The Federation of American Scientists has published an article written by AHF President Cindy Kelly, The Making of the Manhattan Project Park. She notes, “The making of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park took more than five times as long as the making of the atomic bomb itself (1942 to 1945).”
Kelly begins the story in 1989, when Congress directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to clean up decades of contamination at its nuclear production facilities. Along with dozens of other Manhattan Project properties, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) slated the V Site buildings for demolition. Luckily, the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation determined that the V Site would not only qualify as a National Historic Landmark but as a World Heritage Site similar to the Acropolis in Athens or the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
In 1998 DOE was awarded a Save America’s Treasures grant to restore the V-Site. In order to match the grant with the required non-Federal funds, Kelly left DOE and founded the Atomic Heritage Foundation in 2002. Since then, AHF has worked in partnership with the local communities and other organizations to preserve historic Manhattan Project sites around the country and to establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
For more about Manhattan Project preservation efforts and the road to the park, read the article here.