Life in the Secret Cities

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: I was working in Mobile, Alabama, at a creosote plant, 35 […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] I’m from Arkansas. Little Rock. I went to work for Du Pont, war plants in Tennessee, then Alabama, then Tennessee again, Oak Ridge. Du Pont built a mockup of Hanford at Oak Ridge. Well, I […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book Version: I was the ninth fitter hired on the Du Pont construction […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book Version: I‘m Joe Holt and I was born and raised in Kentucky. […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] I lived in the barracks from December ’43 until March. To me, it was fine. Lots of people, they gambled and stayed out all night and things like that, but that wasn’t my cup of tea, as […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] I came in November of ‘43. I started out in the Hanford Camp, […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] Sis and I got on a bus in Coffeyville, Kansas, in August of ‘43 and we landed in Pasco. The bus depot was right in the center of this teeny-weeny little town and these weird-looking […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript of part 1 of the interview that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book Version: I started in running a […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] I was on a train on New Year‘s 1943 coming to Hanford, traveling with another gal, a WAC. We had stopped in Oak Ridge for a little indoctrination, and then came out here. Mr. Carpenter, […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] VAN: I’m sure the Richland Players, which we helped found, was instrumen­tal in our early adjustment to life here, because it gave us something to do. Di right away won the lead in a production. […]