Housing the Manhattan Project

For security reasons, photographs of Project Y employees were not permitted during their stay at Bandelier. This rare 1943 photo of employee Ken Jensen may be the only visual documentation of the wartime use of the Frijoles Canyon Lodge by the Manhattan Project.

Los Alamos Historical Society

During World War II, the Manhattan Project established Project Y, a top-secret laboratory in Los Alamos to research and develop the world’s first atomic bombs. A town was established to house the scientists, their families, and other personnel for the duration of the war. Thousands of people would call the secret city of Los Alamos their home between 1943-1945.

There was always a shortage of housing in wartime Los Alamos. New units were constantly being built, but it never seemed to be enough to accommodate the site’s continually growing population. To help with this chronic issue, the Frijoles Canyon Lodge at nearby Bandelier National Monument was requisitioned to temporarily house scientists and their families. Director J. Robert Oppenheimer informed the National Park Service staff there in May 1943 that he wanted the lodge to be ready by June 15. Its operator, longtime Frijoles Canyon resident Evelyn Frey, complained about the disruption. “But they took everything over,” she recalled in later life. The Frijoles Canyon Lodge would be returned to Frey in January 1946.

Bandelier National Monument was an attractive location due to its proximity to Los Alamos, and Frijoles Canyon itself was easy to defend since only one road ran to it. The lodge consisted of several casitas (“little houses”), a dining room, and a gift shop that had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The Manhattan Project moved in on schedule.

The scientists and their families greatly appreciated the casitas. Such scientists as Richard Taschek and John Manley and their families took up temporary residence at the lodge in 1943. Others, like Edward Wilder and his family, lived in tents erected at the park as late as 1945. They were far from the only ones to do so. However, whether in tents or cabins, Bandelier National Monument was a good place to call home.