Twice a year, visitors can travel to the Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated. During the visit, ride a shuttle bus to the restored MacDonald ranch house, where the team assembled the bomb in a “clean room,” complete with graffiti left by the scientists.

A top-secret mission during World War II, the Manhattan Project is an indelible part of New Mexico’s history. As the Trinity Site opens for its twice-yearly public visiting day, road-trip with writer trade and photographer Charles Mann as he revisits sites connected to the project, from the Trinity Site itself to Los Alamos National Laboratory, and explores the Project’s New Mexico legacy. secrets

40 NEW MEXICO | APRIL 2011 www.nmmagazine.com | APRIL 2011 41 hen the world’s first atomic bomb In 1945, David Greenglass, exploded at the White Sands brother of convicted spy Ethel Rosenberg, came to the Hilton Hotel, Proving Ground on July 16, as the Andaluz was then known, to rendezvous with foreign agents and 1945, about 36 miles southeast pass nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Greenglass was arrested in of Socorro, the fiery reaction 1950, when the Rosenberg ring was punched into the gritty floor of exposed. Although the Andaluz today is certainly not the Hilton of 1945, the New Mexico desert a bowl the architectural style and much of the atmosphere remain. Even now, 1,100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, prowling around in the beige air of the lounge, it’s easy for me to picture such and vaporized the 100-foot-tall a meeting. It still feels like a steel tower that had suspended the bomb over the site. perfect place for intrigue. In her A Guide to Clockwise from left—A solitary obelisk marks the spot where the “gadget”—as the bomb The blast also melted the sand, creating one of the rarest Manhattan Project Sites in was then known—exploded in July 1945. W New Mexico, Cynthia C. Retired public affairs specialist and unofficial manmade minerals in the world—a glassy, green material Kelly recounts another, more White Sands Missile Range historian Jim Eckles dramatic event at the Hilton. volunteers as a docent to help visitors under- called Trinitite. stand the Site’s importance. A visitor stands Counterintelligence officer inside the remains of JUMBO, a 214-ton steel On “the day the sun rose twice,” one scientist said, “We Thomas O. Jones spent the cylinder designed to contain the atomic bomb night before the Trinity Test but ultimately used on another small test. An atomic fireball lit up the sky at 5:29 a.m. on knew it was a new world.” No other single event of the in a makeshift office here, July 16, 1945. The explosion melted the desert watching the distant horizon sand creating Trinitite, a.k.a. Alamogordo 20th century has cast so long and lasting a shadow over from a south-facing window. glass—one of the rarest manmade materials. When the “gadget,” as the society or has added so profoundly to the language of warfare and politics as on that morning scientists then called the when the atomic bomb became a reality. It’s a shadow that still lingers today. bomb, exploded more than 100 miles to the south, Jones reported that “the room was as if somebody A Mushroom tion. If you can remember the theme music foreboding and trepidation. has put off 150 flashbulbs in one hotel in the Desert to The Twilight Zone, watched the silent star From the birthplace of the bomb, I head room all at once . . .” In fact, it was Today the Trinity Site is a part of White of Sputnik glide through the night sky, and north toward Los Alamos—the former a single nuclear flash bulb as big as Sands Missile Range, and since December learned about nuclear fallout in grade school, home of the Manhattan Project, where the the sky. The blast’s shock wave broke 1965 has been a National Historic Monu- then so do you. As a Baby Boomer visiting game-changing weapon was created. But first, windows as far as 120 miles away, and ment; it is open to the public only two days the place where men and women heard I pass through Albuquerque and Santa Fe, fallout from the test was detected as far a year. Despite many resolutions, it has and felt that first apocalyptic concussion, just two of the many places in New Mexico north as Santa Fe. taken me 30 years of living in New Mexico it is impossible for me not to reflect on the the Project touched. I want to stand in those As with Trinity, there’s something to finally visit this place, keen to satisfy my drama of that moment, and on the weight of places, too. intangible but powerful about coming curiosity. history that must have enveloped the people to see just where the history happened. I’m standing at ground zero, the center who played a role in the birth of the Atomic M-M-M-My Generation . . . Be it Hollywood, Dealey Plaza, or Graceland, I’m beginning to realize of the crater, near a memorial obelisk of Age. I’m standing in the very spot where they On old Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque, that certain places are indelibly linked to the special events that deeply dark volcanic rock. Beyond the compound’s stood, where it happened. I’ve come looking for the Andaluz Hotel. affected my generation. It’s a cultural memory. Even though we weren’t chain-link fence, I can clearly see, 14 miles Trinity also stirs in me a sense of menace The exterior of the building is such an here when it happened, a part of who we are is still somehow from here. away, the antenna dishes and buildings associated with the atomic bomb, a haunting anonymous white block of urban architecture I depart the lounge of the Andaluz feeling as if I were leaving a scene of the still-active missile range. Far to the childhood memory of the dread of sudden that I drive right past its low-key sign. Inside, from a documentary movie about the psychological journey of the Baby west, the serrated humps of the Magdalena destruction that has sat latent all these years I discover a marvel of cool, elegant, 1950s Boomers. es v

Mountains form part of a long, blue horizon in my emotional imagination. It’s an ominous retro style. The main lobby is a dimly lit, i that surrounds the shrubby sea of snakeweed, mushroom-cloud-shaped feeling, and it’s been “Take Five” time warp, with green and blue Back to the Future h arc creosote bush, and yucca that stretches for awakened once more by my coming to this accent lights in the fountain and shrouded, A block off the Santa Fe Plaza, 109 East Palace Avenue is one of the

miles in every direction. It’s a spare, sobering place. My sense of reverence and wonder, arty little booths tucked away along the wall. most famous addresses in the archives of the Bomb. I’m in an office y LANL monument in a spare, sobering landscape. inspired by the stark natural beauty of the You could shoot an episode of the current once occupied by University of California–Berkeley physicist J. Robert

I belong to the Duck-and-Cover Genera- desert, is now mingled with sinister notes of TV show Mad Men in here. Oppenheimer, an academic superstar who was the scientific director courtes

42 NEW MEXICO | APRIL 2011 Clockwise from top left—Zack Cox

rchives stands in what was the office of J. Robert a Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, at 109 E. Palace Avenue in Santa Fe. N.M. 502 bridges the Río Grande at Otowi crossing where as their place of birth. near the west bank of the river, not far from courtesy LANL the landscape creates a romantic sugges- Surrounded by scores San Ildefonso Pueblo. I’ve passed this place tion of how ’s café might have appeared in 1944. A small bronze of Edward S. Curtis’s hundreds of times on my way to Los Alamos. plaque along the portal outside 109 E. sepia-tone photos of Native Crossing the bridge never fails to remind me Palace Avenue in Santa Fe identifies Americans, some beautiful of a scene recounted in one of my favorite what was once a secret doorway to the Manhattan Project. (From left) Navajo rugs, and Pueblo books: Peggy Pond Church’s memoir, The Dorothy McKibben, Oppenheimer’s pottery, I’ve spent the House at Otowi Bridge. secretary, Oppenheimer, and scientist last hour in an animated In 1917, Church’s father, Ashley Pond, Victor Weisskopf talk at a 1944 conversation with Zack founded the on Los Alamos party. Cox about the Manhattan the Pajarito Mesa, where the town of Los Project. Thirtysomething Alamos and Los Alamos National Laboratory Formerly the site of the Hilton Hotel, Cox grew up in Pecos. His stand today. The boys’ school operated until today’s restored Andaluz Hotel in family has operated the Rainbow Man gift the Defense Department took over the downtown Albuquerque was once frequented by spies and scientists shop here at 107 E. Palace since 1983 (the property for the Manhattan Project. alike during the Manhattan Project. original 109 E. Palace address was actually Church’s narrative tells the story of Edith located in a rear courtyard of the building). Warner, a mysterious woman who came to A mountain biker and firefighter, Cox has the Land of Enchantment in the 1920s from heavily tattooed arms, pierced ears, a rugby the East. By 1941, Warner had taken a job FURTHER READING: player’s burr haircut, and an infectious at Otowi receiving freight from the Chili American Prometheus: The Triumph The Making of the of the Atomic youthful enthusiasm. Line, a narrow-gauge railroad that once ran and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppen- Bomb, by Richard Rhodes Sitting here in Oppenheimer’s office, from Antonito, Colorado, to Santa Fe. The heimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. (Simon & Schuster, 1995) Cox strikes me as a tangible symbol of an post had been abandoned by a San Ildefonso Sherwin (Vintage Books, 2006) The Manhattan Project: The Birth American future that seemed uncertain Pueblo couple, Julian and Maria Martinez. The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The of the Atomic Bomb in the Words (Yes, that Maria Martinez, creator of the back in 1944. The scene paints such a vivid Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses and of the Manhattan Project in New Mexico. contrast between past and present that it famous black pottery.) Warner also opened Explosion, July 16, 1945, by Ferenc Historians, edited by Cynthia C. Kelly To preserve secrecy, everyone who came to causes me to ponder more deeply how differ- a small café here, and, as Church writes, Morton Szasz (University of New (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, work at Los Alamos first had to pass through ent my life, and life in America today, might “Oppenheimer persuaded the authorities to Mexico Press, 1984) 2007) this tiny courtyard, where, for many, the be had the scientists’ efforts at Los Alamos let small groups of men and women come A Guide to Manhattan Project Sites Now It Can Be Told: The Story of purpose of their summons to Santa Fe was failed. At this moment, I realize that my down from ‘the Hill’ for dinner at that little in New Mexico, by Cynthia C. Kelly the Manhattan Project, by General still a mystery. The post office was directly mixed feelings about the bomb include relief house by the river.” It was the only place (Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2010) Leslie R. Groves (Da Capo Press, 1983) across the street, and all Manhattan mail and gratitude. the scientists were allowed to go outside the was routed to P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe, then Project compound, except to hike in the The House at Otowi Bridge: The 109 East Palace: Robert Oppen- hand-carried up to Los Alamos. Indeed, the Giants in a Cabin mountains. Story of Edith Warner and Los Ala- heimer and the Secret City of Los project’s location was so secret that the birth North of Santa Fe, I’ve driven west on N.M. As I stand near the noisy four-lane high- mos, by Peggy Pond Church (University Alamos, by Jennet Conant (Simon & certificates of all infants born in Los Alamos 502, from the Pueblo of Pojoaque to Otowi way, contemplating the decrepit buildings of New Mexico Press, First Edition, 1960) Schuster, 2006) during this period had “P.O. Box 1663” listed Bridge, over the Río Grande. I’m walking and the old trees, the image of those famous

www.nmmagazine.com | APRIL 2011 45 men, gathered at the fireside in Warner’s this new atomic fire included men whose little café, eating posole and pie from terra- names were already familiar to me from cotta plates while discussing the fate of the the textbooks I used as a Los Alamos High world, seems too palpable to require any School chemistry teacher in 1981: Niels imagination. Bohr, , Sir James Chadwick, I’ve become fond of the Edith Warner por- Glen T. Seaborg, Edward Teller, John von trayed in Church’s account because, in many Neumann. One of them, Oppenheimer, was ways, her story is my story. Like her, I came selected to lead the efforts at Los Alamos to New Mexico from somewhere else, and by General Leslie R. Groves, commander of like her, I bonded with this place. As noted the nationwide Manhattan Project. “Oppie” in The House at Otowi Bridge, Warner also was a slender, urbane, sensitive intellectual, experienced the ominous mushroom feeling. while the Patton-like Groves was stocky, It represented a fear that her cherished world gruff, hardnosed, and autocratic. I remain a might be endangered by the specter of the while, standing between the life-size statues bomb. Ever since my journey of the two men that frame a video display to Trinity, I’ve been trying to about the Bomb’s development. Opposites put a finger on the essence of in every way, these theatrical, larger-than- my disquiet, and it’s right here life characters once again emphasize for me in the book. The creepy threat the epic drama that is the true story of the From top—A likeness of General of atomic war loomed over Bomb. Leslie R. Groves, the head of the her landscape and her psyche I also linger near the reproductions of nationwide Manhattan Project, in a way that still looms over Little Boy and Fat Man, as the two bombs stands in Los Alamos National mine—and ours. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Laboratory’s . LANL’s first computer respectively, were nicknamed. It is chilling, didn’t come on line until the 1950s; Up the Hill eerie, and humbling to contemplate these Manhattan Project scientists did All nuclear roads ultimately Volkswagen-sized metal thunderbolts hur-

calculations by hand. Visitors to the rchives Bradbury Science Museum encounter a lead to Los Alamos. I’ve tling from unseen B-29s down toward the Visitors to the Trinity Site can see ground zero from this observation porthole at the West a replica of the Fat Man bomb, which always thought that the drive people of Japan. Sixty-five years later, argu- IF YOU GO: was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. up the mesa to the town is one ments about this moment in the history of 10,000-yard observation bunker that was used during the July 1945 test. of the most beautiful vistas in the war are as impassioned, intractable, and Andaluz Hotel courtesy LANL the state. Today, however, as complex as ever: Is the bomb a necessary 125 Second St. NW I wind up through the deep slots carved into evil? Might it yet destroy the very things it Albuquerque, NM 87102 the pale volcanic ash, I’m not thinking about saved? Who should control it? Where is the explosives. Oppenheimer would later become (505) 242-9090 the landscape. I feel instead as if I’m descend- balance between security and preserving a the public face and conscience of the Bomb, www.hotelandaluz.com ing, going down into the womb, toward the peaceful world? I have not considered these and would be vilified for expressing his moral Bradbury Science Museum Genesis, where, in a mere 27 months, Man unsettling questions for a long time, and I misgivings about its creation and use. The 1350 Central Ave. created the Bomb. Los Alamos National still have no clear answers. title of a recent popular biography about Los Alamos, NM 87544 Laboratory, the research institution that grew This museum gets me in my gut, brain, him captures his fate perfectly: American (505) 667-4444 out of the Manhattan Project, is still mostly and heart, all at once. Prometheus. www.lanl.gov/museum off-limits to the public, but the Laboratory’s As I gaze at the windblown remnants of Bradbury Science Museum tells the story of A New World the bunker, another image of the world’s The Rainbow Man the weapon’s evolution. Back at the Trinity Site, I’ve stopped to preeminent scientists, huddled together in a 107 E. Palace Ave. Santa Fe, NM 87501 In the museum, I stare transfixed at the investigate a dirt-covered observation bunker tiny room, appears in my imagination. The (505) 982-8706 signature of Albert Einstein on a letter. similar to the one in which Oppenheimer, world was about to change. This time, their www.therainbowman.com The page’s typewritten characters, blotchy ever the scholar and poet, read these words thoughts were not about pie. and uneven on the yellowed paper, remind aloud from the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu Trinity Site me of the level of technology the scientists scripture, as the seconds ticked down to This article benefited from the help of Jim Eckles, Open the first Saturday were working with. The first supercomput- the bomb’s detonation: “Now I am become retired Pubic Affairs Specialist and unofficial in April and October ers would not appear here for another Death, the destroyer of worlds.” As leader White Sands Missile Range historian; and of The Trinity Site is a part of three decades. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer’s of the project, he found himself cloistered Steven Sandoval, Public Relations Specialist for White Sands Missile Range former residence still stands on Bathtub in the desert at dawn, poised to become a Los Alamos National Laboratory. (575) 678-1256 Row, a Los Alamos street named for the legendary hero or a monumental failure at www.wsmrmwr.com www.white-sands-new-mexico.com/ fact that, in 1944, the quarters there the flip of a switch. Six miles away, a ball of See more of Santa Fe writer and military.htm housed the only bathtubs in town. plutonium the size of an orange waited to photographer Charles Mann’s work at The scientists who came to create be compressed by a sphere of conventional www.charlesmannphotography.com.

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