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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > February > 14 > Entry
Editorial: Two-track Manhattan Project plan makes sense
Local history activists have agreed to house a display about Dayton’s role in the Manhattan Project at Carillon Historical Park, along with other local World War II history. This is a good step forward.
It beats depending on the National Park Service — which has been asked to play a role. And it serves Daytonians, by consolidating more local history in one place, by telling a story that should be told, by preserving what can be and needs to be preserved.
But, as preservationists understand, this decision doesn’t address a bigger issue that has been percolating for a few years:
What can be done to preserve the two remaining local Manhattan Project sites? And can Dayton’s role in that historic event be turned into a community asset?
After a three-year study, the National Park Service has decided it doesn’t want a multi-state, multi-site national park devoted to the Manhattan Project. That was the legendary, highly secretive program that first harnessed nuclear energy — for bombs to end World War II.
Park officials want a site only at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
That’s understandable. Los Alamos is where J. Robert Oppenheimer — later, incredibly, to lose his security clearance — harnessed the brain power of a group of people who constituted the scientific equivalent of the American Founding Fathers for sheer talent. And who were engaged in an equally monumental, historic task.
The thing is, though, that story is well-known. People who don’t know it have access to it, via books, documentaries and the movies.
But the Manhattan Project actually took place in many other places, places whose stories are far less known: Oak Ridge, Tenn., Hanford, Wash., Chicago, New York and, in fact, Dayton. By getting involved beyond Los Alamos, the park service could add something to the nation’s knowledge of its history.
But the park service has decided it would be too expensive, mainly because of security issues at Hanford and Oak Ridge, which are still engaged in defense work.
The park service report — still preliminary, pending public input from around the country — reads as though the service wants to avoid expenses that it really thinks should be borne by the Department of Energy, which runs Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford.
The expense issue doesn’t really arise in Dayton. Here it’s a matter of reclaiming and reusing two buildings.
One is not far from the Wright-Dunbar attractions and is owned by the Dayton public schools. The other is on East Third Street downtown, and is privately owned.
Tony Sculimbrene, executive director of the Dayton Aviation Heritage Alliance, still hopes the park service might be told by Congress to enlarge its vision. Much could depend on how people at Hanford and Oak Ridge respond to the feasibility study.
He hopes park officials will at least designate the two buildings as part of a park. That wouldn’t automatically make them sites inviting visitors. It wouldn’t cost the park service serious money. But it would be a force against the buildings’ destruction.
Mr. Sculimbrene notes the existence of a certain skepticism, even in local circles, about the feasibility of attracting many tourists to possible displays at the two sites. But he says the situation reminds him of 1981, when people were skeptical about turning the site of the old Wright brothers bicycle store into an attraction.
However the long-term future might be imagined, the short-term course the community is on makes sense: Do what can be done locally to preserve and communicate a fascinating and important part of local and national history; play out the bid for federal participation, rather than accept a first-draft rejection; and keep all options open.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Local History, Martin Gottlieb
Comments
By bobby
February 14, 2010 11:53 AM | Link to this
If these buildings are of importance to the Dayton region, then a private fundraising drive would be more appropriate than asking the Park Service for money. The 2008 Dunbar House operating revenue and expenses demonstrates that costs matter. The revenue shown is $10,015. The operating expenses are $103,000.[source Ohio Historical Society]… It is unlikely that the numbers or attendance would be much better for the two buildings….. Hey kids, Would you like to go to the Manhattan Project museum today?
By davidss2
February 14, 2010 5:24 PM | Link to this
Do I remember wrong is isn’t the building DDN didn’t preserve in original form part of the history here of the Manhattan work? Talk about hypocrisy: tell others what to do while you yourself don’t preserve history.
By It's Great in Dayton!!!
February 14, 2010 8:41 PM | Link to this
The Friends And Relatives of Trammell (that’s F.A.R.T.) have started a legal defense fund to support Rev. Raleigh Trammell in his quest for justice. We hope you will contribute by leaving a donation (cash only, please) in a plain brown paper bag on Raleigh’s doorstep.
By Quentin
February 14, 2010 10:58 PM | Link to this
If they really want to do this, then move the Wright and Dunbar houses to Carollin Park or see if the AF Meseum would like to host them. Scattering one item here, another there and some over other areas is not going to work. Place them in a central location reducing costs to run them all and also encouraging more visitors to them all since there is more to see and do besides driving all over.
By It's Great in Dayton!!!!!!!
February 20, 2010 8:21 PM | Link to this
More reason to leave Dayton ASAP. DAYTON — Thieves are ransacking southeast Dayton, breaking into homes and cars at a pace that has police overwhelmed and asking for the community’s help. Reports of home burglaries there are up 44 percent this year and on pace to race past 2009’s five-year high of 732, according to Dayton Police Department data. Car break-ins have soared from 58 reported at this time last year to 139 through Sunday, Feb. 14 — a 140 percent increase.