Richland, Washington

During the last century, the “bomb” transformed Richland, WA from a sleepy agricultural community to a strategic US nuclear asset. Richland, as part of the Manhattan project, was as important as Los Alamos and Oakridge to our nuclear strategy. It produced the plutonium for “Fat Man” — the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. After World War II, it continued to produce much of the fissible materials for the US nuclear weapons. Further, it was and is the dumping ground for much of the United States’ nuclear waste. To me, however, while growing up in the sixties and seventies during the peak of the cold war, Richland was just another city in Eastern Washington. It was an all American town — Friday night football, Coca-Cola, motherhood and apple pie. Perhaps because my own hometown, Kent, WA was home to much of Boeing’s military activity and my father worked on things like ICBMs and tactical nuclear weapons, the nuclear culture of Richland was nothing special.As an adult, I marvel at how truly unique and special Richland was. I visited Richland last month to check things out. First, Richland High School is a throwback to another era. For those that remember the “Wonder Years,” I can all most see Kevin and Winnie wandering the hallways:

The high school mascot is still the Bombers. The “mushroom cloud” still adorns the football helment.

I found this mural on the side of a building:

This auto body shop and bowling alley say so much:

Richland — it all seemed so normal. But in retrospect, it was quite the strange place in a unique time. The artifacts that remain today remind me of its rich past.

Originally published at www.kazabyte.com on November 5, 2007.