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From Ice Caps to the APSA short history of Argonne's Illinois site.
Walking through the dense woods, listening to nature's sounds -- careful not to disturb a doe and her fawn feeding, upset a slithering snake, or trip over a buck's discarded antlers -- you could be almost anywhere that Mother Nature holds sway. But just a few steps away from a pond filled with geese, proud swans, lily pads and green turtles, patches of daylight draw you closer to clusters of red brick buildings. And inside those buildings, some of America's leading researchers are busy recreating particles of matter not present since the Big Bang; developing devices to witness molecular chemical reactions; and seeking limitless sources of energy. Welcome to Argonne National Laboratory! Past -- Argonne found its home in 1946 near Lemont, Ill., about 25 miles southwest of Chicago -- along what used to be the storied Route 66 and before that was a major Indian trail. Now Argonne is a stone's throw from busy Interstate 55 -- the Stevenson Expressway. More than 5,000 employees now work on nearly 1,700 acres, comprising what some regard as a mysterious place but which is, in fact, a world-class government laboratory whose research is no mystery but brings benefits to everyone. Argonne traces its origins to the World War II era, when Enrico Fermi and his colleagues were creating the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory. But more than a century before this event, Chicago and its surrounding suburbs began their development almost as if in anticipation of Argonne's emergence as one of the nation's premier scientific research facilities, with ties throughout the United States and around the world. Geological Forces -- Earlier still -- more than 2.5 million years ago -- geological forces endowed the midwestern United States with vast bodies of water, rich limestone and lush vegetation. During the Ice Age, huge sheets of ice covered North America -- from New York to St. Louis. These frigid slabs extended to the Ohio Valley and covered most of Illinois. As the glaciers moved southward, they left behind tiny ponds, enormous lakes, moraines and flood plains that would bring people, trade and wealth into the Great Lakes region. Near the area that is now Argonne, plains drop steeply to the Des Plaines River, which carved out the hills and valleys of what is now the town of Lemont. And when the winds blew and the dust settled, grainy sediments left rich soil where mighty oak trees flourished. A valuable, thick stone later used for construction was also deposited on the sea bottom: limestone. The fortitude of this stone was demonstrated by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when the Chicago Water Tower was one of a handful of buildings left standing. Early Residents -- The area's water, vegetation and wildlife drew Native Americans into what is now Illinois. From the 17th through the early 19th centuries, the Miami, Winnebago, Kickapoo and Potowatomi were just some of the tribes that populated this rich region. Throughout the years since then, many remnants of their dwellings, pottery and wells have been unearthed. The Potowatomis, one of the predominant tribes, lived in cone-shaped lodges covered with bark. They raised maize, or Indian corn, made maple syrup, and hunted buffalo, elk, bison, caribou, deer and waterfowl. Explorers and Immigrants -- Native Americans weren't the only people enjoying the region's riches. In 1673, two French explorers, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, paddled north of the Mississippi River via the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers. They traded cloth, beads, metal, ornaments, copper and other goods for Indian animal fur. The Indians also bought weapons, which they used in later battles between neighboring tribes. During the early 19th Century, Irish, English, Scottish, German and other immigrants emigrated westward to Illinois. Eventually the Native Americans lost their sovereignty, and their numbers dwindled. In 1848, the 96-mile Illinois and Michigan Canal, built on land obtained by the government in the 1816 Indian Boundary Treaty, opened the way for easy transportation between the cities of the West and East. This is also the land on which Argonne now stands. The immigrant farmers worked the land as diligently as the Native Americans had before them. They shipped corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and other goods via the I&M Canal until the railroads offered faster travel.
Lemont -- Lemont was incorporated in 1873 and took advantage of its proximity to Chicago, which was then and still is the hub of the Midwest and the crossroads of the nation. "No other town located within 25 miles of Chicago has such natural advantages as Lemont . . . good, pure water, healthful climate and fine building sites," read an 1898 inducement to draw builders to Lemont. In the 1940s, the inducement was world-changing research. Scientists and others traveled Route 66 by the busload to the government-reclaimed farmland, now turned into a research laboratory. The Nascence of Argonne -- Fermi's experiment on the squash courts under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago was referred to as Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1). After the initial experiments, the reactor was dismantled, reconstructed on a site southwest of Chicago near Palos Hills -- a prudent distance from downtown Chicago -- and renamed CP-2. The nearby "Argonne Woods" had been named for the Argonne Forest in France, a famous World War I battle site. In 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission was formed, and on July 1 of that same year, Argonne was designated as the nation's first national laboratory. A model for the U.S. national laboratory system, Argonne was the first government-funded organization to apply academic research and problem-solving methods in the national interest.
The Deer -- Two years later, Argonne moved six miles from its original site to the outskirts of Lemont, occupying what was eventually a 3,700-acre site purchased by the federal government from local residents. The lab's permanent home included a 200-acre rustic retreat which had been owned by Erwin Freund, the inventor of "skinless" casings for hot dogs. A friend gave Freund a herd of fallow deer to roam his estate, and before moving, he sent most of the deer herd to game parks. But, as legend has it, two does remained, and one was pregnant with a buck. While scientists conducted research, the deer proliferated. By 1965, the herd had grown to around 100 deer, and by the mid-1990s, both the fallow and native white-tailed deer herds had become so large that there was insufficient forage on the site to sustain them. Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy undertook a wildlife management plan in the fall of 1995 to control the deer population at sustainable levels and to maintain the site's ecological integrity. Now several hundred white-tailed and fallow deer will be able to roam free and healthy on Argonne's Illinois grounds. Fallow deer, or Dama dama, are normally found in North Africa, Europe and parts of Asia. They are born creamy tan with white spots and turn completely white naturally upon reaching their first year. Both species stand about 4 feet high at the shoulder.
The Scientists Arrive -- To expedite research in the lab's early days, Quonset huts, or white, half-moon shaped buildings, were quickly erected to temporarily house the staff. After a while, these became more-or-less permanent buildings, and a few are still standing. During the early 1950s, Argonne planted vigorous young pine seedlings to discourage erosion on the acres that had been farmland. This reforestation project protected the soil against snow and dust storms. Now there are more than one million 20-foot tall pine trees on the site, upholding the legacy of Argonne's old-world namesake.
In the late 1950s, Argonne erected substantial red brick laboratories and office buildings dedicated to the different scientific disciplines. Built around a quadrangle, the lab took on the air of a college campus. Modernization -- The red-brick look was abruptly altered when Chicago architect Helmut Jahn was commissioned to design Building 201, which opened in 1982 as the new administration building and was dubbed "the hallmark for the future." The three-story aluminum building, complete with skylights, received national recognition for its modernistic design. Now another building on the Argonne landscape is sure to receive both national and worldwide recognition. Attached to a high-tech high-rise office building, the doughnut-shaped structure, some 3,500 feet in circumference, is home to Argonne's newest scientific gem -- the Advanced Photon Source. And just as the land on which Argonne stands has a rich history stretching back for millennia, there is every reason to expect that Argonne will continue to enrich, and illuminate, the world of science well into the next millennium. Argonne Today -- More than 5,000 people work at the lab and 1,775 of them are scientific and engineering professionals. Argonne has a reputation for assembling interdisciplinary teams of specialists and providing the resources for them to develop novel solutions to critical research and development issues. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy. Next: Promethan Boldness |
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