Public Review, Comment on Foundation Document Begins for New Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Date: September 26, 2016
Contact: James Doyle, 303-969-2839

The National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are inviting public review and comment on a draft Foundation Document for Manhattan Project National Historical Park. 

The document is designed to affirm the park’s core mission and significance, key resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell its stories. Formally established last November at DOE locations in three states, the park marks the history of the mid-20th-century people, science and events that led to creation of the atomic bomb in the top-secret effort known as the Manhattan Project. Foundation Documents are guidance tools individualized for each of the NPS’s 413 units to direct basic park planning and management. 

From now through October 10, the draft is available online for public review and comment at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/Manhattan_Project. Work on the document began last February when a team of NPS and DOE officials held public workshops and met in open houses in the three communities where Manhattan Project research and production centers represent the park: Los Alamos, NM; Hanford, WA; and Oak Ridge, TN. Work on the final Foundation Document is expected to be complete by late 2016.  

Manhattan Project National Historical Park was authorized in December 2014 in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015. On Nov. 10, 2015, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Energy signed a Memorandum of Agreement to establish the park. Under that pact, the NPS operates the park and interprets its history on properties that continue to be owned and managed by DOE. Park visitor centers have been opened at the three locations, which represent stages in the research and production of the first atomic weapons. 

Comments on the draft may be submitted online by selecting the Manhattan Project link from the list on the NPS park planning webpage (https://parkplanning.nps.gov/Manhattan_Project), clicking the “Open for Comment” link on the left side of the page, then the green “Comment Now” box. 

Written comments also may be mailed to: 

Charles Strickfaden
Interim Superintendent
Manhattan Project National Historical Park
P.O. Box 127
Watrous, NM 87753