Just before Christmas in 1938, German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman successfully split a uranium atom. The following year, Albert Einstein warned President Franklin Roosevelt that Nazi Germany might be developing this new scientific discovery into a weapon. Roosevelt promptly established the Advisory Committee on Uranium, and two years later initiated an atomic weapons program, called the Manhattan Project. United States Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves managed the Manhattan Project, deciding on three locations, each addressing special requirements, for the project: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Oak Ridge was selected for enriching uranium—in other words, for gaseous diffusion, pile, centrifuge, and electromagnetic production plants. Hanford was chosen for producing plutonium because of its water and power (sourced from the Columbia River), and few people. On a mesa in New Mexico near Los Alamos, J. Robert Oppenheimer and other scientists researched and developed the atomic bomb.
Throughout the western United States, memorial sites and museums relate the history of World War II, the Manhattan Project, and the atomic bomb that ended the war. The Los Alamos Visitor Center, operated by the National Park Service, is a great place for your group to start its tour of atomic sites of the West. From the visitor center, venture out into the park and consult the park app to discover other Los Alamos sites related to the Manhattan Project. The Trinity Site at White Sands National Park—where the first bomb, nicknamed “the Gadget,” was detonated—is open only on specific days but is worth centering your group tour on. The International Space Hall of Fame Foundation in Alamogordo offers “Trinity Site Motor Coach Tours.” Additionally, the White Sands Missile Range Museum not only features exhibits relating to the area’s atomic story, but its scope also includes the history of the surrounding lands’ Indigenous peoples and cultures, flora and fauna, and natural geology and landscapes.
Credit: Visit Tri-Cities
The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (a Smithsonian Affiliate) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is an intriguing place for groups to take in the story of the Atomic Age. The museum provides an educational and fascinating journey from the dawn of the Atomic Age through the development of nuclear science, with artifacts including replicas of the “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Nearby are group lodging options ranging from Hilton to Hyatt, Sheraton to Marriott. Be sure to tip back a few brews at the Bombs Away Beer Co. microbrewery.
Farther west in Arizona is a number of museums dedicated to Cold War and atomic history. The Titan Missile Museum, near Tucson, takes groups underground and back in time to the last remaining Titan II missile site, officially known as complex 571-7. (Note: Everyone in the group must be able to safely descend and ascend 55 stairs, as there is no elevator access to the underground silo.) The Titan II was capable of launching from this underground silo in 58 seconds and could deliver a 9-megaton thermonuclear warhead more than 6,000 miles to its target in under 30 minutes. Group accommodations near the museum include the cabins at Santa Rita Lodge, the villa-style Canoa Ranch Golf Resort, and a variety of inns and hotels.
Of course, no group’s atomic tour is complete without stopping at the B Reactor in Hanford, Washington. The world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor and part of the Manhattan Project, the site is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. The Manhattan Project’s third site in Oak Ridge (longknown as the “Secret City”) is home to a wealth of historic attractions that tells the remarkable story of the Manhattan Project and the dawn of the Atomic Age, including where the Calutron Girls—who operated the Calutron machines that separated uranium isotopes to fuel the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—worked. The Oak Ridge History Museum focuses on Manhattan Project history and people’s day-to-day lives during World War II. Plentiful hotels and restaurants provide places for rest and refueling in this little town that helped end the war.
By C.L. Lefevre
Main Image: White Sands Missile Range Museum, White Sands National Park, New Mexico; Credit: Adobe/Zack Frank
