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A photo of boys from the Los Alamos Ranch School, unknown date.
Courtesy of the State Records Center and Archives.
Reproducing prohibited without express permission from the State Records Center and Archives.
Los Alamos
An Hispanic settlement was located here as early as 1880, and the name Los Alamos, "the cottonwoods," likely dates from then. In 1918, Ashley Pond, a wealthy Detroit businessman, established the Los Alamos Ranch School for boys. The school continued until 1942 when the locality was selected by the U.S. government as the site to develop the atomic bomb. Under strict security, the laboratory and the community grew rapidly together. Today Los Alamos National Laboratory, a major research institution, continues to dominate this community on the Parajito Plateau. For several years the post office here was called Otowi, but in 1941 it took the same name as the community it served.
Sources Used:
Julyan, Robert. The Place Names of New Mexico. 2nd ed. UNM Press, 1998.
Related Materials:
Los Alamos Post Office
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© 2004-2013 New Mexico State Record Center and Archives
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