Oppenheimer effect drives tourist boom

Hollywood hoopla is driving an unlikely tourist boom in a remote area of New Mexico. Officials say the “Oppenheimer effect” has attracted thousands to the tight-knit town of Los Alamos to see where history was made. They are flocking to explore the house where J. Robert Oppenheimer — the “father of the atomic bomb” — lived as he oversaw the Manhattan Project that changed the face of warfare. Christopher Nolan's biopic Oppenheimer, which became a blockbuster hit on its release last summer, has fuelled the interest, with a younger generation now making a pilgrimage to the site.

Kristen Hollis, of the Los Alamos Historical Society, told the Times of London: “Those who came here knew at least a little bit about what went on here. Some people knew a lot but everybody knew at least a little. But when the film happened, our demographic switched to moviegoers.” Nolan filmed some interior and exterior scenes at the house, which is now a museum. Los Alamos, a town of 13,000 people located in the north of the state, was deemed a perfect location for a top-secret research hub due to its remoteness. The historical society's Todd Nickols said the Oppenheimer House — a modest timber-and-stucco cottage set amid cottonwood and pine trees — drew 40,000 visitors last year, up from an average of 25,000. He expects the number to top 50,000 this year, despite the house being closed due to structural problems such as rotting foundations and exposed wires. An appeal has been launched to fund the repairs. “Hopefully, what it's going to do is introduce some of our younger generation to the history and how important it is to study it,” Nickols said, adding the intention is not to glorify war — many visitors are Japanese — but to present the facts. “We've done our job right if people leave the museum with deep thoughts about it,” Nickols explained.