Manhattan Project Commissary

This was the grocery store. Because it was an Army town it was called the commissary, just as it is on Army posts today. There was no other grocery store so you had no choice about where you bought your food. Throughout the summer of 1943, hundreds of bewildered families moved to Los Alamos to begin an unforgettable adventure. Scientific personnel had only a very general idea about the nature of the work that awaited them. They were instructed to tell their families nothing. Most administrative and technical personnel knew only that they were moving to an unknown place for an unknown length of time. Most lived in trailers and huts put up by the Army in a very short time to try to deal with the massive influx of personnel. Because it was secret, Los Alamos was referred to as Site Y or the Hill'. Birth certificates of babies born in Los Alamos during the war listed their place of birth as PO Box 1663 in Santa Fe

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1942 1946 1942-1946 Alamos Atomic Commissary Grocery Lanl

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