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Before World War II, Los Alamos, New Mexico was a Boys Ranch School and little else. Even though it was only 33 miles from Santa Fe (New Mexico's capital) it was extremely isolated. Nobody was going to accidentally go to Santa Fe. This made a perfect location for one of the key laboratories that built the atomic bomb during World War II.
On the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School, a secret town sprouted, using almost 46,000 acres, including roads and the right of way for power lines, purchased at a cost of $415,000. Construction was completed in November of 1943 at a final cost of $7 million. At the time, Los Alamos had a population of about 6,000.
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The city has always been unique. During the second world war, Los Alamos was the site of a classified research laboratory, built as part of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. Along with Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington, it was also home to a “secret city” built to house thousands of scientists, engineers and their families...
Today Los Alamos has become one of the richest cities in America. At least one in every nine people – a whopping 12% of the population– is thought to be a millionaire. Los Alamos also regularly tops the list in terms of the best education and lowest crime levels in the state. It has one of the country’s highest concentration of PhDs. On the map of ...
Los Alamos sits on a hill at more than 7,000ft (2,000 metres) above sea level. The single, steep road to the town winds through picturesque northern New Mexico: arid landscape punctuated with desert plants and native American pueblos, with the Jemez mountains in the background. On a sunny September afternoon, the town is calm and peaceful. A perfec...
Española is a 25 minute drive north-east of Los Alamos. It, too, is a small town, with a population of about 10,000. But, in many respects, it feels a world away from the nuclear island on the hill. The road into Española passes by brightly painted murals and drive-thru fast food restaurants. Other buildings bear hand-painted signs on storefronts, ...
In Española’s Valdez Park, Beata Tsosie Peña, 38, is sitting with her young son near a freshly terraced slope where she will soon help plant trees as part of a new community garden. Peña was born in the nearby Santa Clara pueblo, and is coordinator of the environmental justice programme at Tewa Women United (TWU), a civil society organisation led b...
The final link in the Manhattan Project's far-flung network was the bomb research and development laboratory at Los Alamos, located in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Codenamed "Project Y," the laboratory that designed and fabricated the first atomic bombs began to take shape in spring 1942 when James Conant suggested to Vannevar Bush ...
Jul 20, 2023 · Los Alamos was more than a lab — it was a secret city, built for the express purpose of atomic development. Housing top scientists, their families, and support staff, this island of research led ...
Aug 7, 2023 · Cynthia Kelly, founder and President of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, discussed why Los Alamos, New Mexico was chosen as the site during WW2 to coordinate elements for the first nuclear weapons.
Apr 18, 2023 · Oak Ridge. In Los Alamos, New Mexico, Manhattan Project administrators found an ideal location for the secret laboratory where they designed and built the world’s first atomic weapons. During the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos became the home to many of the top scientific minds of the day: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Norris Bradbury, Richard ...
