Month: February 2025

As I was waiting for my latest Amazon order and feeling a certain level of excitement that Los Alamos finally has Amazon drivers to make Prime shipping actually feel like Prime shipping… (c’mon, you know exactly what I mean), I started thinking about how mail and delivery services have changed so drastically since the Internet. That’s true for everyone everywhere. But here in Los Alamos it is actually a rather drastic change.

It’s not a stretch for us to imagine a mule train or a horse and rider coming up the road to Los Alamos back in the Ranch School days. Those days often seem ages ago and they were riding horses to get up here to begin with! But even when the population in Los Alamos soared, mail and delivery services remained in the Stone Age. Why? Because of the secrecy.

The estimated population of Los Alamos in January 1943 was 1,500. The number of “residents” rose to 5,675 by the end of 1944. In 1945 there was a spike that raised the population to 8,200. To give you an idea of differences between then and now, the population of Los Alamos County was estimated to be 19,615 at the end of 2024. But in 1945 the few residents living in the White Rock Construction Camp were not included. There was no Barranca Mesa or North Mesa either. The big Group Housing construction projects in the Urban Park and Aspen School areas were not even started until 1949. So we’re talking 8,200 people living no further out than our modern Western Area.

Even those of use who grew up here when the air space over town was closed to non-classified air traffic and the main roads weren’t marked with much signage cannot imagine what it was like to live in Los Alamos at that time. The gates were closed. Residents were not allowed personal contact with relatives or friends. If you lived behind the fence you weren’t allowed to travel more than 100 miles from Los Alamos. Shopping trips to Santa Fe were only allowed once a month. Even if you left the mesa, you couldn’t chat with anyone about anything.

I wonder sometimes if that once a month trip to Santa Fe became something that was ingrained in so many Los Alamos locals in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. When my friends and I first started driving in high school we were always told we couldn’t “leave the hill”.

Gradually we began to push our boundaries with trips to Espanola, Pojoaque, or Santa Fe to go to the mall or see a movie, or even just to go to a Taco Bell! (ours had been closed for several years by then) But most of the families had a ritual once a month trip to Albuquerque (can you say Price Club?) and you had to go to Santa Fe for a Wal-mart back then. Our reasons for heading off the Pajarito Plateau weren’t dissimilar in those days from what they were back in the 1940s. Some folks even claimed it was the state of the liquor cabinet or their stock of baby supplies that determined when they made the monthly journey off the hill!

The only link between the outside world and Los Alamos was the building at 109 East Palace Avenue in Santa Fe. The address was managed by a powerhouse of a woman named Dorothy McKribbin. She became manager, jailer, confidant, therapist, and the one person who helped the residents of Los Alamos, and definitely the women of Los Alamos, to feel less isolated from the outside world.

Thanks to the entirely closed status of Los Alamos at that time, all mail had to be addressed to PO Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Oddly enough, this PO Box still exists. You’ll find it is currently “owned” by Triad National Security and is still the home address of Los Alamos National Laboratory although now the Lab has their own zipcode of 87545. Back then, all mail coming in had to be censored and all outgoing mail had to be submitted in open envelopes so it could be just as censored. There are some really interesting stories from the residents regarding the censorship days. You can see some of them on the Historical Society’s Blog HERE.

Mail was transferred twice daily by armed guard. An MP and a mail clerk, both carrying weapons, were tasked with driving to Santa Fe in order to drop off outgoing mail and pick up incoming mail. The effort made by the project to cover up what was actually happening in Los Alamos was incredible.

Scientists and personnel in Los Alamos did NOT officially change their addresses to PO Box 1663. Their mail continued to be sent to their former addresses at universities or businesses. There it was hand forwarded by department secretaries in order to decrease the possibility that some enemy agent would become aware that hundreds of the top scientific journals available at the time were, for some unfathomable reason, being delivered to a remote corner of Northern New Mexico! Can you imagine?

Going back to my Amazon moment, the catalog ordering companies were equally baffled. All clothing had to be purchased from mail order catalogs like Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. One old anecdote tells of a catalog delivery coming with a note saying, “You folks at Box 1663 sure do buy a lot!” Another catalog company reportedly accused the PO Box of having nefarious plans for the 100 plus catalogs they’d sent to the address. They subsequently refused to send anymore catalogs.

Residents with recognizable names got aliases like Henry Farmer and Uncle Nick. The use of the word physicist was absolutely forbidden. Everyone was a mister or a miss or missus. There were no doctors. Everyone was an “engineer” and deliveries were marked “U.S.E.D” for United States Engineering District. Banking was done strictly by mail. No home in Los Alamos had a phone. There was no milk man, mail man, paper boy, or other traditional service helpers.

It is almost inconceivable to a modern mind to imagine car titles, drivers licenses, insurance policies, and ration books being issued to numbers instead of names. For the residents at the time, it probably felt like a prison camp. And one of the oldest “urban myths” of Los Alamos was absolutely true. Babies born in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project all shared the dubious honor of being born at PO Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Because who doesn’t want to be born inside PO Box 1663?

So when you head to your front door and you see that wonderful package, or envelope, or you wander to your mailbox for your latest catalog or magazine, take a moment to appreciate things like mail service! You can get Hello Fresh delivered to your door without the box being opened and checked for contraband. You can even see an Amazon driver pop by to leave that extra special must have on your doorstep. Tonight, you can make a split second decision to head down to the Sopapilla Factory in Pojoaque, or grab something at Wal-mart in Espanola. Now our isolated community on the hill is connected in tons of ways to the outside world, which only makes it a more desirable place to call home! And when you’re ready to start looking for a home in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl and I love chatting about real estate in Los Alamos!

There’s really no doubt that life here in Los Alamos is a rather unique experience. As I chat with newcomers and long time residents about their homes, I love hearing their perceptions of life in Los Alamos. What I sometimes find most fascinating is the wide variety of thoughts people like to share on the subject. These are modern perspectives though. Thanks to one of my favorite books from the History Museum’s wonderful gift shop, we have some sources from years ago.

In her book, Tales of Los Alamos: Life on the Mesa 1943-1945, Bernice Brode gives a bit of cool insight into how the work/life balance looked in the early days. I think you might agree with me that some of this will seem awfully familiar.

First off, Bernice Brode shares that the term “Mesa Business” was used to cover all community affairs. If community affairs seems a broad term, it was meant to be! It covered everything social happening in Los Alamos and therefore anyone had a right to be in the know, and activities and events happened because some determined individual made them happen.

It was also considered Mesa Business to get the 411 on any new families being brought up to Los Alamos. It’s nearly impossible to wrap our modern minds around the idea that the local gossip would include personal goods like what furniture you have, any musical talents, and even your basic family profiles. Did the new family have a grandmother living with them? Woohoo! New post babysitter! Does one of the kids play an instrument? Awesome, the community orchestra needs some beefing up!

Brode tells a tale in her book about the first really determined, organized effort by Mesa Business to create a pre-school. Some early residents even convinced the Army to slap together a building and fence in a yard. They even got playground equipment added to their budget. The pre-school was instantly in such demand that PO Box 1663 was inundated with requests to be on the waiting list! Good gracious! Can you imagine having to write a letter to the Los Alamos postal alias in order to get your kid waitlisted for daycare?!

Los Alamos had Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, and a Junior Cub Scouts group called BUDS during the war years. These groups popped up because dedicated moms and dads took time from the Manhattan Project to participate with their kids. (Ahem… sound familiar?).

One group of Brownies got so good with their dance routines that they were often asked to perform at community events. The determined Brownie Leader bailed up a major and got the Army to construct a May Pole near the Big House (near the modern location of the Post Office). The Brownie troupe of dancers wound pink and white ribbons round the pole for May Day!

Bernice also talks about the Mesa’s theater. The production space was almost never unused. Everything from church services to full scale theatrical productions. Everyone was involved, which meant everyone attended! It’s evidently urban legend that the most memorable Little Theater performance was of Arsenic and Old Lace when the final scene where they bring up the bodies included Robert Oppenheimer, Deak Parsons, Bob Bacher, Cyril Smith, and Harold Agnew. The need for willing bodies to act meant anyone was welcome to join!

I find it so interesting to think that our community has a bit of a revolving history. The way that we get involved when we’re passionate about something. Our history of rallying around community members in need. The high value we place on our offspring’s creative, educational, and athletic talents. This is such an interesting place to call home with so many things to do and see! Whether you’re ready to join our community or getting ready to leap to your next adventure, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who loves to talk houses in Los Alamos!