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The Manhattan Project in Los Alamos

In 1943, what had once been a quiet Ranch School for young boys underwent a transformation, evolving into a top-secret national laboratory with a singular mission: developing a weapon of mass destruction ahead of the Axis powers during WWII. Los Alamos, New Mexico, a previously inconspicuous town, became the pioneering prototype of its kind. Hastily constructed with utmost secrecy and populated by young scientists, Los Alamos served as the epicenter for the United States’ highly classified Manhattan Project. Civilian scientist Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer and military leader General Leslie R. Groves jointly directed this massive and unprecedented undertaking. Under these extraordinary circumstances, traditionally marginalized groups including immigrants, women, and Jews, played integral roles in this clandestine arms race.

In less than 5 years of frenzied research and development, the world’s first nuclear weapons were successfully detonated, first in White Sands, New Mexico, and later over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, the conclusion of WWII in 1945 did not mark the end of Los Alamos. What was initially conceived of as a temporary scientific and military initiative continued to flourish during the Cold War, eventually leading to the invention of the Hydrogen bomb and various breakthroughs in a wide range of scientific disciplines from advanced weaponry to the decoding of the human genome. Today, Los Alamos endures as a thriving and distinctive community that emerged out of a wartime necessity. The national laboratory remains the primary employer for a significant portion of its residents and continues to embrace a diverse population hailing from around the world.

Ashley Pond

From a soggy bog to a beloved community gathering place, the change and continuity of Ashley Pond illustrates the many eras of Los Alamos from homestead to Ranch School to government laboratory to the vibrant community of today. View Story | Show on Map

Bathtub Row

As scientists raced to build the first atomic weapon during WWII, they were required to sacrifice their time, academic careers, energy, bathtubs, and more in the remote desert highlands of New Mexico. View Story | Show on Map

Dorothy McKibbins: The Gatekeeper of Los Alamos

The Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the efforts of Dorothy McKibbin, the Gatekeeper of Los Alamos. From attaining marriage licenses to transferring phone calls, Dorothy McKibbin was an integral and diversely skilled cog in the large machine of building the first nuclear weapons. View Story | Show on Map

Life in Los Alamos: Linking the Past and Present

Los Alamos residents in the 1940s found themselves in unusual circumstances. John von Neumann explained that, “At great expense we have gathered on this mesa the largest collection of crackpots ever seen.” Yet these people continued life under the cover of secrecy and created a community which has lasted until this day. View Story | Show on Map

Women in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project

With the war effort withdrawing men from the domestic labor force, women became an increasingly important part of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. View Story | Show on Map

Jewish Contribution to the Manhattan Project

Jewish participation in the Manhattan Project, particularly in Los Alamos, was an essential part of the operation's success. They continued to support their country despite local discrimination and the tragedy of World War II occurring abroad. View Story | Show on Map

The Trinity Site and the First Atomic Bomb

The first successful detonation of an atomic weapon on July 16, 1945 in a remote New Mexican desert had global and historic consequences. “A new thing had been born; a new control; a new understanding of man, which man had acquired over nature” (Isidore I. Rabi). View Story | Show on Map

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The Manhattan Project National Historical Park

About the Park

For over a decade, the Department of Energy and National Park Service, in cooperation with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, and other stakeholders, pursued the possibility of including the Department’s most significant Manhattan Project properties within a Manhattan Project National Historical Park . After numerous studies and several draft bills, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, which included provisions authorizing the Park to be located at three sites: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law on December 19, 2014.

On November 10, 2015, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz signed the Memorandum of Agreement between the two agencies defining the respective roles in creating and managing the park. The agreement  included provisions for enhanced public access, management, interpretation, and historic preservation. With the signing, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park officially was established.

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Current Attractions

Bradbury Science Museum History Gallery

Historic District Walking Tour

Ice House Memorial at Ashley Pond

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Social and scientific Manhattan Project Stories

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Exploring Atomic Bomb History Beyond Los Alamos

The Atomic Museum in Las Vegas explains to visitors that Nevada and other states also played a role — for better or worse — in the creation of nuclear energy.

By Michael Janofsky

Reporting from Las Vegas

This article is part of our Museums special section about how institutions are striving to offer their visitors more to see, do and feel.

The blockbuster movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer might have left the impression that only New Mexico was involved in developing America’s atomic bomb.

Hardly. Neighboring Nevada played a vital role, too. And the Atomic Museum in this glittery town known for gambling and big-name entertainment will tell you all about it — and more.

Here, just beyond the major hotels and casinos is a museum dedicated to the history and science of nuclear weapons as a critical part of America’s national security for more than 85 years. It’s one of 200 museums around the country affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and a thematic partner to nearly a dozen others that highlight various aspects of the nation’s nuclear programs.

The Atomic Museum makes clear the genius and necessity of developing awesome nuclear power while not ignoring the lethal impact it had on ordinary people — the moral conflict at the core of “Oppenheimer,” winner of seven Academy Awards for 2023, including best picture and best actor for Cillian Murphy in the title role.

Among a wealth of actual and facsimile objects used in development and testing are an identical shell casing of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and a replica of the actual bomb that it would have encased. Elsewhere is a display meant to honor the Japanese people killed and injured by Fat Man and L ittle Boy, a smaller bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. T ogether, they killed more than 200,000 people by some estimates, effectively ending World War II.

“We understand the topic is complicated,” Joseph Kent, the deputy director and curator of the museum, said of exhibits that move visitors along a detailed chronology of the nation’s atomic program with an emphasis on Nevada’s role as a former site for atmospheric and underground testing. “We try to inform the public without getting into whether it’s all good or bad. That’s not really for us to decide.”

The starting point of the museum is a gallery dedicated to the Manhattan Project and the Trinity test overseen by Oppenheimer in July 1945, the world’s first nuclear detonation, set off in a remote area of New Mexico. At the time, Oppenheimer was the first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

While the Trinity exhibit was opened in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the test, it helped spur attendance at the museum once the Covid pandemic subsided. Kent said the film and recent nuclear saber-rattling toward Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin helped the museum draw more than 50,000 visitors in 2023, the most in five years.

“After people watched ‘Oppenheimer’ and they hear about what’s going on in the world, they realize they don’t know as much about this topic as they probably should,” he said. “Atomic bombs, nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer, the Soviet Union, the Cold War — they want to find a place where they can learn about them in an addressable form.”

Beyond weapons, the museum offers a window into the science that produced them, but also the everyday life they influenced. In one diorama of a 1950s family, the parents look away in fear from a boxy television set showing a nuclear explosion. Another display shows how the word “atom” became a cultural touchstone — a Kix cereal box promoting an “Atomic Bomb Ring” inside, an “Atoman” comic book and a canister once filled with “Atomic Fireballs” candy. Nearby is a scale model of a blazing red Ford Nucleon, a proposed nuclear-powered car from 1957 that the company never produced.

The visceral center of the museum is the Ground Zero Theater, which uses a 15-minute black-and-white film of an actual nuclear test to approximate what it was like to work on it. Watching from benches, visitors see the explosion, then experience what happens next — utter silence, followed by a deafening roar filling the room and the benches shaking to simulate waves of the aftershock.

Later, Troy Wade, who served as a test site controller, appears on the screen.

“When you see it here you recognize that it’s a very, very terrible weapon of war and when you see one, you understand what it can do and why it must never be used,” he says. “But you understand the value of having it and having your enemies know that you’re not afraid to use it if you want.”

Other areas have more artifacts of the early days of development. One showcase displays two dozen types of Geiger counters. Another has an authentic Fizeau instrumentation package , a huge cubic device of instruments, recorders and cameras that was positioned 500 feet above a test explosion to capture temperature, pressure and levels of radiation.

The museum pays tribute to other sites that contributed important elements of the nuclear program, including the vast expanse of rugged federal land 65 miles north of here, known in its early days as the Nevada Test Site. About 100 atmospheric tests were conducted there from 1951 through 1962 and more than 800 underground tests from 1963 through 1992. Renamed the Nevada National Security Sites, it’s now where scientists maintain warheads. Free public tours are held monthly.

There are also nods to those among America’s 18 national laboratories that continue to conduct research and development in energy, technology and related fields, including Los Alamos and the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

While the subject matter of the Atomic Museum may be more cerebral than other Las Vegas attractions, like the Burlesque Hall of Fame or the Mob Museum, it does serve to remind people of a nervous period of American history following World War II, when fear was pervasive, schoolchildren practiced hiding under their desks, families built fallout shelters and America kept developing ever more powerful weapons, just in case.

“One of our guiding principles is we are not here to try to change people’s minds,” Kent said of nuclear development. “Our goal is to provide an informed opinion. Whether you are for or against nuclear weapons testing, ultimately we can all agree that the history needs to be remembered.”

Most Historic Small Towns From Coast to Coast

T he U.S. is filled with fascinating small towns that each have their own unique story to tell. Havens for artsy free spirits. Mining sites that once yielded a ton of gold. Sites of infamous military battles. Stomping grounds of storied pirates.

These small towns offer history buffs a glimpse into our nation’s past, while also remaining just as relevant today as they were years ago. Learn the histories of these small towns, and plan a visit that will encourage you to travel back in time.

Los Alamos, New Mexico

Population:  12,019

What was once a secret military town is now the fifth-fastest-growing city in the state. Its claim to fame is what’s now called the Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by the Department of Energy. 

This was the creation site of the world’s first atomic bomb as part of the infamous Manhattan Project. During World War II, all incoming truckloads to the area were mislabeled, and it wasn’t revealed until after the bombing of Hiroshima what residents here were really up to.

History buffs will want to head straight to  Manhattan Project National Historical Park , where you can tour the Manhattan Project’s historic Los Alamos site and the lab’s Bradbury Science Museum. Visitors can engage in the museum’s more than 40 interactive exhibits.

Long before physicists moved to the area, though, the four mesas of the Pajarito Plateau (on which the town sits) was home to Puebloans, and you can visit ruins of their cliff dwellings at  Bandelier National Monument . Climb ladders and visit small carved rooms at this archaeological site that features more than 70 miles of trails.

Beaufort, North Carolina

Population:  4,452

Beaufort was established in 1709, making its historic district alone worth visiting because several buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But this town is one with a pirate history. In fact, it’s where Blackbeard spent most of his days, and in 1996, an archaeological crew found the remains of his flagship,  Queen Anne’s Revenge , in what is now called Beaufort Inlet. Blackbeard ran the ship aground in May 1718.

For all things Blackbeard, a stop at the  North Carolina Maritime Museum  is a must. It features all the artifacts found from Blackbeard’s flagship.

The small town’s  Old Burying Ground  is equally intriguing, with graves that date back 300 years, including one of a child who died at sea and was buried in a keg of rum.

Sitka, Alaska

Population:  8,493 

With 22 buildings and sites on the National Register of Historic Places, Sitka is another small town with history to boot. Its name comes from “sheet-ka,” which means “people on the outside of Baranof Island” to the Tlingit people who settled here more than 10,000 years ago. 

When Russian explorers took over the area in 1804 after winning the Battle of Sitka against the native people, the town was designated the capital of Russian America.

The 107-acre  Sitka National Historical Park  interprets the famous battle between the Russians and Tlingit people and features artifacts from the two groups. It also features a collection of Haida and Tlingit totem poles moved from the Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis.

This being Alaska, there is also plenty to do in terms of  outdoor activities , from fly fishing to kayaking to wildlife boat tours that will get you up close and personal with the area’s majestic humpback whales.

For more historic American towns, check out Far & Wide

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Last updated: April 25, 2024

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Manhattan Project National Historical Park c/o NPS Intermountain Regional Office P.O. Box 25287 Denver, CO 80225-0287

Hanford: 509.376.1647 Los Alamos: 505.661.6277 Oak Ridge: 865.482.1942

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Think you know Oak Ridge history? 13 Manhattan Project facts that might surprise you

Oak Ridge is a constant source of pride for East Tennesseans more than 80 years after it was created by the U.S. government as the first site of the Manhattan Project.

In the space of a few years, a workforce of around 50,000 people would construct massive facilities and enrich all the uranium used in the first nuclear weapon used in war. They also lived in a brand new city built on rural farmland outside of Knoxville, which included schools, churches, theaters and shopping centers.

With some help from D. Ray Smith, the official historian of the city of Oak Ridge and a popular author, here are 13 facts you might not have known about the Secret City that helped end World War II and continues as a national center of scientific excellence and national security.

Oak Ridge Schools modeled after NYC schools

As the city of Oak Ridge was speedily being built by the Army Corps of Engineers, Gen. Leslie Groves, who led the Manhattan Project, knew the city needed excellent schools to attract the best engineers and scientists in the country.

In July 1943, he hired Alden Blankenship, a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, as the first superintendent of the Oak Ridge Schools. He wanted Blankenship to make the schools typical of a public education in a large city, even though the schools were in rural East Tennessee.

"(Groves) told him to build the best school system in the nation and to pay the teachers the same salaries that they would have gotten if they were in New York City," Smith said. "He knew that he had scientists and engineers moving in here that would have come from places where there were good schools."

Oak Ridge Schools now has 768 employees and has made the Knox News list of Top Workplaces for three consecutive years. Its student body is still composed largely of the children of scientists and engineers, and over 75% of its teachers hold master's degrees. The percentage of teachers with a master's degree in Tennessee is 46.1%, according to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Army Corps of Engineers kept land grab secret from governor

After Oak Ridge was selected as the first site of the Manhattan Project, the Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring 60,000 acres of farm land. Often, homeowners were given only weeks to move off their land and were told little more than that the government needed their land for the war effort.

Some of the first people to hear about the land grab were high school students, said Smith. U.S. Sen. Kenneth McKellar, Democrat of Tennessee, called the principal of Oliver Springs High School, who informed an assembly of students that they would have to find a new place to live.

Not even the leader of Tennessee, Gov. Prentice Cooper, knew that his state had been selected as the site to help the U.S. build a nuclear bomb and win the war.

Cooper found out about Oak Ridge, then called the "Clinton Engineer Works," in a series of letters from army officers, the first of which he ripped up in frustration at the intrusive and secretive federal government. Some others tried to assuage his fears.

"It must be emphasized at this time that the Clinton Engineer Works is not an experiment in Socialism, but a direct war project of vital importance to the best interests of the nation," Lt. Col. Thomas Crenshaw said in a letter to Gov. Cooper in July 1943.

Cooper would later visit Oak Ridge in November 1943.

Smith said a "large percentage" of displaced families moved to surrounding communities and worked in Oak Ridge during the war.

Before Oppenheimer and Los Alamos, entire Manhattan Project was meant for Oak Ridge

Why were 60,000 acres needed for the Clinton Engineer Works? When the area that's now Oak Ridge was selected as the first site of the Manhattan Project, the army believed it might be the only site of the project, Smith said.

This was before Groves hired J. Robert Oppenheimer , the now-famous physicist who led the science behind the bomb and got star treatment in Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster. It was also before two other sites were selected. One was Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the bombs were built and tested, and the other was Hanford, Washington, which produced plutonium for the second bomb.

Oak Ridge still needed a lot of space to enrich uranium, which proved to be a tedious process. The K-25 building, which used gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium, was the largest building in the world when it was completed in 1945. It was a U-shape, half a mile long and 1,000 feet wide, and eclipsed the recently completed Pentagon.

At the height of the Manhattan Project, around 50,000 people were employed in Oak Ridge.

Code names likely have no meaning

Everything that happened in Oak Ridge during the war was top secret, and the sites that enriched uranium each had a code name.

The X-10 site was home to the graphite reactor and is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Y-12 site, now the Y-12 National Security Complex, used electromagnetic calutrons to enrich uranium. There were also the S-50 liquid thermal diffusion plant and the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, both of which have since been torn down.

When George O. Robinson Jr. was writing his book "The Oak Ridge Story," originally published in 1950, he reached out to Gen. Leslie Groves to ask where the code names came from. Groves responded that he couldn't remember how they came up with the names.

More than likely, the code names have no rhyme or reason, Smith said. The only exception could be K-25, which may have combined the first initial of the Kellex corporation which built the plant and a shorthand number for uranium-235, the fissile isotope used in nuclear weapons.

The word 'uranium' was not used

Another secret in Oak Ridge was the word "uranium" itself, which was not used, Smith said. The element was referred to by a variety of other names, perhaps "tube alloys," the name of a secret British project to study nuclear weapons.

At the Y-12 plant, leaders had assigned a 4-digit code name to each building which began with "92," the atomic number of uranium. When Groves discovered the naming scheme, he was upset that the number had been used in a project sworn to secrecy.

"He didn't think that was a good idea," Smith said. "But he also didn't make them change it because he just didn't want to call that much attention to it."

Those code names are still sometimes used for so-called "legacy" buildings still standing at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Oak Ridge first to desegregate schools in Southeast

In 1955, 85 students from the Black community of Scarboro in Oak Ridge began attending Robertsville Junior High and Oak Ridge High School, making them the first desegregated schools in Tennessee and the Southeast up to that point.

The trailblazing students received little nationwide fanfare, perhaps, as an exhibit at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge suggests, because the students lived on a federal reservation.

Oak Ridge was incorporated in 1959, and those who lived on reservation land were able to purchase their homes for what Smith said was "a very reasonable price." The city's other schools integrated in 1967.

Today, Oak Ridge has a population of 32,000 and many still live in Manhattan Project-era houses in the eastern part of the city, Smith said. 

Col. Kenneth Nichols was mistaken with electricity estimate

It's a popular fun fact that communicates the scale of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. In his 1987 memoir "The Road to Trinity," Col. Kenneth Nichols, who oversaw the Oak Ridge and Hanford sites, claimed Oak Ridge used one-seventh of all electricity produced in the United States between 1943 and 1945.

But is it true? Smith says no.

From his work with physicist Bruce Cameron Reed, who has written extensively about the Manhattan Project, Smith said Oak Ridge used one-seventh of all electricity produced by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 1943 and 1945.

It's still a huge amount of electricity, similar to how much New York City used at the time, Smith said.

TVA was a vital early partner with the Army Corps of Engineers, which selected Oak Ridge in large part because of its proximity to Norris Dam. Fontana Dam, completed in 1944, provided electricity for the war effort as well.

All Oak Ridge uranium during Manhattan Project would fit in gallon jug

For how huge the production sites in Oak Ridge were, they didn't crank out a huge volume of highly enriched uranium, which comes in small quantities. The roughly 64 kilograms, or 140 pounds, of enriched uranium produced in Oak Ridge during the war could have fit inside a gallon jug.

That was enough to power Little Boy, which was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and became the first nuclear weapon ever used in war. The bomb destroyed almost all of the city and killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians.

Enriched uranium carried in secret to Los Alamos

If you've seen the "Oppenheimer" film, you might remember the scientist keeping track of how much uranium had been enriched in Oak Ridge by filling a fish bowl with metal pellets.

But how did the uranium make the trip from Tennessee to New Mexico?

To avoid notice and the risk of shipment by air, the army placed the powdered enriched uranium in gold-lined containers the size of a coffee cup and placed these in a briefcase.

An undercover army lieutenant dressed as a salesman would take the briefcase on a train headed for Chicago and then for Los Alamos. All uranium from Oak Ridge was transported this way, Smith said.

Most workers during Manhattan Project were contractors

Today, the workforce at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex is overwhelmingly contract workers and not federal employees. The Department of Energy Office of Science contracts UT-Battelle to manage the lab and the National Nuclear Security Administration contracts Consolidated Nuclear Security to manage Y-12.

Around 15,000 people are employed by UT-Battelle and CNS and a handful of subcontractors. Only a few hundred workers in Oak Ridge are federal employees.

That's much the same way that it was during the Manhattan Project, Smith said. Tennessee Eastman, now the Eastman Chemical Company, was hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to manage Y-12 during the war. DuPont managed the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation managed the K-25 site.

Union Carbide, as it was later known, ran the Oak Ridge sites from after the war until 1984, when they were split up.

Half of Manhattan Project land has been returned to community

While the federal government originally took close to 60,000 acres to create Oak Ridge, the Department of Energy now owns only about 30,000 acres in what's called the Oak Ridge Reservation .

Of those acres, the vast majority is undeveloped natural land. Some 20,000 acres make up the National Environmental Research Park , or NERP, a biosphere reserve.

What about the land that once belonged to the federal government? It's largely been turned back over to the community for private use, such as the Heritage Center Industrial Park at the site of the gaseous diffusion plants.

Most highly-enriched uranium came from Oak Ridge

Until 1964, the U.S. produced highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, and much of it came from gaseous diffusion plants in Oak Ridge following the war, Smith said.

The U.S. reached its peak number of 31,255 nuclear warheads in 1967. Since then, thousands have been retired and dismantled, but the highly enriched uranium in them has been refurbished and stored for other purposes.

Most of it is stored at the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, a heavily guarded building sometimes called the "Fort Knox" of highly enriched uranium. The plant no longer enriches uranium.

Mere mention of Oak Ridge in 'Oppenheimer' film boosts tourism

The "Oppenheimer" film didn't give much to Oak Ridge history buffs . The city is referenced once by Gen. Groves, played by Matt Damon, as he tries to convince Oppenheimer to join the project.

Still, as Oak Ridge's historian, Smith has seen the film boost interest in the city.

"I've done 17 bus tours here in Oak Ridge since the movie came out and there's been an increase in tourism because of the mere mention of Oak Ridge," Smith said.

Smith has seen the three-hour film four times and he said there's just one understandable inconsistency with that moment in the film. Oak Ridge did not exist by that name yet. It was still just the "Clinton Engineer Works" and would be a secret to the world for many years to come.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email  [email protected] .

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at  knoxnews.com/subscribe .   

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The Manhattan Project is one of the most transformative events of the 20th century. It ushered in the nuclear age with the development of the world’s first atomic bombs. The building of atomic weapons began in 1942 in three secret communities across the nation. As World War II waned in 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan—forever changing the world. Read More

Discover a secret factory that made plutonium.

Learn about a covert lab that built the atomic bombs.

Explore a hidden complex that enriched uranium.

Plan your visit to one of the three park locations.

Explore the history of the Manhattan Project via its people, places, culture, and events.

Learn about the life and controversial legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Visit the park calendar to find upcoming programs and events at all three park locations.

Start a journey of learning and reflection with materials that explore the historical traumas of the atomic bombings.

Find interactive maps, tours of park places, accessibility information, and much more to plan your Manhattan Project experience.

Last updated: April 2, 2024

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Contact info, mailing address:.

Manhattan Project National Historical Park c/o NPS Intermountain Regional Office P.O. Box 25287 Denver, CO 80225-0287

Hanford: 509.376.1647 Los Alamos: 505.661.6277 Oak Ridge: 865.482.1942

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