ANew Frontier in the Ch icago Suburbs Settling Fermilab, 1963-1972 ADRIENNE KOLIl LILLIAN HODDESON In 19 6 8 , !\'1iltoll Stanle y Livingston reach and cross this frontier, OUf generation described the f'ro m ie r as a symbol of will have furnished a significant milestone progress, adventure, and ch alle nge for sci­ in human history. " I Livingston was then entists: "There is in mankind a driving u rge asso ci ate director of the National Accel­ to ex plore the unknown. In past ages much erator Laboratory, a newly au th orized pro­ of th is exploration was geographical-the ject of the Atomic Energy Com miss io n search for new contine nts and new seas. In (AEC). The laborato ry in Batavia, Illinois­ our gen e ration the most ch alle nging fron­ lat er n amed Fermi National Accelerator tiers lie in the search for new knowledge Laboratory, or Fer mi lab-c-house s the about nature and about man , and the most , ....orld's highest energy particle accelerator. dramati c progress has been made O il th e To physicists, acce lerated particles a re frontiers of science... The frontier of high a mo n g the necessary tools for exploring energy a nd th e infinitesimally sm all is a their scie ntific frontiers.v ch allenge to th e mind of man. If we can The front ier has lo n g b een a cen tral Adrienne Kolh received a B.A.. in hi.lf(JT)' from tiu: Univmit), 'Livingston, Par /ide Physics: The lligh-Hnn 7{)' Front ier ofNf'W Orleans in 1972. JJ" most rece nt article, coauthored ( New \brk: McGraw, 1968), pp. 2-8. Frontie rs of te ch­ unth l.illi an H oa deso n, is "Till' Mirage of the World nolo g y have bee n a s com p e lling fo r American i\ccf'!.rmlor for World Peace: OrigilH «[ IhI' SIlIJ"('lnuluc/ilig researchers as frontie rs of science . Sn~ J ost'ph J. Cor n, SUp" Collider: 1953-1983, ~ which appears in Hi sto ri cal Th e Wingeti Gospel: A merica 's R oma n ce with Aviation, Stu d ies ill th e Ph ysical and Biol og ical Science s. Sill' is 1900-1 950 (New York: Oxford Un iversity Press. 1983) ; ntrTmtly working with H OIMe.mn and others on a hislor)' of Walter A. ~\'lcDougall .... TIll' Heavens and the Harth: A Fermilab. Kolh is the archimst at Fermilab. Politi cal History of the Space AW (New York: Basic Ro ok s Inc., 1985 ). Lillian H oddrson received the Ph.D. in physics from 2As a stu d en t at Berkeley, Livin gston h ad bu ilt the Columbia Univmity in 1966. Ske has contributed to Out o f first circ u la r particle ac-celerator, the cycl otr o n. which the Crystal Maze: C hapters from the H istory of So lid h is mentor Ernest Orlando Lawrence c once ived State Physics (1992) , "he is the prin (ilml au thor (ifCritical around 1928. La wrence also e m b ra ce d th e frontier Asse mbly: A Te ch nical H istory o f Lo s Ala mos Durin g image. For e-xample, the title of hi s No be l Prize ac cep­ the Oppeuhcinu-r \ c ars (1993), awl she is 11lrrmtly work­ ta nce speech in 1939 was "T he New Fro nt iers in the v« on a MilOT)' (if the transistor and a !Jio{{T'a!Jh)' ofIJh.)'.\iri.lt Atom," Science, 94 ( 19 4 1), 22 1-25. See a lso]. 1.. John Bardeen. Hoddesan is un fusoriale professor ofhistory at H eilbrou a nd Robert W.Se idel. t .aioren ce and H is the UniTinsity (if lllinms at UrIJflna-ChfwIIJIlign. nnd she has LaIJflmfor)': A lIi"tor)' of the lnunence Berkelry Lllbartltory srrued (H Fermilab's part-time historian since 1978. This (Be rkeley: Un ive rsity o f Ca lifo rnia Press, 1989 ), I, 1- 8. pn/wr was on'ginaU)' presented at the Thirteenth Annual Illinois I (i\((Jr)' SJ1IlIJo,\ium in J992. 2 '\ORI E N :'\ E KOLR r\s n l.ILl.lA X 1I0IJO ES O :o.: 3 im age in Am erican history. In a n add ress delivered in Jul), of 1893 in Ch icago, on the occasion of th e four hundredth an n iversary of the la nding of Co lumbus in the \\'estern Il c misp he re , frontier h istorian Frederick J ackson Turner offered his renowned thesis that confrontation of th e frontier by p ic­ neerin g sett lers of th e American \Vest dur­ ing the eigh teenth and nineteenth cent uries b rough t abou t suc h di st inctive American cu lt ura l traits as econom ic a nd political equality, individualism, and democracy: "T he existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession. and the advance of Ame ri can settlement westward, explain Am erican d evelopment." For Turner, "the frontier is p ro d uc t ive of i ndivi d­ ualism ... [a nd] has from th e beginning promoted democracy."> To th e frontier itself-the "hither ed ge of free land"-Turner asc ribed the power to Americanize, to foster a na tional characte r." The demanding process hy whic h the cond i­ FREDERICK J ACKSO N TU~'lER tions of natu re at the fromk-r "maste r the co lonist "( ra t h e r than t he o t he r way around) promoted American ind ivid ua lism: canoe. It strips off the garments of civiliza­ "The fro ntier is the line of most rapid and tion and arrays h im in the hunting shirt a nd e ffective Am ericanizat ion. The wilderness the m occasin . ... In short, at th e fro ntie r masters the colonist. It find s him a the environment is at first too strung for the European in d ress, industries, tools, modes man . lie m ust accept the condition s whi ch of travel, an d thought. It takes him from the it furni shes, o r perish ." T urner sa w th e railroad car and puts him in the birch power in the frontier to ge nerate Am erican "I'urucr. "The S iguificaucc of the Fronti e r i ll was not the first 10 link the frontier with democracyor :\1Il('l' i (',1ll lIi!'>lory, ~ ill The Tu rner Thesis: C(Jn(n"1li7l~ Oil' natio n a l traits. Fo r ot her e xample s. see Ray Alh-u Role of the Fron tier in A mn i((", H istorv , ed. G eorge HillillglOIl , A mni m 's Frantirr Il ni l (l~1' C'cw ' tJ1" k: I luh , ROg"n s Taylor (Le xing ton. Ma ss.: Heat h . 1956), pp. I % li ). Pl'. 4-6. I -I H. Set' 011 "0 Turner, "Contributions o r the west 10 'Turner, "Sigll iliralll"(' o f the Frontier. M p. 2_See ..1..0 Arm-ric an Democra cy," in ibid.. pp . 19-:-\ :-\ ; William l\ illinglOn. A merica 's Frontier IIn i ttl{{f, p. 16. Turne r's Cronou. "Rcvisiting th e Vanishing Frontie r : The lurk o f precision in hi s dr-tiuitions of ti ll' trourk-r pro­ Lt'g,u'y or Frede rick..Jat"ksoll "l"1I 1"11('r. ~ \\ f_~ /rrn H is/mi m i vidcd h i ~ cr-itics with '";1 happy hUllt in g g rou lU l. M Orhcr Quart"l), 1M ( 198 7 ). 15 7 - 76: Richard Whitt" detiuitions beside s lilt' h ithe r edge of fr e t' land "Frederickjack....on T urner, ~ ill llistori ans of tlU' .-'..mmffH/ include: the (,"( lge o f !'o('II )n! u-rritorv, the lim- o f !'>t1t lt"­ Frontier: A Rio--Ribli ographiral SOllrft'bOflk . cd. J o hn R. nn-m, the h\\'est" itselt', and a "form of society" (St'(' wnud er (I'\('w ' t)l"k: Greenwood. HIXX ), p_66 7. Turner ibid.}. 4 THE FOUNDING OF FERMI LAB attitudes of optimism, individualism, towards Native Americans, animals, or the dynamism, and courage, to support the con­ land itself. More recently, historians have fidence to venture beyond the safe and noticed that Turner's "American" outlook is familiar, and to instill "anti-social" attitudes white and male-gendered. But while and produce "antipathy to control." Those Turner's thesis has fallen into some scholar­ tendencies supported democratic traits, ly disfavor, its rhetoric and imagery remain such as the ability to question authority? At alive, and in the popular mind, the thesis the frontier, American easterners and still serves as a provocative description of Europeans could descend to a primitive the nation's growth." Frontier stories-dra­ level of history and establish frontier com­ matized by the entertainment industry and munities that would recapitulate the evolu­ written into the history books read by gen­ tion of civilization from hunter, to trader, to erations of Americans-have become part farmer and capitalist. In the process, they of the mythology of the American heritage. forged American commitments to pragma­ In the 1890s up to eighteen thousand peo­ tism and democracy. Whether the members ple witnessed each showing of Buffalo Bill of the frontier community were explorers, Cody's 'Wild West and Congress of Rough colonists, settlers, migrants, cowboys, or Riders of the World." The frontier myth has farmers, they all drew on the frontier itself, been further preserved by such recreations according to Turner's thesis, in order to as Frontierland at Disneyland.s create their distinctive American outlook.