Another Quiet Day

 Or Nothing to See Here, Move Along

We went today to Los Alamos, the site of the Manhattan Project to develop atomic weapons in World War II. I'm not sure what I expected, but it is an ordinary town with an extraordinary past. In 1942 it was a remote farming community on a mesa overlooking Santa Fe. It had a few distinctions, it was the site of a paleo Indian pueblo

as well as the New Mexico Ranch School, founded by Arthur Pond, a former Roughrider, to toughen up boys like TR and himself. Among its alums were such varied characters as Gore Vidal and William S. Burroughs, go figure.

And it was known to this man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, a Berkeley physicist and outdoorsman, shown here with his partner and nemesis, Brigadier General Leslie S. Groves

The city has a strange relationship with its past, partly apologetic, partly proud, and partly educational with a strong dose of propaganda. If you go, do the Bradbury Museum and maybe the Historical Museum which in quaint fashion celebrated the people of the community before and after the "Project."

And, finally, there was a pen

Tomorrow, depending on how much rain and/or snow, we will either kick about town for another day or head down to Albuquerque where the weather should be better.