The Secret City
More geography! The Rio Grande River flows through the heart of New Mexico, which otherwise for the most part is a dry, desolate land, but it definitely is not flat. The Rocky Mountains continue to stream south in several parallel ranges with the Rio Grande in the middle. However, the Rio Grande does not flow down a typical river valley. As the river heads south there is a sequence of large, broad valleys separated by canyons. Recall that Taos is situated at the edge of one of these large plains at the base of the eastern mountains. As I took the High Road from Taos to Santa Fe, the path took me through roughly 50 miles of mountains that separate the Taos Plain from the next step down, the plain that begins at Santa Fe. A viewpoint from the road on the eastern side of the Rio Grande looks west across to the mountains on the far side of the river, which is present in the band of green trees running from left to right in the middle of the photo. Note that this is dry, rugged terrain with pinon pine forests in the mountains.
Before arriving in Santa Fe, on a whim I decide to take a side trip to Los Alamos, which sits above the river valley on the Pajaritos Plateau about 20 miles west the valley from where the picture was taken. Los Alamos, known as the “Secret City”, was the site of the development of the first atomic bomb in 1944. Let’s check it out.
I leave Hwy 84 at Pojoaque Pueblo and head west on Hwy 502 towards Los Alamos. The road descends down to the bottom of the Rio Grande Valley, crosses the river, and then begins the climb up the mesa walls to the Pajaritos Plateau and Los Alamos. This is clearly the middle of nowhere, desolate, dry but yet there is an inordinate amount of traffic on a 4-lane highway. Obviously something is happening ahead. About two thirds of the way up the mesa, I stop at a turnout and take a picture looking to the east down into the river valley and then turning 180 degrees and looking up to the edge of the plateau. Note that there is nothing but scenery in the picture looking east but there is a massive industrial complex rising above the mesa to the west.
Let’s step back and talk a little history. The Pajaritos Plateau had been occupied by the Ancestral Pueblo people since around 1150 A.D. Persistent drought eventually forced them to leave the plateau and settle down in the river valley. In the late 1800’s homesteader’s settled the plateau in large ranches, as it took a great deal of land to support an individual cow. The modern history of Los Alamos started in 1917 when Ashley Pond purchased the Alamos Ranch and created essentially a “prep” school for the sons of wealthy families from the East. It was one of those “boys to men” schools, rigorous, spartan and based upon outdoor experiences. A small complex was built around a depression that filled with water after rain storms and provided a source of water for the school. The center of the school was the Fuller Building, built in 1928 as the Ranch School Dining Hall. The original log structure is now the center of the building, as two wings were built in later years after the building was converted to a hotel. The building now is a cultural center and site for meetings, etc.
The middle section was constructed of 771 pine logs. The day I was there the actual dining hall (which is the first floor of the middle section) was set up for a meeting but you can clearly still see the 1928 ambience.
In 1943 the US Government was looking for a secret place to house the Manhattan Project, the top secret that lead to the development of the atomic bomb. Several people involved in the planning for the project knew of the remote Los Alamos Ranch School and in 1943 the government, using eminent domain powers granted under the War Act, took over the school property, which included not only the school buildings but 37 square miles of land spread across the top of several mesas and the plateau. The dining hall became the administrative building for the new occupants. Just north of the dining hall, small houses had been built for the staff and faculty of the school and were now occupied by the scientists.
These are now private homes, but in 1943 the complex was called “Bathtub Row” because when the scientists arrived in 1943 they discovered that these houses had the only bathtubs on the plateau. Initially the plan was that 30 scientists would be housed on the grounds, but the work that developed as a result of the project in the next 70 years is now the focus of a population of over 12,000 people on the plateau. Housing is concentrated in two areas which are actually governed as one city. The town site of Los Alamos is much larger than the auxiliary town site of White Rock, which is located across the plateau about 15 miles from the Los Alamos site.
Driving through Los Alamos is somewhat surreal. Here, in the middle of pinon pine forests on top of several mesas that stretch east from the plateau (think of fingers stretching out from your palm), sits a modern town. There is no pretense of past history here, no adobe pueblos, etc. It’s a town from the 50’s all grown up.
The small airport takes up most of the narrow mesa that the main highway uses to enter town. This picture is taken looking northwest across the one runway and a canyon onto the neighboring mesa to the north. Los Alamos spills across three of these “fingers” as well as the palm.
Turning around 180 degrees from the same spot and looking across the canyon to the south of the airport, you can see several of the mysterious installations that are spread in splendid isolation across the 37 square mile Los Alamos National Laboratory, successor to the Manhattan Project and now the federal government’s primary top secret science laboratory (and I found out just how secret a bit later!)
Terrorist on Board?
On the tourist map provided by the Visitor Center in Los Alamos, Highway 501 CLEARLY passes around the north edge of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, circling around to the south edge of the plateau and joining Highway 4 to White Rock and then back across the Rio Grande to Highway 84 and on to Santa Fe. So, innocently I cross the bridge to the south mesa and turn right. Immediately the highway is blocked by security gates (here’s another hint of how many people work on the plateau – there were eight security booths for incoming vehicles. Everyone has to stop and be cleared to enter). I pulled up and the lady very pleasantly asked for my driver’s license and then told me to pull over as my RV had to be searched. And search it they did, even opening up the half-closet doors. Then, after the search was over, they let me continue on but only with a security escort in a white SUV. I took this picture through the windshield as I followed the security SUV through the first 4 miles of the highway. Note the width of the highway which goes essentially nowhere except the National Laboratory grounds…
On either side of the highway there are large buildings, full parking lots, and a gate at every entrance. Finally, after the last building in this cluster, the security guard pulled over and waved me by. The rest of the way wove through seemingly remote pinon pine forests before gradually climbing down the side of the plateau I say seemingly because every now and then there was a small blue/white sign that said “Tech Area” and a series of numbers with arrows pointing off down paved roads into the hinterlands. Twice major roads came out of the wilderness to join Highway 4 and eventually came together to form the 4-lane freeway that heads the final way down the mesa, across the river, and up the mesas on the east to rejoin Highway 84, which then lead us on to Santa Fe, about 30 minutes further down the road. All in all, a very interesting little side trip…
Next up: Santa Fe
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