The Main Gate, now situated within a park, on the eastern end of town. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Eighty years ago, the secretive work of the Manhattan Project led to the testing and creation of the world's first atomic bombs. The United States quietly started the Manhattan Project three years before the first bombs fell upon Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945). These detonations led to Japan's surrender and the end of the Pacific Theater of World War II.
Headquartered at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Manhattan Project also had a significant presence at Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Other facilities throughout the US and Canada assisted in experiments and tests at these locations. These three sites are now known collectively as the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Approaching the visitor center in Los Alamos in early June 2025. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Let's visit scenic Los Alamos. Known as "Site Y" eighty years ago, this area provided the research to create the bombs. On 16 July 1945, the first human-engineered nuclear device exploded at the Trinity Site. This area, located nearly in the center of a triangle between Alamogordo, Belen, and Truth or Consequences, south-southeast of Albuquerque, was the testing site for the weapons dropped on Japan a few weeks later.
Aerial view of Trinity Site in the 2020s. Image courtesy of Google Earth.
Anderson Overlook
Looking northeast toward the mountains north of Santa Fe in the distance. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Named for Clinton Anderson, the former US Secretary of Agriculture (1945-1948) and a longtime US Senator from New Mexico (1949-1973), the Anderson Overlook is along a scenic highway between San Ildefonso Pueblo and Los Alamos also named in Anderson's honor. The main route connecting Santa Fe and Los Alamos, this roadway hugs a rising plateau as it brings you into Los Alamos.
Another view from the Anderson Overlook. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The overlook offers magnificent views of mountain peaks that soar above 12,000 feet, including the South Truchas Peak at over 13,100 feet. We arrived mid-morning, though the best photos are taken at sunset, as the landscape reflects the strong orange and reddish hues of the last light.
A Settlement on Four Mesas
Reconstruction of an ancient Pueblo site in the heart of Los Alamos. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Named for the poplar trees (los alamos), especially cottonwoods, found in the area, the mesas of Los Alamos became the site of Indigenous settlements by the mid-1200s AD. Puebloan people constructed structures from blocks created from volcanic ash. They lived here for approximately 300 years, before a lack of wildlife and extended drought forced them to move.
Reconstruction of a Pueblo site created in the early 2000s. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Early settlers encountered the remnants of these Pueblos on Pajarito Plateau by the 1880s. Students at the Los Alamos Ranch School conducted some excavations of these locations. This reconstruction sits along "Bathtub Row," a pathway where many temporary homes and Quonset huts provided dormitories for scientists by the mid-1940s.
During World War II, only two homes in the immediate area had bathtubs, due to the need of preserving iron during the war. Everyone else used showers. The name Bathtub Row replaced the more traditionally named "20th Street" along a portion of this road in 1947.
Boys at the Ranch School creating Ashley Pond. Courtesy, Los Alamos Historical Society.
An area with few homesteaders in the early 20th century, Los Alamos become the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School in 1917. This school for boys operated until 1943, and had a small enrollment and rugged curriculum. Author Gore Vidal attended this school.
Ashley Pond and Fuller Lodge during the Ranch School era. Courtesy, Los Alamos Historical Society.
A slight dip on Pajarito Plateau became a place where water gathered. Students at the Los Alamos Ranch School dug a deeper trench and transformed this small watering hole into Ashley Pond, named in honor of the school's founder, Ashley Pond Jr.
Security gate at Los Alamos, 1943. Courtesy, US Army Archives.
War Clouds and Nuclear Research
After the US entered World War II, the Manhattan Project began as a research program that investigated the possibility of creating nuclear weapons. In 1943, the federal government exercised eminent domain to take possession of the Ranch School and other nearby properties. An enclosed and secure community known as "Site Y" occupied this area.
Staff badge for J. Robert Oppenheimer. Courtesy, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The relatively remote location of Los Alamos made it an ideal location to conduct atomic research. Two gated entrances keep away outsiders. Workers gained access through passes secured in Santa Fe. Trucks transporting equipment had false manifests to conceal their contents. On-site staff had their correspondence censored to maintain secrecy.
A view of Ashley Pond, with buildings around it that included labs. The current visitor center complex is in the building located in the left-center part of this image. Courtesy, Los Alamos Historical Society.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist, served as the Laboratory Director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during the war. He oversaw many of the operations and research activities shielded from the public.
After the bombing of Hiroshima, the US Government released details of the Manhattan Project for the first time. However, the community of Los Alamos remained closed to the public until 1957.
A 1946 aerial of Los Alamos, still a secure site. Ashley Pond and the research buildings surrounding it are on center right. Courtesy, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Ashley Pond Today
A westward view of Ashley Pond and Pajarito Mountain today. Photo by Jim Schnur.
When producers filmed Oppenheimer in 2023, they used many interior scenes at Los Alamos in their cinematography. These included the Robert Oppenheimer home and Fuller Lodge. However, much of the landscape had changed so substantially that they had to film many exterior scenes elsewhere, such as Ghost Ranch, in northern New Mexico.
The visitor center on the eastern side of Ashley Pond. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The present-day visitor center and community building near Ashley Pond once served as the facility's commissary. The pond served as a potential source of cooling water for the labs that encircled the southeast, south, and western portions of the pond. None of these structures remain.
A westward view of Ashley Pond. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The park and bandstand at Ashley Pond, with free parking nearby. Photo by Jim Schnur.
A view of Ashley Pond, with the visitor center in the background. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Landscaping on the southern portion of the pond, where buildings once stood. Photo by Jim Schnur.
A pond once available to cool nuclear tests now is a home for koi fish. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Fuller Lodge and Bathtub Row
Statues of Laboratory Director Robert Oppenheimer and Military Director Leslie Groves on the grounds near Fuller Lodge, an important historic site in Los Alamos. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Located immediately north of the visitor center and Central Avenue, Fuller Lodge traces its origins to the Los Alamos Ranch School. Built in the late 1920s, this three-story log structure opened in 1929 as a dining hall and community center. J. Robert Oppenheimer knew of the Ranch School campus from earlier visits to New Mexico. He and Gen. Leslie Groves discussed the possibility of using this site for the Manhattan Project.
Fuller Lodge offers exhibits and displays. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Gen. Groves visited the area in November 1942 and agreed with Oppenheimer's assessment about this location. Fuller Lodge transformed from being a school building to a dining center and support structure for the workers at Los Alamos Laboratory. Additional rooms were added to the lodge in 1948 to accommodate approved visitors who arrived at the still-secure location. Los Alamos County currently manages this location.
A westward view of Fuller Lodge, built from 771 locally harvested trees. Photo by Jim Schnur.
A view of the lodge's patio. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The Los Alamos History Museum operates in the 1917 Ranch School infirmary. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Another view of the Los Alamos History Museum. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The Romero Cabin was built at another location in the early 1900s and moved to this location during the 1980s. This cabin represents the rough homes of pioneers. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Built in the 1920s, this fire cache protected equipment needed to fight fires. In an adaptive (and destructive) re-use of building materials, the stones came from the adjacent ancestral Pueblo. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Important Homes
Two cabins built between Bathtub Row and 19th Street became important residences in the 1940s. During World War II, the Hans Bethe House served as the home of Edwin McMillan, a scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Bethe moved into the house after the war, and later won the 1967 Nobel Prize in physics. This structure also has the Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery that shows how Los Alamos remained an important research center after the end of World War II.
The Hans Bethe House, now part of the Los Alamos History Museum. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Originally built by the Los Alamos Ranch School director for his sister so she could teach at the school, a cottage immediately north of the Bethe home served as the residence of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his family in the mid-1940s. The Oppenheimer Home became part of the Los Alamos History Museum in 2020.
The Oppenheimer Home, used for exterior scenes in the 2023 film, Oppenheimer. Photo by Jim Schnur.
History Lessons at the Bradbury Science Museum
Entrance of the Bradbury Science Museum. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The original science museum at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory opened in 1954, at a time when the location remained off-limits to most people. Declassified materials later became part of a museum that opened at the Labs in 1963. Named for the longest Lab Director, Norris E. Bradbury,
this free museum moved to a downtown location in 1993.
A detailed review of World War II places the Lab's role in larger context. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Local wartime events, including the internment of Japanese Americans, are mentioned in a detailed chronology with hands-on and interactive stations. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Labels explain the significant events that shaped both world and local history. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Some panels describe environmental legacies of the bomb test in July 1945, including the presence of "Trinitite," a glass created during the explosion of the bomb near White Sands. Photo by Jim Schnur.
More than the story of a bomb, exhibits focus on many topics. Photo by Jim Schnur.
An extensive exhibit describes how technology has transformed research. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Escape to Nature
The Los Alamos Nature Center offers a great place to learn and relax. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Operated as the Los Alamos Nature Center, the
Pajarito Environmental Education Center has offered programs for more than a quarter century. With nature trails, exhibits, a planetarium, and viewing rooms, this center describes the ecology and natural history of the "canyon, mesas, mountains, and skies" of the area.
Enjoy a view of Pajarito Mountain from the overlook. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Exhibits and nature display focus on the land, water, and air. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The current facility opened to the public on Earth Day (April 22), 2015. Photo by Jim Schnur.
One of the best spots at the nature center is the library and observation room. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Hummingbirds, other birds, squirrels, and other animals randomly appear. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Guests may also consult a research library during their visit. Photo by Jim Schnur.
White Rock and the Rio Grande
A pottery replica from the Ildefonso Pueblo in White Rock. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The community of White Rock became a home for construction workers who built many of the structures at Los Alamos during the 1940s and 1950s. The original White Rock settlement was dismantled in 1958.
White Rock came back into being in 1962 with permanent homes. Named for the impressive White Rock Canyon, this settlement sits near the site where the Rio Grande carved a gorge into volcanic rock to create a canyon nearly 1,000 feet deep. From the overlook at the canyon, visitors can watch the flow of the Rio Grande with vistas along the boundary of Los Alamos County and Santa Fe County.
The overlook at White Rock Canyon offers magnificent views. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The canyon offers views of the Rio Grande 1,000 feet below. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Mountain ranges north and east of Santa Fe are visible in the distance. Photo by Jim Schnur.
The Rio Grande continues its journey through Pueblos toward Albuquerque. Photo by Jim Schnur.
A Small County with a Big Role in History
Los Alamos County is the smallest of New Mexico's 33 counties. Other counties range in size from 1,066 to 6,923 square miles. By comparison, Los Alamos County covers only 109.17 square miles. Created from portions of Sandoval and Santa Fe counties in 1949, this landmass represents the area that covered lands secured for the creation of the Lab complex.
Families associated with the Lab offering musical performances in Los Alamos. Photo by Jim Schnur.
Los Alamos County has two communities, Los Alamos and White Rock. Despite its small size, this county holds an important place in US history, especially during World War II. The Labs continue to conduct research, the museums share the history, and the landscape preserves the story of human settlement that spans a millennia.
The United States Post Office in Los Alamos, a monument of the World War II and Cold War eras, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo by Jim Schnur.
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