Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1943. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.”
Wikipedia article Los Alamos National Laboratory, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 8 National Register listings published here for Los Alamos County · listed in 1966 · category: District · built in 1943 · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Central Ave., Los Alamos, 87544
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. district
Census division. Los Alamos
When was it built? 1943
National Register reference number. 66000893 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

134 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 134 fires within 5 miles of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory between 1992 and 2020, burning about 359 acres in total. 97 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	97
Recreation and ceremony	16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10
Arson/incendiarism	6
Debris and open burning	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2009	Natural	under an acre	Santa Fe National Forest	CABRA
8 September 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	FIR
6 September 1995	Natural	under an acre	Santa Fe National Forest	GUAJE
6 September 1993	Natural	under an acre	Bandelier National Monument	CASTLERUN
5 September 2002	Natural	under an acre	Santa Fe National Forest	CANON
2 September 2011	Natural	2.0 acres	Santa Fe National Forest	CABALLO
2 September 2007	Natural	under an acre	Santa Fe National Forest	LD
13 September 2017	Natural	under an acre	Northern Pueblos Agency	SACRED AREA

Every fire recorded in Los Alamos County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory: 3 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Pumice. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Copar Guaje Canyon Mine	Pumice	Producer	Pumice
Copar Mill	Pumice	Producer
Copar Mine	Pumice	Producer

Every working recorded in Los Alamos County

Storms near this property

34 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Los Alamos, the town this property stands in, in 34 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 19 hail, 12 flash flood, 1 wildfire, 1 dust devil. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2000	Wildfire	Los Alamos	$1,500,000,000	no account filed
August 2011	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	$6,000,000	After 1 to 1.5 inches of rain fell on the northern portion of the Las Conchas burn scar, flash flooding was reported in Santa Clara Canyon. Four people that were working in the canyon had to be rescued by helicopter.
July 2001	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	$3,500,000	no account filed
August 2001	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	$100,000	Brief heavy rain and strong runoff caused more damage to North Road in Los Alamos where recent drainage upgrades and repairs were washed away. North Road continues to suffer damage with such rapid and high runoff from the burned areas of Pueblo Canyon which have not recovered from last years Cerro Grande fire storm.
July 2012	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	$50,000	Mud, logs and large rocks washed onto State Road 501 (West Jemez Rd.) near State Road 4, as well as in Los Alamos Canyon and along Camp May road. Heavy equipment and road graders were needed to clear the debris.
May 2013	Dust Devil	Los Alamos	$30,000	Roof of gymnasium torn off and dropped onto library and playground area at Barranca Mesa Elementary School.
October 2012	Hail	Los Alamos	$10,000	Newspaper report with images of significant hail damage to a mobile home in Los Alamos. Home owners reported hail was ping pong ball sized. Location is estimated from article giving home address. Time is estimated, based on radar imagery and other hail reports in the area. All images attached to this event are courtesy of the Los Alamos Daily Post newspaper.
May 2024	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Los Alamos Sky Cam and pictures from local residents showed significant accumulations of pea to penny size hail in downtown Los Alamos from a thunderstorm. Hail accumulation depth looked to be around 2 to 3 inches based on tire track marks on the road.
May 2020	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail up to the size of nickels reported in Los Alamos.
June 2017	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail up to the size of nickels in Los Alamos.
June 2017	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail up to the size of half dollars in Los Alamos.
June 2017	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail up to the size of nickels in Los Alamos.
June 2017	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail up to the size of quarters in Los Alamos.
August 2016	Lightning	Los Alamos	-	Lightning splintered a tree at the Los Alamos Golf Course near 16 Los Alamos High School Golf Team members and four coaches. The strike occurred at around 4 pm, about 300 feet away from where the team was practicing. Several of the students reported feeling a strong static electricity sensation flow through their bodies. Fortunately, no injuries occurred.
October 2015	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Penny to nickel size hail covered the ground.
July 2013	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	Power outages as well as flooding in the basement at Los Alamos National Labs were reported. An isolated strong cell formed over the area and stayed generally stationary for 2 hours. Rainfall amounts over 1.5 were recorded at sites across LANL.
May 2012	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Quarter size hail reported in Los Alamos.
May 2012	Hail	Los Alamos	-	The emergency manager reported dime to penny size hail.
October 2012	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Quarter size hail reported at the Los Alamos airport.
October 2012	Hail	Los Alamos	-	Hail piled up to a depth of four inches. County officials had to utilize snow plows to clear hail piles from roadways.
July 2012	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	The intersection of State Road 4 and State Road 501 (West Jemez Rd.) was closed due to flash flooding.
August 2011	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	Water and debris flowed over Highway 501 after approximately one inch of rain fell over central portions of the Las Conchas burn scar. The highway was temporarily closed.
August 2011	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	Both Highway 4 and 501 were closed in the Jemez Mountains due to flooding. Heavy rains on the Las Conchas burn scar caused significant runoff and debris flow over the roadways. At least a 50 yard stretch of debris several inches deep was noted along State Highway 501. Both roads had to be cleared by the Highway Department before traffic was allowed to pass.
July 2009	Hail	Los Alamos	-	The security team at Los Alamos National Laboratory reported penny to nickel sized hail.
July 2005	Hail	Los Alamos	-	A brief and intense hail storm with stones ranging form one half inch to one inch in diameter covered city streets and parking lots to a depth of 4 to 8 inches.
June 2000	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	Heavy ash and debris swept off the Cerro Grande Burn area into Water and Pajarito Canyons during heavy rain of 1 inch just west of Los Alamos.
August 2000	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	Heavy storm water runoff flooded Guaje and Garcia Canyons below the Cerro Grande Burn area during a burst of 1 inch rainfall.
October 2015	Hail	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
June 2000	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
October 2000	Hail	Los Alamos	-	no account filed
July 2000	Flash Flood	Los Alamos	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Alamos County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
United States Post Office-Los Alamos, New Mexico	0.1 miles	2015
Grant Road	1.2 miles	2004
Bayo Road	1.2 miles	2003
Lujan Road	1.4 miles	2005
Grant Road	1.7 miles	2004
Bayo Road	2.0 miles	2003

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000893 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Alamos County	All 8 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.