Re: Update on Atomic Museum car

Posted by JWL On 2009/4/9 14:00:55

41ParPac,

I believe that there were about 1,500 people working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during its peak activity. This would include military personnel too. I'll check on this and get back if it is different.

Incidentally, Trinity was the name given to the first test in July, 1945 because of it was conducted at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo.

I was a young lad during this time (born in 1940). I remember the first dealership location (114 West Palace Avenue) which was on the corner of Palace and Borro Alley. Borro Alley was a narrow street, but was used as a main thoroughfare through Santa Fe for traffic going north. Much of the supplies for Los Alamos were shipped into Santa Fe on a spur railroad track from the AT&SF main line at Lamy to the Bruns Army Hospital site. There they were unloaded onto trucks and driven up to Los Alamos through Santa Fe. I remember him saying one time after a caravan of trucks had just passed: "...there goes some more stuff for the submarine factory on the hill."

I don't know about the vehicles used, but don't think there were more than two or three of these stretched limousines.

There is another book that I have just started. It is "The Manhattan Project" edited by Cynthis Kelly. It is a collection of article and excerpts from books that tell the story of developing the atomic bombs from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s. Kelly is the president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Enough of this, back to Packards.