Los Alamos

County: Los Alamos

Year Established: Dates back to 1150AD, but was established as a homestead in the early 1900's. Would become a town in 1943

Year Abandoned: Still active town

Population: 13,200 as of 2020

Location:

About: Los Alamos was not on any map. Those who moved here could not tell friends or family where they were going or what they were working on. No one could enter or leave the secret city except through guarded gates. Within Los Alamos, additional security surrounded the Tech Area; the laboratories were off-limits except to those with special badges.

Code names were given to well-known scientists, and code words assigned to lab work. Enrico Fermi became "Eugene "Farmer". The bomb was "the gadget". Los Alamos was known as "the Hill." The only address civilians shared with the outside world was P.O. Box 1663 in Santa Fe. Military Police monitored phone calls and censored mail.

For Manhattan Project personnel, information was compartmentalized on a need-to-know basis, except for weekly colloquia during which scientists could freely exchange ideas. No one was allowed to discuss their work even with their families, putting strain on relationships.

Ancestral Pueblo Dwellings

In roughly 1225AD, this site was home to a group of Tewa-speaking people, ancestors of Pueblo groups now living along the Rio Grande. They built with hand-hewn blocks of tuff, the welded volcanic ash common in this area, creating separate rooms for cooking, sleeping, and storage.

J. Robert Oppenheimer lived in this house on the corner of Bathtub Row and Peach Street. Today, this home is on its way to becoming a new stop on the Historic Walking Tour, as it undergoes historic preservation, renovation, and exhibit development.

Romero Homestead Cabin

Homesteading began on the Pajarito Plateau in the late 1800s. The Romeo family built this cabin in 1913 on a nearby mesa. Like all homesteads on the plateau, it was acquired by the U.S. government in 1942 for the Manattan Project. In 1984, the cabin was moved downtown, and in 2010 it was restored. History Museum guided tours provide an opportunity to see inside for a glimpse of life as a homesteader.