Arizona Field Trip Mom: Los Alamos, New Mexico - The Manhattan Project National Historic Park

Los Alamos National Labs

This holiday season my family traveled to Los Alamos, New Mexico to explore the birthplace of "Trinity" (the first atomic weapon) as a supplement to watching the outstanding WGN America TV series "Manhattan" which just concluded it's second season. Los Alamos is located in Northwestern New Mexico and the journey from Albuquerque through Santa Fe and then up to the labs in the mountains can be beautiful itself. The "downtown" historical district is just a few square blocks but contains a lot of important history to view.

Our first site to see was the Bradbury Science Museum, named for one of the head scientists - Noris Bradbury - who helped guide Los Alamos after the end of WWII. After entering into WW2 (and fearing Germany was already working on an atomic weapon) the US began a secret project, code named the Manhattan Project, to build an atomic weapon. The "Manhattan" (@manhattanWGN, #ManhattanWGA) TV series does a great job chronicling the development of the atomic bomb from the perspective of the scientists and their families who moved out to the "middle of nowhere" - only known as Post Office Box 1663, Santa Fe - and were not able to know what their spouses / parents were working on day and night. Robert Oppenheimer is known as the "father of the atomic bomb" and you can see his house and many artifacts of his work at Los Alamos during this fascinating era. Once he came to understand the full implications of what he had helped create, however, he spent the rest of his life trying to stop any use of the weapon (which itself is a fascinating story). The museum contains many fascinating exhibits about Los Alamos (before and after it became a research lab), the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, and some of the research they conduct for both military and civilian projects today.

In Los Alamos you can see the current Los Alamos National Lab (you can see the gate, but cannot get onto the lab grounds). The Fuller Lodge which began as a boys school eventually would become housing for members of the Manhattan Project including visiting scientists - many Nobel Prize laureates - and General Leslie Groves (the top military leader of the Manhattan Project -- a project so secret that even Harry Truman, Vice President of the US, did not know about it until FDR died suddenly mere months before the initial test of the bomb). The tour and museum presents a balanced view of the history of the development of the atomic bomb and the civilian uses of atomic energy and worth a visit and discussion on the drive home. If you enjoy hiking there are many excellent locations including the Bandelier National Monument nearby.