Manhattan Project National Historical Park: Hanford Site

The small town of Hanford in south-central Washington faded from the map after the government bought area farms and the town itself to build the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the ruins of Hanford High School still stand.

Elk, left, roam the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve, near the Hanford Site. The roads from the town of White Bluff remain, center, where the government bought all of the farms and the small towns surrounding to build the Manhattan Project site. The Columbia River flows past the B Reactor.

A panel is labeled with a no-nonsense warning at the B Reactor.

A control panel at Hanford’s B Reactor.

The Bruggemann farmhouse is one of the few buildings still standing in what’s left of the tiny town of Hanford, Wash., which was taken over by the government as it established the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in 1943.

Local students react to the four-story B Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, now part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Students from a local school explore the B Reactor.

This year, for the first time, all ages are welcome at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Students from a local school play with an interactive light panel while touring the B Reactor, left, then pose for a picture beneath the four-story reactor. Children walk down the hall from the B Reactor control room.

An archive photo of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington, established in 1943.

A slide rule reminds visitors how simple calculating tools from the past helped to create the B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

A closeup of dials and switches on a control panel at the B Reactor.

The pump house along the Columbia River still stands. River water was used to cool the nuclear reactor.

Dusk settles at the decommissioned B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

A freight engine and cars that used to haul radioactive material are parked next to the decommissioned B Reactor.

Signs mark the perimeter fence around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, part of the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Schoolchildren finish their tour of the decommissioned B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

An archive photo displayed at the B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

An archive photo of daily life at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, back when it was a city unto itself.