The Manhattan Project Tour was excellent. The tour took us to the three Manhattan Project National Historical Park sites – Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. We learned so much about how, in a short amount of time, the atomic bomb was created, to its final shipping to Tinian, one of the Northern Mariana Islands. We learned about the men and women, military and civilian, who worked on the project and the extraordinary dedication of everyone from the scientists to the cafeteria crews that kept these places humming. In addition to the national park sites, we participated in guided tours of the White Sands Missile Museum, the Trinity site, and other places of interest. It was an honor to walk in these historic places and contemplate how history changing they were. History is always a reminder to me how far we have come as a country. During the time of the Manhattan Project, we learned segregation was part of its history, and as a country, we addressed this wrong, passing on, lessons learned. We learned the end point of how destructive the bomb was, and we also learned about the great strides in nuclear medicine, nuclear energy and how the US shares our expertise to keep the world safe from nuclear accidents. My only regret, was the tour was not longer! I highly recommend this tour.
Manhattan Project
It is still an unending source of surprise for me to see how a few scribbles on a blackboard or on a sheet of paper could change the course of human affairs.
Join Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours for on a journey through the new Manhattan Project National Historic Park System on our exclusive new Manhattan Project Tour. Follow the progress of the uranium bomb from its early stages at Oak Ridge to the successful testing at White Sands, New Mexico.
Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the establishment of the Manhattan Project in 1942 with the primary purpose of creating an atomic bomb. The goal was two-fold: develop the atomic bomb for fear the Germans would have it first, and advance American victory in WWII. The project would involve the U.S. military and some of the world’s leading scientific minds. Their work would usher in the nuclear age and forever change the world.
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened Japan’s surrender. However, most important was forcing an end to the war in the Pacific before an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands became necessary. Military experts urged using the bomb because it would prevent the loss of perhaps hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers as well as millions of Japanese.
Ultimately, the Manhattan Project would employ over 250,000 Americans who worked at universities, factories and laboratories across the nation. Their diligent work was hugely successful and ultimately American science and industry prevailed.
Our historians will take you through each phase of the project and encourage informal discussions throughout the tour. We will have the added benefit of local experts joining us to add their insights and detailed knowledge about the development, actual testing and the devastating effect of the atom bomb.
There is only one tour of this kind: the Manhattan Project Tour by Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours.
Highlights
- Oak Ridge: See the pilot nuclear reactor that produced plutonium and the electromagnetic separation process for uranium enrichment
- American Museum of Science and Energy: View exhibits from security measures and scientific engineering to environmental restoration in Oak Ridge
- Hanford, Washington: See the massive “B” nuclear reactor and the world’s first large-scale center for plutonium production
- Los Alamos National Laboratory: Home to the scientists who designed the bomb
- Santa Fe: Visit the infamous spy sites
- The Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque: Learn the story of the Atomic Age
- White Sands/Trinity Site: Visit the White Sands Missile Base for The Trinity Site open house and see the location of the detonation at Ground Zero
Day-By-Day Itinerary
DAY 1 Knoxville, TN
Guests fly into Knoxville, Tennessee, and travel independently to our hotel in Oak Ridge, where we gather for an evening welcome reception and dinner. Guests will meet our historian, staff, and each other, and we have the opportunity to engage in our first discussion about the history we will cover in the days ahead.
DAY 2 Richland, WA
Here in the hills of East Tennessee, the atomic bomb story begins with the initial developmental stages of what, when deployed, would be a super-atomic nuclear fireball. We will tour sites around the Historic Oak Ridge Community with a local historian stopping at the K-25 History Center, where the staff pioneered gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment technology for the “Little Boy” bomb. At the American Museum of Science and Energy, we become further immersed in the Manhattan project with a two-screen documentary and exhibits that detail the life of this “Secret City.” In the late afternoon, we depart Knoxville and fly to Hanford, Washington, where we spend the night.
DAY 3 Richland, WA
Hanford becomes the world’s first large-scale center for plutonium production. Here the team built three massive nuclear reactors and used the waters of the scenic Columbia River as coolant. We spend the morning visiting the B-Reactor National Historic Landmark to see the production of plutonium for Trinity, the first detonation device, and subsequent bombs. Hanford became an atomic boomtown, and we see the human side of the project. We tour the Hanford Construction Camp Historic District, Bruggemann’s Agricultural Warehouse Complex, the White Bluffs Bank, and Hanford Irrigation District Pump House.
DAY 4 Santa Fe, NM
We take an early morning flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we begin our study of the assembly phase of the Manhattan Project. Driving north to Santa Fe, we stop at Lamy Station, the arrival point for the brain trust that would complete the Manhattan Project. The scientists disembarked their trains here to begin their work at Los Alamos. Just as they did, we proceed to 109 E. Palace Avenue, the check-in office for all arriving personnel. The only difference is that Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin, a vital part of the organization, will not be there to greet us. She became known as the “First Lady of Los Alamos.”
DAY 5 Santa Fe, NM
We will start our day with a brief tour of Santa Fe, include the infamous “Spy Sites” in our stops, and continue to Los Alamos. Located on a remote mesa in northern New Mexico, Los Alamos became home to the more than 6,000 scientists and support personnel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Here we begin with a visit to the Manhattan Project Historical Landmarks.
DAY 6 Socorro, NM
This morning we have some free time in Old Santa Fe, established by the Spanish in 1610. We will have time to visit shops, take in the architecture, and see Native American arts and crafts. At noon we journey South in preparation for the Trinity Open House at White Sands. First, however, we stop in Albuquerque to visit the Museum of Nuclear Science and History, where the exhibits range from the discovery of nuclear theory to modern advances in nuclear medicine. Here we also see the B-29 Silverplate, the bomber specially designed to carry the bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” We spend the night in Socorro.
DAY 7 Alamogordo, NM
In July 1945, at the Trinity Site, the test detonation sent a multi-colored cloud almost 40,000 feet into the atmosphere while the intense heat fused the sand below into solid glass. Our tour includes the assembly site of the plutonium core at McDonald Ranch House and actual Ground Zero, now marked by a memorial obelisk.
Day 8 El Paso, TX
Today, we will visit White Sands National Park, followed by a guided visit to the White Sands Missile Base Museum before ending the day with our farewell dinner and a congenial sharing of our tour experiences.
DAY 9 Departure
There will be one morning transfer to the El Paso Airport.
Tour Dates
- October 2024
Historians
LAND TOUR COST $4,490
Price is per person based on double occupancy. For a single room add $750.
Price does not include two group flights.