Los Alamos (Spanish: Los Álamos) is a census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is credited as the fee and launch place of the atomic bomb—the primary seek of the Manhattan Project by Los Alamos National Laboratory during World War II. The town is located on four mesas of the Pajarito Plateau, and had a population of about 13,200 as of 2020. It is the county seat and one of two population centers in the county known as census-designated places (CDPs); the extra is White Rock.

The ruins of long-lasting Puebloan settlements, such as those located in friendly Bandelier National Monument and Tsankawi, and numerous additional sites such as cliff dwellings indicate that the area has been inhabited during various eras since just about 1150 AD. The first settlers on the plateau are thought to be Keres speaking Native Americans on the subject of the 10th century. Around 1300, Tewa settlers immigrated from the Four Corners Region and built large cities but were driven out within 50 years by Navajo and Apache raids and by drought.

In the late 19th century, homesteaders utilized the estate for ranching. Most homesteaders built easy log cabins that they deserted lived in during warm weather to feed livestock. Many of the homesteaders innovative moved alongside to the warmer Rio Grande Valley. In 1917, homesteader Harold H. Brook sold share of his land and buildings to Ashley Pond II, a businessman from Detroit who founded the Los Alamos Ranch School. The area was used to teach young men basic ranching and additional outdoor relic skills.

In 1943, during World War II, the United States Department of War exercised eminent domain higher than the Ranch School and anything remaining homesteads in the area so that the relatively lonesome location could be used for the secretive Manhattan Project, which ultimately developed the world’s first nuclear weapons. Facilities for research and move ahead were quickly built and scientists and engineers from anything over the world were assigned to the project, however anything information practically the town and project was held secretively away from public awareness. Los Alamos was referred to under the code name “Site Y” by military personnel, and was known unaided as “The Hill” by many in manageable Santa Fe. The specific location of the project and anything of its residents was then concealed by designating its mailing dwelling as PO Box 1663, Santa Fe, NM. All incoming truckloads were falsely labeled as common items in order to hide the genuine nature of their contents, and any outbound correspondence by those keen and perky in Los Alamos was censored by military officials. Not until after the bombing of Hiroshima was recommendation about the want of the Manhattan Project released to the public.