In our backyard: 'Oppenheimer' film renews interest in beginning of Atomic Age

July 16, 1945.

Seventy-eight years ago to be exact, the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in the north-central portion of White Sands Missile Range — approximately 60 miles north of White Sands National Monument.

For the Trinity Test, the bomb was placed atop a 100-foot steel tower that was designated Zero. Ground Zero was at the foot of the tower.

Just before 5:30 a.m., the nuclear device known as “Gadget” was successfully detonated.

To most observers — watching through dark glasses — the brilliance of the light from the explosion overshadowed the shock wave and sound that arrived some seconds later.

A multicolored cloud surged 38,000 feet into the air within seven minutes. Where the tower had been was a crater one-half mile across and eight feet deep. Sand in the crater was fused by the intense heat into a glass-like solid, the color of green jade. This material was given the name trinitite.

Although no information on the test was released until after the atomic bomb had been used as a weapon, the flash of light and shock wave made a vivid impression over an area with a radius of at least 160 miles.

The world’s second atomic bomb, codenamed “Little Boy,” exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, a third bomb, codenamed “Fat Man,” devastated the city of Nagasaki.

The test ground was named Trinity Site — marking the beginning of the Atomic Age and putting the Manhattan Project, its scientists and J. Robert Oppenheimer into the history books.

Interest in the Atomic Age’s beginnings is renewed today, driven by Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer.”

The film opens nationwide on Friday, July 21.

History on display

The history is part of New Mexico’s DNA — making it an ideal place to bring the film to life.

At the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, museum officials have been seeing an uptick in attendance and interest due to the film.

“Because it’s summer and tourism season, a lot of people are really focusing on the Manhattan Project and asking us about the ‘Oppenheimer’ movie,” says Jennifer Hayden, museum executive director. “We are seeing the interest pique into the relevancy of New Mexico in the Manhattan Project. We are truly getting more interest from a variety of guests.”

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History was established in 1969 as a place to learn the story of the Atomic Age — from early research of nuclear development through today’s peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

Hayden says visitors can explore how nuclear science continues to influence our world.

“The museum strives to present, through permanent and changing exhibits and displays, the diverse applications of nuclear science in the past, present and future along with the stories of the field’s pioneers,” Hayden says.

At the museum, Hayden says there’s a permanent exhibit called, “Critical Assembly, the Secrets of Los Alamos 1944: An Installation by American Sculptor Jim Sanborn.”

The exhibit was created by Sanborn, who is best known for creating the encrypted “Kryptos” sculpture at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Hayden says the pieces invite visitors to explore and study the artist’s rendition of the super secret experiments from the Manhattan Project’s atomic bomb program.

The installation is based on the laboratory environment for the assembly of the first atomic bomb and is gleaned from many scholarly and eyewitness accounts of the appearance of the Manhattan Project laboratories as they existed from 1943 to 1945.

It includes original electronic instruments, hardware, furniture, tools and materials used by Los Alamos National Laboratory during the 1940s.

“These objects were acquired by Sanborn during a six-year period from a variety of sources, including former laboratory employees,” she says. “Any materials Sanborn was unable to collect in Los Alamos, he machined and fabricated himself.”

That exhibit has been up since 2017 and is finding a new demographic with people wanting to learn more because of the film, Hayden says.

Throughout the museum, one can find a wide array of artifacts from this time.

“We have the casing from the ‘Gadget’ on display,” she says. “We also have the casings of ‘Fat Man’ and ‘Little Boy,’ which were the bombs used to end World War II.”

Hayden says while all the artifacts are important to history, there are few that stick out.

One is the American flag that was raised at Trinity Site in 1945.

“There’s also the Packard Clipper, which we refer to as Oppenheimer’s limousine,” she says. “We know that this vehicle went from Los Alamos to the Trinity Site.”

There are places in the museum that talk about the two other secret cities along with Los Alamos — Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington.

Outside the museum there is a nine-acre Heritage Park.

This is where visitors can see a replica of the Trinity Tower, which is close to the B-29 Superfortress with the “Fat Man” bomb casing and transport container.

“When the TV series ‘Manhattan’ was in production, the prop master came to measure our ‘Gadget’ casing so a Trinity Tower could be built,” Hayden says. “When the show was canceled, we were asked if we wanted the replica, and that’s what is standing outside of our museum today.”

Hayden says for the museum, the Manhattan Project was the beginning of the Atomic Age, which was the beginning of where we are today.

“As a museum that focuses on nuclear science and history, we often look to the past to learn,” she says. “It’s during this time that everything was set forth. We see science in all facets of today’s world. Within energy, medicine and space exploration. We use it now for global leadership or peaceful uses.”

New Mexico’s atomic anatomy

Albuquerque isn’t the only place to find exhibits on Oppenheimer.

In Los Alamos at the Bradbury Science Museum, “J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Exhibit” is on display through Oct. 16.

The exhibit is a collaborative production of the Bradbury and the National Security Research Center. It provides visitors with a unique opportunity to view objects related to physicist Oppenheimer, mastermind of the Manhattan Project, “father of the atomic bomb” and the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s first director.

According to officials, items on view include Oppenheimer’s handwritten notes on the wartime lab, his McKibbin Card (an ID card for all Project Y, which was another name for Los Alamos Laboratory employees, meticulously recorded by Oppenheimer’s secretary, Dorothy McKibbin), and his personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita, the sacred Hindu text he turned to for poetic inspiration in the wake of the Trinity Test.

The exhibit also features documents related to his 1954 security clearance trial and the Department of Energy’s 2022 order to vacate the trial decision.

At the Los Alamos History Museum, which is run by the Los Alamos Historical Society, there are exhibits as well as information about what it was like to live in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.

According to the Los Alamos Historical Society, a museum visit begins in the restored Los Alamos Ranch School Guest Cottage, where exhibits take visitors from the Pajarito Plateau’s ancestral Pueblo people to its homestead history, through the Ranch School era, and ultimately into the Manhattan Project.

The Hans Bethe House on Bathtub Row houses the Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery, with exhibits highlighting 70-plus years of Cold War history of the Los Alamos community and the laboratory. You will see scientist profiles, a Nobel Prize display, models of atomic weapons, information about Los Alamos as a community for civil defense, and a recreated living room and kitchen from the 1950s.

The Romero Cabin is a 100-year step back in time — one of three remaining area homestead cabins and the only one open to the public.

The last house on Bathtub Row is the Oppenheimer House. It is currently undergoing preservation and renovation.

In Las Cruces, at Branigan Cultural Center, “Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing — A People’s Perspective” will be running through Sept. 23.

In the exhibit, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and 17 juried artists expose the long-term effects and ramifications of nuclear testing, nuclear accidents and uranium mining on the people, animals and environment of New Mexico.

Tina Cordova is a co-founder of The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, which formed in 2005.

The organization’s mission is to seek justice for the unknowing and uncompensated participants of the July 16, 1945, Trinity Test in southern New Mexico. Many have developed cancer, including Cordova who battles thyroid cancer. She was diagnosed at age 39.

Cordova continues to spread the word about the downwinders.

“There were 10,000 people living next to the test site. We had communities within that 50-mile radius and their genetics were changed,” Cordova says. “We’ve been working all these years to bring attention to this and get the government to acknowledge that they damaged people. There’s a reason they never tested a bomb 100 feet off the ground again. They learned at Trinity that this was a bad practice.”