I’ve never been fan of winter season in Chicago after December. For the past few years we’ve tried many things to get away from it. This year, it was a road trip to the west coast. During this trip we stayed in New Mexico for a week, the Land of Enchantment, and the place where I lived for part of my infancy and childhood.
About 45 minutes out of Santa Fe is Los Alamos, a town most famously known for being the site of the Manhattan Project (1942-1945), a secret World War 2 program that produced the scientific discovery that lead to the making of the atomic bomb and subsequently nuclear technology.
Los Alamos is a small town surrounded by mountains where the Los Alamos National Lab still exists as a federally funded research and development center for nuclear technologies by the U.S. Department of Energy. The entrance to this area, reasonably so, is limited to those who work there. Driving into town there’s a few scenic look out points and a to-scale replica of the Manhattan project’s guard gate welcomes you as you enter.
The real history of what took place in the 1940’s still exists on Bathtub Row, a short 5 minute drive from the Bradbury Science Museum. It is there where the homes of physicists, Hans Bethe and J. Robert Oppenheimer, still stand today.
As of March 2025 the Oppenheimer house is still under works and unable to be toured by the public, but the company which filmed the Oppenheimer movie in 2023 has donated it’s props to the space, which you can see as you peak through the windows.
Conversely, the neighboring Hans Bethe house is open to the public and available to tour for free. It was there that we were greeted by a docent who took us through the history and memorabilia which included Frederick Reines’ Nobel Piece prize, a desk displaying items from Stan Ulam‘s work station, and a foot painting featuring the feet of some notable scientists including Enrico Fermi, a name familiar to Chicagoans, for his contributions at The University of Chicago and his namesake Fermilab in Batavia; another one of 17 National Laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy.
It is remarkable to think of what took place in this inconspicuous town. A group of the most talented minds, working on a project that would come to be one of the most ethically conflicting scientific discoveries.
As more countries have developed their own bombs at least 2,056 have been tested around the world, producing massive areas of contamination, long-term public health issues and rendering much land, once home to people, uninhabitable. (A disproportionate amount of testing took place around small pacific islands with smaller governments affecting many native populations who did not have the global voice/ platform to advocate against these practices. These tests have created long term damages and its effects can still be seen generations after in health issues, birth defects, and crop and wildlife radiation levels).
A project from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s alumnus, Isao Hashimoto, is displayed in one of the rooms of the Bethe house and illustrates this data. It is a video of a time-lapsed map that shows the dates, locations, and countries involved in 2,053 nuclear weapon detonations over the span of 53 years (1945-1998) .
Beginning in the 1996 many world leaders have decided to halt nuclear testing, with the last recorded test to date occurring in 2017. However, the affects of these tests will linger for much longer. And the threat that a world power will repeat the horrors that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms.
There is much to say on the topic of the Manhattan project and it’s effects, on ethics, warfare, public health, science, energy, technology, the environment and humanity. I will not be going further into detail on these in this post. But if you’d like to learn more on the matter the NYT created a in-depth interactive piece dated June 2024 which I have linked below and is worth the time. I have also included pictures and helpful information for those who wish to make the trip to Los Alamos and learn more about this history.
Clickable links below:
Resonstucted replica of the main guard gate as it stood during the Manhattan project. This gate is called “The Main Gate Park” and can be found at 2700 E Rd. Los Alamos, NM.
Senator Clinton P. Anderson Scenic Route as seen on the way into Los Alamos from Santa Fe
The front of the Hans Bethe house on Bathtub Row (neighbor to the Oppenheimer house). 1350 Bathtub Row, Los Alamos, NM 87544. At first it looked like another house in the neighborhood, but walk up to it, you’ll see a plaque on the right side. The house is open to the public for touring.
Names of Nobel Laureates connected to Los Alamos: Niels Bohr, Arthur Compton, James Chadwick. Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, Isidor Isaac Rabi. Edwin McMillan, Felix Block, Owen Chamberlain. Emilio Segre, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, Luis Alvarez, Aage Bohr, Val Finch, Dudley Herschbach, Thomas Cech, Norman Ramsey Jr., Fred Reines, Joseph Rotblat, Alan Heeger, Masatoshi Koshiba, Roy Glauber.
The Nobel Prize in physics for the detection of the neutrino awarded to Frederick Reines, physicist on the Manhattan project. The detection of the neutrino led to a better understanding of nuclear force, the realization that neutrinos have mass, and provided a way to study the interiors of stars (like supernovae) as neutrinos can easily escape from them, carrying valuable information about the events happening deep within stellar cores.
Mathematician on the Manhattan Project, Stan Ulam’s desk displayed with items he owned and texts about him. During his time on the project he was part of the theoretical division working on the design for the first atomic bomb. An inscription he wrote on his desk reads: “A mathematician does something on a piece of paper & then lo & behold a big explosion may occur”
A calculator tool, similar to the ones used by the Manhattan Project team to compute the calculations that lead to the project’s success.
Harold Agnew, physicist on the Manhattan project who later became the third director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, used to print holiday cards as a yearly tradition. During a cocktail party in the early 1950’s he had guests paint their feet and step on this masonite block. Notable guests featured include physicists Enrico Fermi (black footprint) and David Hall (bottom right yellow).
Robert Oppenheimer’s Signature inscribed into a desk at the Hans Bethe house. This is along with many other scientists and their loved one’s signatures, It is unknown as to whether the scientists actually signed the desk of if Agnew took it upon himself to trace their signatures and later wood burn them onto the desk.
The docent at the Bethe house encouraged us to stop over to the neighboring Oppenheimer house and take a peak through the window. This staging you may recognize from the movie Oppenheimer (2023). There are plans to have this opened as a house to tour in the future.
The current Los Alamos National Laboratory as seen from the road
The road gates to the current Los Alamos National Lab