Homesteading on the Pajarito Plateau, 1887-1942; LA-UR-12-24602
Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2012. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Format is approximately 12.25 inches by 9.25 inches. 122 pages. Decorative covers. Map (with color). Other map. Profusely illustrated (some in color). References. Index. This work was issued as Cultural Resources Report No. 313. The U.S. government chose the Pajarito Plateau in northern New Mexico as the site of its top-secret World War II project to design and develop the world's first atomic bombs. However, the plateau was not vacant. Hispanic homesteaders and other landowners, many who had farmed there for generations, were abruptly evicted in late 1942. This book has been written primarily for the descendants of the families who homesteaded the Pajarito Plateau in northern New Mexico beginning in the late 1880s. It is intended to serve as a record of a lifestyle now long gone,a time of “hard work and long days” that spanned just over half a century. During the fifty-five years between 1887—when the first official application for a homestead on the plateau was made—and late 1942, when the United States government began the condemnation process to acquire privately owned properties as part of the Manhattan Project’s secret Project Y, about thirty-six individuals, mostly Hispanic farmers and ranchers, established homesteads and used the resources of the plateau to supplement a subsistence-based way of life. In the autumn of 1942, the U.S. Government began condemnation proceedings to take over land on the Pajarito Plateau in order to locate a secret laboratory as part of the Manhattan Project. At that time, the land was occupied by the Los Alamos Ranch School, Anchor Ranch, and 32 Hispanic homesteaders and their families. A problem arose when the ranch school and Anchor Ranch received much larger compensations than the homesteaders, who received less than an eighth of the total amount paid to the Anglo owners of the ranch properties. Not until 2004 would the families of the homesteaders claim a more fair compensation after taking legal action. The U.S. Congress finally created a $10 million fund for awards to the descendants and heirs of those original homesteaders. In addition to the monetary settlements, the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to fund a book on the history of homesteading on the Pajarito Plateau. Authors Judith Machen, Ellen McGehee and Dorothy Hoard extensively researched the plateau homesteads and the families who worked them. The book is a tribute to those families and their times. It also relates a meaningful part of our Los Alamos history, one worth visiting through the pages of this incredible book. The authors helped preserve not only the history of a time here on this plateau but also our history on a broader scale, giving a glimpse into an important era in our nation’s history when homesteaders sought independence and the right to own land. It was at once an exciting time and a hard time as seen in the stories presented in Homesteading on the Pajarito Plateau, 1887-1942. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Pajarito Plateau, Los Alamos, Manhattan Project, New Mexico, Homesteading, William Hopper, Harold Brook, Albert Connell, James Loomis, Robert McDougall, William Carpenter White, William Moses, Eviction, Land Seizure, Just Compensation
[Book #84151]
Price: $75.00