November 1942

Los Alamos was selected as the site for an atomic bomb laboratory. The top-secret laboratory was built deep in the mountains of New Mexico, on a mesa northwest of Santa Fe at the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys. Robert Oppenheimer was named the director. Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist from the University of California, Berkeley, assembled a team of scientists to translate atomic theory into a working explosive device small enough to be delivered by an airplane. Officially, the scientists were only told that they would be working on a project that might end the war. The Army built numerous temporary buildings to house the scientists and their families, who for security reasons couldn't leave Los Alamos except in case of dire emergency. Nearly 5,000 people lived and worked at Los Alamos by the close of the war.