Atomic Frontier Days: A New Light On The Old Frontier [Cover Title] [Atomic Bomb] [Souvenir Program] Science,Science Fiction,Washington,World History

The cover illustration says it all, depicting an atomic blast guiding the way for a wagon train to the city of the future. This souvenir program is from the first annual Atomic Frontier Days in Richland, September 4-6, 1948, the celebration previously being called simply, Richland Day. From the back cover: "As viewed from 8000 ft. present day Richland, bursting at the seams, pushes steadily against an obstinate desert as the future of atomic energy unfolds around her." Richland, previously a farming town, was purchased by the US army during WWII to serve as housing for workers in the Manhattan Project facility at nearby Hanford. That facility would produce the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. "In the year 1943 a group of men sitting around a table in Washington, D.C. seriously watched as one of their number pointed to a tiny spot on a large scale map of the Pacific Northwest. Here, they decided, was the place! Within a few months the pastoral quiet of this agricultural region was no more. Giant bulldozers leveled great tracts of ground. and factories exploded into being from the desert sands. The nucleus of a vast, secret plant, born of wartime necessity, had been created." For nearly 30 years the US departments of Energy and Defense produced tons of plutonium at Hanford for use in the atomic weapon program. The site is now one of the most toxic in the world. This relic of the Atomic Age is quite scarce. OCLC locates 2 copies at Oregon State and the Hagley Museum. Oblong, 8x10.75" [32]pp. Photographic illustrations throughout. Illustrated red card wrappers, staple bound Some rubbing along spine and at corners. Near fine