Argonne traces its birth from Enrico Fermi's secret charge — the Manhattan Project — to create the world's first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Code-named the "Metallurgical Lab", the Manhattan Project team constructed Chicago Pile-1, which achieved criticality on December 2, 1942, underneath the University of Chicago's Stagg football field stands. Because the ensuing research experiments were deemed too dangerous to conduct in a major city, the operations were moved to "Site A" in a forest preserve near Palos Hills and eventually renamed "Argonne" after the surrounding forest.
On July 1, 1946, the laboratory was formally chartered as Argonne National Laboratory to conduct "cooperative research in nucleonics." At the request of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, it began developing nuclear reactors for the nation's peaceful nuclear energy program. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the laboratory moved to a larger location in Lemont, Illinois, and established a remote location in Idaho, called "Argonne-West," to conduct further nuclear research.
In 1971, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Argonne's charter, the Argonne News published a series of recollections titled "Those early days as we remember them" by former or current staff members who had worked at the Metallurgical Lab and participated in the birth of Argonne. Many shared unique memories of this special time that can't be found in history books. Below is a listing of the authors and the date their stories were published in Argonne News:
January 1971 — Austin M. Brues, Nora L. Watson, Mary L. Erickson, Ace L. Singleton, Mary K. Walsh
February-March 1971 — Lester C. Furney, Arthur H. JaHey, Leonard Bogorad
April 1971 — James F. Schumar, John L. Armstrong, David E. Walker, J. Howard Kittel, George O'Keefe, Maurice D. Odie
May 1971 — William P. Norris (from a tape recording made in 1965)
June 1971 — Farrington Daniels
July-August 1971 — Lester C. Furney
September 1971 — Norman Hilberry
November 1971 — Elmer W. Rylander