By TODD NICKOLS

While closing the museum a few weeks ago, after one of our late monsoon rains, I noticed a finely dressed mature couple approaching me. Soaking wet and smiling with excitement, one of them blurted out, “You have the most interesting and unique little city here!”

That is a statement I’ve heard many times before, but on that day I heard it a little differently. Unique. Yes, in so many different ways. The fact that Los Alamos is not a city nor a town is unique. We are a county and a unique county at that. Then there is our colorful history. Not only is there the vast local history, but Los Alamos has made unique history around the world and continues to do so today. I thought, there is a lot of uniqueness here!

The couple had arrived in Santa Fe the night before, staying at La Fonda. Loading up their rented Scion with rain gear and road food early that morning, they left the City Different to head north to the Secret City on the Hill.

When they returned late that afternoon, still sporting their stickers with the Manhattan Project patch from the History Museum and clutching a very wrinkled walking tour map, I noticed one of the visitors was holding a museum shopping bag. “We’ve had a wonderful time visiting your museum,” commented one of them. The other person, slightly interrupting, interjected, “And purchasing a few books and magnets from your gift shop,” holding up the damp museum logoed paper bag. The person continued, “I am an old school bookworm who enjoys reading from books rather than from a screen. Your shop has a great diverse selection of Manhattan Project and Ranch School books. Oh, and the ABC book our grandchildren are going to love! A is for Atom. Hilarious!”

I quickly asked them if they would like to begin volunteering with us the next day!

During the summer, one of the Los Alamos History Museum’s priorities is giving tours to all sorts of summer camps and educational programs for young people. A few weeks ago a group of seventeen 14-16 year olds came up from Rio Rancho. The museum offers a great clue-finding activity, the Bences Challenge, in which kids learn about Los Alamos history and can win a prize at the end.

As I was passing out the booklets and pencils and explaining the challenge, I watched the reactions of our younger visitors. Each one looked and listened to the initial instructions, but only one young woman really listened. After the others dispersed, she quietly asked me, “Weren’t we supposed to stay in here and read the exhibits to get the clue?” I was taken aback with her attention to detail and courtesy.

One of the unique items we have in our museum shop is a collector’s coin designed to celebrate the Hans Bethe House and its connection to the Ranch School and the Manhattan Project. The house itself and the Nobel Prize and the laureates who inhabited the home are all intricate ingredients in our history recipe. The young woman continued, bringing me up to date on her fascination and desire to learn everything science. I told her I was totally impressed by how she listened and followed the instructions. I then gave her one of the special limited edition Hans Bethe House coins. Her face lit up, and she looked me in the eye with confidence and said, “Thanks.”

A few minutes later, after the news of the coin had spread through the group like wildfire, I had a line of 10 or 11 young women wanting to tell me some of what they’d learned so far at our museum and about their own individual interests in science and math. Each young woman was very concise, exacting, and excited while cluing me in. I decided that before they headed through the Rose Garden to the Hans Bethe House for the last leg of their museum tour I would offer them a challenge.

I brought them all together in the museum shop. Similar to a coach giving a pep talk before the big game, I talked up their chance to acquire one of the coveted coins. Each young woman was asked to bring three facts back from the Bethe House to receive a coin. To the credit of each, they brought back interesting and advanced facts. Each young woman deserved to receive her coin.

They all said they will ‘like’ us on Facebook!