most striking feature being the long and lofty portal on the east front, facing the Jemez Plateau with the Sangre de Cristo range in the far distance.”

​The first plans for Fuller Lodge were sketched in 1925 and preliminary drawings were finished in 1927, showing a building that would blend with the first Los Alamos Ranch School building, a two-story log structure called the Big House. The new lodge also would have vertical logs with contrasting horizontal log placements to coordinate with the Big House architecture.


Santa Fe architect John Gaw Meem was selected to carry out the project, and it was to use materials found on or near the Pajarito Plateau and the Jemez Mountains—ponderosa pine and aspen logs along with Bandelier tuff for the stonework. 



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Oldest Continuously Used Building In Los Alamos

4/15/2021

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The Guest Cottage as it appeared in 1942. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archive
The Guest Cottage, 2018. Photo by Todd Nickols
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
For more than a century, the oldest continuously used building in Los Alamos has served at different times as an infirmary, a guest cottage, living quarters, a shelter for skunks, and a museum and gift shop. As we might expect, a building that has existed on the plateau for that long has stories to tell!

Referred to as the Guest Cottage for most of its existence, the building can be documented as far back as 1918 in records left by the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS).
It may have been on the plateau before the school was established. The first recorded occupant was Genevieve Ranger, the first nurse and matron for the school. She lived in the tiny log cabin, which doubled as the school’s infirmary, and also supervised the housekeeping and food service for the school. She left in 1924 and was followed by other matrons and nurses who would eventually live in Fuller Lodge when the infirmary was moved to the second floor.

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75th Anniversary of The Zia Company: Inside the Archives

4/1/2021

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April 1st marks the 75th anniversary of Los Alamos becoming a “Company Town” with the Zia Company being contracted to run the Los Alamos Laboratory and the community of Los Alamos in 1946. They managed the town until the early 1960s, and continued to manage the Laboratory until 1986. You can still find evidence of the Zia Co. in some Los Alamos homes today with markings on bathroom mirrors or furniture. 

#InsideTheArchives you will discover the many influences that the Zia Company had on Los Alamos history through photographs of their work and employees, documents managing utilities and permits, and artifacts such as hats and IDs; and that’s just a fraction of what we have related to this 40-year period!

Did you or a family member work for The Zia Company? Do you have a piece of furniture that has Zia Company instructions, stamp, or property tag? What do you remember about Zia Company’s impact on Los Alamos and the people who live here?


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Inside the Archives and Thinking About Drinking

3/4/2021

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We’re looking forward to next week’s lecture on our local Prohibition-era history—and looking #InsideTheArchives too! We’ve found some fun photos and artifacts related to Los Alamos and liquor over the years.
A person on the left of the photo holds a drink while the bartender collects money off of the bar. Behind the bartender are three shelves of bottles of alcohol, with Moscow mule mugs hanging from the shelves.
Fuller Lodge's hotel bar on December 1, 1950. Zia Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.
A solid copper Moscow Mule mug
Moscow mule mug from the Civic Club. Gift of Charles W. Bottom. Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and Collections.
People sit and lean against a wooden wall, holding drinks. A sign above a door on the left reads “Officers Lounge.”
Officers Loungs in the mid-1940s. Photo by Robert Martin. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

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Chief Mechanics House Saw Many Changes

2/25/2021

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The oldest continuously lived-in house in Los Alamos, 1999 Juniper St. Photo by Sharon Snyder
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
The oldest continuously lived-in house in Los Alamos was built on the Los Alamos Ranch School campus in 1925 and was known as the Chief Mechanics House.
It is still the neighbor of the old Guest Cottage that today houses our History Museum.

In the first years of the ranch school, three brothers from Española came to work on the Pajarito Plateau. Jim Womelsduff hired on as the school’s wrangler and ranch foreman, responsible for the entire physical plant — buildings, roads, water system, power plant, and power lines.


His brother Frank became the public school teacher, and a third brother, Floyd, hired on as the chief mechanic, responsible for electrical maintenance, automobile repairs, and plumbing.


​He also drove the ranch truck to Otowi to pick up the mail and supplies delivered by the trains on the Chili Line.

With the three Womelsduff boys working at the ranch school, their mother was alone on their ranch in the Española valley. It was decided that she would sell the land and live with Floyd.

​His job demanded an around-the-clock presence, so a cabin was needed near existing facilities.

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From A Pointed Roof To Living Room Of Scientists

2/11/2021

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The Pyramid in winter, Los Alamos Ranch School, c. 1924. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society Archive
By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society
In the first three years of the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS), the masters and boys all lived in a large, two-story log building known as the Big House. It contained rooms for students and masters, sleeping porches for the boys, a small library, classrooms, a kitchen and dining area, and a common room with a large fireplace.

​Perhaps with an eye to the future, LARS Director A.J. Connell had a square wooden structure built to the west of the Big House c.1920. The plain frame building couldn’t have been called aesthetic, but it offered quarters for two masters, each room with space for a desk and dresser and a bed on a sleeping porch. The new accommodations were soon referred to as the Pyramid, an appropriate name for a building with a four-sided pointed roof. The masters who moved into the Pyramid gained privacy but left behind modern amenities such as electric lights, indoor plumbing, and hot water.

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From An Artist’s Studio To Oppenheimer Residence

2/4/2021

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Los Alamos Ranch School Master Cottages 1 and 2, known today as the Hans Bethe House and the Oppenheimer House. Courtesy/Los Alamos Historical Society
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society

The houses of Bathtub Row have seen many occupants through the years and have many stories to tell, but the name Oppenheimer lends a special aura to one of those houses. It had existed for thirteen years before it became the temporary home for Robert and Kitty Oppenheimer, their young son, Peter, and daughter, Toni, who was born during World War II. 
​

The history of the house began in 1929 when A.J. Connell, the director of the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS), designed a home for his sister, May Connell. May had followed two of her brothers to New Mexico after growing up in New York and spending time in France studying art. A.J. offered her a job to teaching voice, music appreciation, and painting, and planned to build her a cottage. 

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Going Inside the Archives to Visit the Pajarito Club

2/3/2021

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“If Ashley hadn't created the Pajarito Club, he would never have met Harold Brook and started the Los Alamos Ranch School. Without that school on the mesa, the Manhattan Project would most likely not have been located here, and all of us would be living somewhere else today!”
A horse-drawn wagon loaded with provisions sits in front of a two-story building. Two people unload the wagon, three stand in the doorway.
Pajarito Club around 1915 or 1916. Peggy Pond Church Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

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    These articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Spring 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts