There are a lot of little ironies about life in Los Alamos. One of my personal favorites is that the anniversary of Los Alamos becoming a “real town” happens to be on April 1. Last year, in 2021, we celebrated a 75 yr anniversary. On April 1, 1946 the powers that be decided Los Alamos would become a permanent research facility. The almost outrageous plan to house a “few dozen scientists” at the old ranch school on the Pajarito Plateau had come full circle. But the reality of operating a permanent townsite was much different from the tasks associated with operating a scientific laboratory. Nowadays our minds immediately turn to our county sponsored services. But creating that sort of administrative infrastructure takes time. Keep in mind that there weren’t even private homeowners here in Los Alamos in 1946. So in order to keep things running smoothly, general contractor C.D. McKee, whom you might remember from my post on McKeeville and other early housing solutions in Los Alamos, incorporated The Zia Company.

According to Zia Company records, by July 1, 1950, Los Alamos had approximately 2,800 houses and apartments on four mesas. It had 1,225 dormitory rooms, and 160 trailer spaces in its Trailer Park. At that time, any temporary housing was scheduled for eventual removal and plans for new housing had reached the vicinity of North Community. Any housing plans beyond North Community centered on replacement of wartime era prefabricated structures.

All of the current housing in Los Alamos. Any future building plans. Maintenance and management of existing structures. Public services. The Zia Company was responsible for it all.

An Excerpt from “The Tenant’s Handbook” Courtesy of the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives:

Responsibilities of AEC
Under the particular circumstances existing at Los Alamos, the Atomic Energy Commission has a responsibility to provide adequate housing for employees and their families.
Adequate housing means a sufficient number of trailer spaces, dormitory rooms, apartments and houses for our single employees and for our married employees and their families. It means also a variety of choice within each type of housing to try to match the desires and the income of individuals. It means essential home equipment and surroundings suited to a comfortable standard of living.

It might sound simple to say that The Zia Company oversaw operations in Los Alamos from 1946 until the early 1960s. The Zia Company further oversaw a good deal of laboratory operations until mid 1986 when the contract was taken over by Johnson Controls World Services. But nowadays, most modern residents of Los Alamos have no clue just how much The Zia Company actually did back when our tiny town was still shrouded in a great deal of mystery and necessary secrecy.

An Excerpt From The Zia Company’s Organization Chart:

Within the Divisions and Departments are listed:

  • Fiscal Division: Accounting Sub-Division, IBM Service Section, Cost Section, Property Accounting Section, General Accounts Section, Rental and Collections, Invoice Audit, Disbursement & Reimbursement, Timekeeping, Payroll, Budget
  • Special Departments: Radio Station KRSN, Lodging and Eating, Los Alamos Hospital, Veterinary Hospital, Mesa Library, Youth Activities, Schools
  • Personnel Division: Files, Records & Reports; Job Evaluation; Employment; Employee Relations; Training
  • Safety Division: Investigation, Restricted Areas, Heavy Equipment, Const. and Maint., Trans. Shops
  • Warehouse Division: Warehousing Section, Property and Records, Typewriter Shop, Fuel Section, Procurement
  • Engineering Division: Inspection, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Architectural, Field Engineering, Records
  • Maintenance Division: Work Order & Property Section, Building Maintenance Sub-Div., Public Works Sub-Div., Tech. Maintenance Sub-Div., Utilities Sub-Div.
  • Transportation Division: Dispatching, Bus and Taxi Oper., Heavy Equipment, Stationary Equipment, Parts Department, Motor Vehicle Maint., Machine Shop

Okay, first off, can I draw your attention to a few things just to give you a laugh? Under the first bullet point of “Fiscal Division” we have an entire section devoted to IBM Service. For those of you who grew up with a LANL employee for a parent, those decommissioned and auctioned IBMs were the beginning of our home computing experience!

And under “Warehouse Division” we have a typewriter shop. Until word processors became mainstream, typewriters were a hot item at The Zia Company public auctions. More than a few mechanically inclined guys with a desire to bring in extra cash would pick them up, refurbish them, and sell them around town for a quick profit.

Ashley Pond circa 1957 – Do you recognize anything?

Beyond these amusing anecdotal bits about life in Los Alamos, pause for a moment and take in just how important The Zia Company was to life in Los Alamos. In the early days they ran KRSN (the radio station used to occupy a small building on North Mesa), the hospital, veterinary clinic, restaurants, library, schools, youth activities, bus and taxi services, all utilities, housing, maintenance, roads, and the list just goes on and on. Essentially everything that is now considered the responsibility of our Los Alamos County public services, plus so very many private institutions such as the hospital, animal clinics, and mental health and social services such as those offered by Los Alamos Family Council, were all handled by The Zia Company. They even ran a newspaper. The very first edition of The Zia News is dated August 26, 1949. Employees of The Zia Company got the latest edition every other week with their paycheck.

The Zia Company wasn’t a typical landlord either. At that time, residents of Los Alamos had been living in furnished dwellings. Most people were not encouraged to bring much of anything with them to Los Alamos. This meant that a service contract might include not only your toilet and your kitchen appliances, but repairs or replacement of your basic household furniture as well. Can you imagine the number of employees and the corresponding number of hours it took to keep our town running?

While most of the actual furniture was long ago donated to the Historical Society or has been worn out from use, certain household items marked with The Zia Company’s familiar logo still exist in and around Los Alamos. If your home was once on the Zia roster of available housing, you may find their stamp on the back of a bathroom mirror or on non exposed portions of your cabinetry. If you ever go to replace any of these items, please don’t take those Zia marked items to the transfer station before you give the Historical Society a call. They love Zia era memorabilia!

It’s so difficult for the modern mind to grasp the way it was back when Los Alamos had just been designated “a company town” by the Atomic Energy Commission. Now we think of multiple subcontractors at the Laboratory. Many residents are employed by the school district or the hospital. Some employees work at the county offices doing administrative work or even hard physical labor with the Parks & Rec department. But when Los Alamos was new. You either worked for the laboratory or you worked for The Zia Company. There was nobody else. The work was still too hush, hush to expand the pool of contractors.

Gradually, Los Alamos has been becoming its own independent town. It’s taken quite a lot of time. And there are still things to be done. When I get frustrated with how long something seems to be taking, I remind myself that The Zia Company left some big shoes to fill. And thankfully, most of us own our own furniture these days. We get to choose what veterinarian we want to use. We go to hospitals in Santa Fe and Albuquerque for specialty services instead of waiting what might seem like forever for someone to be brought up the hill. And yes. We’re still missing a few varied goods and services. But all in all, Los Alamos is an incredible place to live with an even more incredible history. And when you’re ready to join our community, give me a call! I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos!