ANew Frontier in the Ch icago Suburbs

Settling Fermilab, 1963- 1972

ADRIENNE KOLIl

LILLIAN HODDESON

In 19 6 8 , !\'1iltoll Stanl e y Livin gstonde scribed the f'ro m ie r as a symbol ofprogress, adventure , and ch alle nge fo r sci­entists: "There is in mankind a driving u rgeto ex plore the unknown. In past ages muchof th is exploration was geographical-thesearch for new contine nts and new seas. Inour gen e ration the most ch alle nging fron­tiers lie in the search for new knowledgeabout nature and about man , and the mostdramati c progress has been made O il th efrontiers of science... . The frontier of highenergy a nd th e infinitesimall y sm a ll is ach allenge to th e mind of man . If we can

Adrienne Kolh received a B.A.. in hi.lf(JT)' from tiu: Univmit),ofNf'W Orleans in 1972. JJ" most rece nt article, coauthoredunth l. i lli an H oa deso n, is "Till' Mirage of the Worldi\ccf'!.rmlor for World Peace: OrigilH «[ IhI' SIlIJ"('lnuluc/iligSUp" Collider: 1953-1983, ~ which appears in Hi sto ri calStu d ies ill th e Ph ysical and Biol og ical Science s. Sill' isntrTmtly working with H OIMe.mn and others on a hislor)' ofFermilab. Kolh is the archimst at Fermilab.

Lillian H oddrso n received the Ph.D. in physics fromColumbia Univmity in 1966. Ske has contributed to Out o fthe Crystal Maze: C hapters from the H istory of So lidState Physics (1992) , "he is the prin (ilml au thor (ifCritica lAsse mbly: A Te ch nical H istory o f Lo s Ala mos Durin gthe Oppeuhcinu-r \ c ars (1993), awl she is 11lrrmtly work­v« on a MilOT)' (if the transistor and a !Jio{{T'a!Jh)' of IJh.)'.\iri.ltJohn Bardeen. Hoddesan is un fusoriale professor ofhistory atthe UniTinsity (if lllinms at UrIJflna-ChfwIIJIlign. nnd she hassrrued (H Fermi lab's part-time historian since 1978. Thispn/wr was on'ginaU)' presented at the Thirteenth AnnualIllinois I (i\((Jr)' SJ1IlIJo,\ium in J992.

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reach and cross this frontier, OUf generationwill have furnished a significant milestonein human history. " I Livingston was thenasso ci ate director of the Nation al Accel­erator Laboratory, a newly au th orized pro­ject of the Atomi c Energy Co m miss io n(AEC). The laborato ry in Batavia, Illinois­lat er n amed Fermi National AcceleratorLaborator y, or Fe r mi lab-c-hou se s the,....orld's highest energy particle accelerator.To physici sts , acc e lerated particles a rea mo n g the necessary tools for exploringtheir scie nt ific frontiers.v

The front ier has lo n g b een a ce n tra l

'Livingston, Par /ide Physics: The lligh-Hnn 7{)' Front ier( Ne w \brk: McGraw, 1968) , pp. 2-8. Frontie rs of te ch­nolo g y ha ve bee n a s com p e lli ng fo r Amer ica nresearchers as fron tie rs of science . Sn~ J ost'ph J. Cor n,Th e Wingeti Gospel: A merica 's R oma n ce with Aviation,1900-1 950 (New York : Oxford Un iversi ty Press. 1983) ;Walter A. ~\'lcDougall.... TIll' Heavens and the Harth: APoliti cal History of the Space AW (New York: Basic Ro ok sInc. , 1985 ).

2As a stu d en t at Berkeley, Livin gston h ad bu ilt thefirst c irc u la r particle ac-celerator, the cycl o tr o n. whichh i s mentor Ernes t Orlando Lawrence c once ivedarou nd 1928 . La wrence also e m b ra ce d th e f ron t ierimage. For e-xample , the title of hi s No be l Prize ac cep­ta nce speec h in 1939 was "T he New Fro nt iers in theAtom , " Science, 94 ( 19 4 1), 22 1-25 . See a lso]. 1..H eilb ro u a nd Robert W. Se idel. t .a ioren ce and H isLa IJflm for)': A lIi"tor)' of the lnunence Berkelry Lllbartltory(Be rkel ey: Un ive rs ity o f Ca lifo rn ia Press, 1989 ) , I, 1- 8 .

'\ORI E N :'\ E KO L R r\s n l.ILl.lA X 1I0IJO ES O :o.: 3

im age in Am erican history. In a n add ressdelivered in Jul), of 1893 in Ch icago, on theoc casion of th e four hundredth an n iversaryof the la nding of Co lumbus in the \\'ester nIl c misp he re , front ier h istorian FrederickJ ackson Turner offered his renowned thesisthat co n fro n tatio n of th e frontier by p ic­neer in g sett lers of th e American \Vest dur­ing the eigh teenth and nineteenth cent uriesb rough t abo u t suc h di st inctive Amer ica ncu lt ura l traits as eco no m ic a nd po liticalequality, individualism , and democracy:"T he existence of an area of free land, itscontinuous recession . and the advance ofAme ri can settlement westward , explainAm erican d evelopment." For Turner, "thefrontier is p ro d uc t ive of i nd ivi d­ualism ... [a nd] has from th e beginningpromoted democracy.">

To th e frontier itself-the "hither ed ge offree land"-Turner asc ribed the power toAmericanize, to foster a na tional characte r."The demanding process hy whic h the cond i­tions of natu re at the fromk-r "maste r theco lonist " ( ra t h e r tha n t he o t he r wayaround) promoted American ind ivid ua lism:"The fro ntier is the line of most rapid ande ffective Am ericani zat ion . The wildernessmasters th e col onist. It find s him aEuropean in d res s, industries, tools, modesof travel, an d thought. It takes him from therailroad car and puts him in the birch

"I'urucr. "The S igui fica ucc of the Fron ti e r i ll:\1I l(' l' i ( ' ,1ll lI i!'>lory,~ ill The Tu rner Thesis: C(Jn(n"1li7l~ Oil'Role of the Fron tier in A mn i ((", H istorv , ed. G eorgeROg"n s Taylor (Le xing ton. Ma ss.: Heat h . 1956) , pp.I -I H. Set' 011 "0 Turner, "Contributions o r the west 10Arm-ric an Democra cy," in ibid .. pp . 19- :-\ :-\ ; Willi amCronou . "Rcvi s itin g th e Van ishing Frontie r : TheLt 'g,u 'y or Frede rick. .Jat"ksoll "l"1I 1"11('r .~ \\f_~/rrn H is/mi m iQuart"l) , 1M ( 19 8 7 ). 15 7 - 76 : Rich ard Wh i t t""Frederickjack....on T urner,~ ill llistori ans of tlU' .-'..mmffH/Frontier: A Rio--Ribli ographiral SOllrft'bOflk . cd . J o hn R.wnud er (I'\('w ' t )l"k: Greenwood. HIXX ), p_66 7. Turner

FREDERICK J ACKSO N TU~'lER

canoe. It strips off the garments of civiliza­tion and arrays h im in the hunting shirt a ndthe m occasin . . . . In short, at th e fro n tie rthe environment is at first too strung for theman . lie m ust accept the condition s whi chit furni shes , o r peri sh ." T urner sa w th epower in the fronti er to ge nerate Am erican

was not the first 10 link the front ier with democracyorna ti o n a l tra it s . Fo r ot her e xample s. see Ray Alh-uHillillglOIl , A mni m 's Frantirr Ilnil(l~1' C'cw ' tJ1"k: I luh ,I % li ) . Pl'. 4-6.

'Tu rner, "Sigll iliralll"(' o f the Frontier.M p. 2_See ..1..0l\ illinglOn . A merica 's Frontier IIn i ttl{{f, p. 16. Turne r'slurk o f precision in hi s dr-tiuit ions of ti ll' trourk-r pro­vidcd h i~ cr-itics with '";1 happy hUllt in g g rou lU l. M Orhcrdet iuition s be sid e s li lt' h i th e r edge of fr e t' landinclude : the (,"( lge o f !'o('II )n! u-rritorv, the lim- o f !'>t1t lt"­nn-m, the h\\'e st" itselt', and a " form of society" ( St' ('ibid.} .

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attitudes of optimism, individualism,dynamism, and courage, to support the con­fidence to venture beyond the safe andfamiliar, and to instill "anti-social" attitudesand produce "antipathy to control." Thosetendencies supported democratic traits,such as the ability to question authority? Atthe frontier, American easterners andEuropeans could descend to a primitivelevel of history and establish frontier com­munities that would recapitulate the evolu­tion of civilization from hunter, to trader, tofarmer and capitalist. In the process, theyforged American commitments to pragma­tism and democracy. Whether the membersof the frontier community were explorers,colonists, settlers, migrants, cowboys, orfarmers, they all drew on the frontier itself,according to Turner's thesis, in order tocreate their distinctive American outlook.That view was, in principle, individualistic,progressive, practical, egalitarian, anddemocratic. 6

Subsequent historians quickly pointedout aspects of frontier life that Turner over­looked, including savagery committed

'Turner, "Significance of the Frontier," pp. 2. 14.6Cronon, "Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier";

"White, "The Frontier and the American Mind," paperpresented at the Newberry Seminar in American SocialHistory, 1993-1994, Chicago, Jan. 18, 1994, P. 2,Fermilab History Collection, Fermi NationalAccelerator Laboratory, History Archives, Batavia. Ill.

"See Cronon , "Turner's First Stand: TheSignificance of Significance in American History," inWriting Western History: Essays on Major WesternHistorians, ed. Richard W. Etulain (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 1991), pp. 73-101;Cronan, "Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier," pp.158-62; Billington, Frederick jackson Turner: Historian,Scholar, Teacher (New York: Oxford University Press,1973), pp. 444-71; Billington, America's FrontierHeritage; White, "Frederick Jackson Turner," P. 672;Nancy Shoemaker, "Teaching the Truth About theHistory of the American West," Chronicle of HigherEducation, 40, no. 10 (1993-1994), A48; Chicago Tribune,

THE FOUNDING OF FERMI LAB

towards Native Americans, animals, or theland itself. More recently, historians havenoticed that Turner's "American" outlook iswhite and male-gendered. But whileTurner's thesis has fallen into some scholar­ly disfavor, its rhetoric and imagery remainalive, and in the popular mind, the thesisstill serves as a provocative description ofthe nation's growth." Frontier stories-dra­matized by the entertainment industry andwritten into the history books read by gen­erations of Americans-have become partof the mythology of the American heritage.In the 1890s up to eighteen thousand peo­ple witnessed each showing of Buffalo BillCody's 'Wild West and Congress of RoughRiders of the World." The frontier myth hasbeen further preserved by such recreationsas Frontierland at Disneyland.s

As the Livingston passage above illus­trates, the frontier myth has been of centralimportance in shaping the self-image ofAmerican scientists, Yet historians of sciencehave not devoted much attention to thati ssue.v This examination of a particularunconscious re-creation of the frontier myth

July 8, 1992, Sec. l, p. 1, cols. 5-6, p. 13, cols. 1-6;White and Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Frontier inAmerican Culture: An Exhibition. at the NewbeTTy Library,August 26, 1994-January 7, 1995, ed. James R.Grossman (Berkeley: University of California Press,1994).

RWhite, "The Frontier and the American Mind," pp.1-2; Chicago Tribune, May 22,1994, Sec. 13, p- 14, col.1.

"Turner called for "attention to the frontier as a fer­tile field for investigation," but few historians of sci­ence have tried to answer that call (see Turner,"Significance of the Frontier," P: 2; William Coleman,"Science and Symbol in the Turner FrontierHypothesis," American Historical Review, 72[1966-1967], 22-49; A. Hunter Dupree, Science in theFederal Government: A History of Policies and Activities[Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press,1986J; Merrit Roe Smith, "Frontiers of Change," STSNewsletter, Sept., 1993, pp. 1-2).

ADRIENNE KOLB AND LILLIAN HODDE SON 5

by the high-tech world of "high-energyphysicists" may at first seem quite remotefrom the society of the American frontier.Like crewmembers of the starship Enterprise,however, particle physicists see themselveson a mission to "explore new worlds" and"boldly go where no one has gone before. "10

Their quest employs particles energizedwithin large and expensive accelerators.Such is the case at Ferrnilab, which centersaround a four-mile ring of magnets andelectronics that accelerate protons to ener­gies in the range of 500 to 1,000 giga elec­tron volts (GeV). The site of the laboratoryis a 6,SOO-acre parcel of land formallyturned over to the United States govern­ment by the State of Illinois in 1969. 11

Frontier imagery motivates Fermilab physi­cists, and a rhetoric remarkably similar tothat of Turner helps them secure supportfor their research. Moreover, ideals resem­bling those described in Turner's thesishave helped shape Fermilab's culture andphysical site.

IOStar Trek 25th Anniversary Special, prod. and dir.Donald R. Beck, 92 min., Paramount Pictures, 1991,videocassette.

n Illinois Compiled Statutes, 1992 (St. Paul, Minn.:West Pub. Co., 1993), I, 735-36.

l'l.Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of theFrontier in Twentieth-Century America (New York:Atheneum, 1992), pp. 5-6,10-11; White, ~The

Frontier and the American Mind," pp. 1-5; Grossman,Introduction, pp. 1-4, in ibid.

"Billington, FrederickJackson Turner; pp. 444-47.14Theodore Roosevelt, "Frontier Types," Century

Magazine, 36 (l888), 831-43, and "In Cowboy Land,"ibid., 46 (1893), 276-84; Billington, Frederick JacksonTurner, pp. 444-47.

Several historians have recently reexam­ined the American frontier story as a cultur­al myth, an often-told narrative that hascome to symbolize America's ideology andmoral consciousness. According to histori­an James R. Grossman, artists, such asFrederick Remington, historians, such asTurner, and showmen, such as Buffalo BillCody, helped imprint the American frontiermyth on popular consciousness. Differentstorytellers, however, have focused on dif­ferent aspects of the myth. For example,Cody's re-creation included the mutual sav­agery of cowboys and Indians in battle,aspects that Turner overlooked. HistorianRichard White notes that for Turner, "theaxe and the plow were the tools of civiliza­tion; for Buffalo Bill, civilization's toolswere the rifle and the bullet." Each erasedparts of the larger myth. Both were able todeliver powerful messages because of "thevery ubiquity of the icons of the frontier. "12

Turner's version of the myth permeatedacademia. Even European historians"caught the infection," applying the myth toother countries and other periods, includ­ing German medieval history.t» The mythalso extended into politics. TheodoreRoosevelt published two articles in theCentury Magazine describing his personalfrontier experience. Woodrow Wilson wrotepopular articles glorifying the frontier inAmerican history. In the debate overFranklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal,politicians on both sides found the mythuseful, with proponents arguing that closingthe frontier meant that the government nowhad to offer the security and opportunitiesthat the West had formerly provided, andopponents arguing that government med­dling in the marketplace ''would underminethe frontier-bred individualism and self­reliance that was the nation's principalstrength."14

Scientists also embraced the myth. OnDecember 2, 1942, when Enrico Fermiachieved the first self-sustaining nuclear

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chain reaction under Stagg Field at theUniversity of Ch icago.!» Arthur HollyCompton, director of the Chicago Met­allurgical Laboratory. reported to JamesBryant Conant, president of Harvard, that"the Italian navigator has just landed in thenew world. "16 Fermi would serve as a modelfor Robert Rathbun Wilson, when Wilsonbecame the first director of Fermilab. Thetwo were colleagues in the wartime AtomicEnergy Research Project at Los Alamos,New Mexico.

Seeking advice on how to proceed in sci­ence following the dramatic applicationsmade in World War II, Franklin Rooseveltreferred to the frontier myth in a November17, 1944, letter to Vannevar Bush, directorof the White House Office of ScientificResearch and Development: "New frontiersof the mind are before us, and if they arepioneered with the same vision, boldness,and drive with which we have waged thiswar we can create a fuller and more fruitfulemployment and a fuller and more fruitfullife. "17

In his July 5, 1945, response, Bush also

13Albert Wattenberg, "The Fermi School in theUnited Slates," European [ournai of Physics, 9 (1988),88-93. For a complete account, see Richard Rhodes,The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Simon,1986), pp. 394-442; Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E.Anderson,Jr., The New World, 1939/1946, A History ofthe United States Atomic Energy Commission, VoL I(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,1962), p. 112. Following his wartime work at LosAlamos, Fermi continued his research at the Universityof Chicago and directed the Argonne NationalLaboratory.

"Conant added that "the earth was not as large as he[Fermi] had estimated, and he arrived at the new worldsooner than he had expected." See Compton, AtomicQue5;t: A Personal Narrative (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1956), P: 144.

17Roosevelt to Bush, Nov. 17, 1944, in Bush, Science­the Endless Frontier: A Report to the President on a Program

THE FOUNDING OF FERMI LAB

utilized the frontier imagery. Using lan­guage reminiscent of Turner, Bushdescribed an endless scientific frontier inhis effort to galvanize government supportof basic research: "The pioneer spirit is stillvigorous within this Nation. Science offers alargely unexplored hinterland for the pio­neer who has the tools for his task. Therewards of such exploration both for theNation and for the individual are great.Scientific progress is one essential key tosecurity as a nation, to our better health, tomore jobs. to a higher standard of living,and to our cultural progress. "18 As a result,the National Science Foundation was estab­lished in 1950, ushering in a golden age offunding for basic scientific researchthrough the 1960s.19

Fifteen years after Bush's Endless Frontier,John Fitzgerald Kennedy inspired thenation with frontier imagery of space explo­ration when he accepted his party's presi­dential nomination. Kennedy evoked famil­iar heroic tales as he spoke of "the frontierof the 1960s, a frontier of unknown oppor­tunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled

for Postumr Scientific Research. (1945; rpt. Washington,D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1960), pp. vii-xxvi,3-4.

18Bush to Roosevelt, July 5, 1945, in Bush, Science­the Endless Frontier, pp. 1-2. In his memoirs, Bushrecalls, "1 remember when 1 was told [in 1919] that thefrontier had been occupied, that all ofmans wants hadbeen met, that science had come to the end of a trail,that future growth would depend only on increase ofpopulation." Sec Bush, Pieces of the Action (New York:Morrow, 1970), p. 3.

19See Daniel J Kevles, The Phssiasts: The History of aSCientific Communil)1 in Modern America (New York:Knopf, 1978). Currently, science statesmen are ques­tioning whether the scientific frontier is now closing.See Leon M. Lederman, Science: The End ofthe Frontiert(Washington, D.c.: American Association for theAdvancement of Science, 1991).

ADRIENNE KOLB AND LILLIAN HODDESON 7

hopes and threats." He referred to"uncharted areas of science and space,unsolved problems of peace and war,unconquered pockets of ignorance and prej­udice, unanswered questions of poverty andsurplus," and he asked Americans "to benew pioneers on that new frontier. "20

During the same period several science fic­tion adventure series-Voyage to the Bottom ofthe Sea, Lost in Space, and eventually StarTrek-became popular television features."

The frontier imagery passed into the writ­ings and speeches of the four founders ofFermilab, whose story begins in that era.Allusions to the frontier helped Edwin LeoGoldwasser of the University of Illinois,Leon Max Lederman of ColumbiaUniversity, Norman F. Ramsey of HarvardUniversity, and Robert Wilson of CornellUniversity forge supportive coalitions of sci­entists, businessmen, and local, state, andfederal govermnental agencies.

In the early 1960s exciting breakthroughsin particle physics fueled physicists' desirefor a laboratory operating at energies high­er than the maximum energies available atBrookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on

2fJ"Kennedy and Johnson Open the Campaign:Acceptance Speeches of the Democratic Nominees,"U.S. Neics & WorldReport,July 25,1960, pp- 100-02.

21Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, per­suaded Paramount to back the show by drawing on thepopularity of westerns and billing Star Trek as a "wagontrain to the stars" (see Star Trek 25th AnnivenarySpecial).

22See Laurie M. Brown, Max Dresden, and LillianHoddeson, eds., Pions to Quarks: Particle Ph)lsics in the19505 Based on a Fermilab Symposium (New York:Cambridge Uruversiry Press, 1989); Brown, Dresden,Hoddeson, and M. Riordon, The Rise of the StandardModel (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

"Ramsey, "The Early History of VRA and Fermilab:Viewpoint of a URA President (1966-1981), ~ inAnnual Report of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory(Batavia, Ill.: The Laboratory, 1987), pp. 156-61.

Long Island (33 GeV in 1960) and at CERN,the European laboratory in Geneva (26GeV in 1959).22 Numerous proposals fornew American particle accelerators weresubmitted to the AEC. Ramsey was asked in1962 to chair a joint panel of Kennedy'sScientific Advisory Committee and theGeneral Advisory Committee of the AEC inorder to evaluate those proposals.

Reporting in May of 1963, the Ramseypanel endorsed the need for a frontierinstrument in the energy range of severalhundred GeV. Since the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley had ample experi­ence in building accelerators, the panel rec­ommended that the first priority should bethe "prompt construction of a 200-GeV pro­ton accelerator by LRL" (LawrenceRadiation Laboratory) at Berkeley." Thepanel effectively phased out a competinglower energy proposal from the MidwesternUniversities Research Association (MURA)based in Madison, Wisconsin. Physicists atBerkeley proceeded to design the new 200GeV machine, completing the design inJune of 1965.

The Ramsey panel's report also stressedthat future high energy laboratories benationwide, rather than regional, facilities,having not only an in-house research staffbut also a strong representation from out­side users. The notion of democratic accel­erator access for all physicists, regardless oftheir home institution, was a newly emerg­ing concept in the history of accelerators. Itwas presented as an expansion of BNL's pol­icy of offering beamtime to all deservingproposals. In June of 1963 the democraticaccess ideal was detailed in an informalpaper by Lederman. Lederman, who wasthen a member of a committee headed byMyron Lindsay Good to review the Ramseypanel's report, presented "The TrulyNational Laboratory" (TNL), an alternativeto Brookhaven's access policy that favoredregional users. TNL was intended as a punon BNL. The ultimate governing body of

Leon Afax tednman, a founder of Fermilab,J965 from President lqndon BainesJohrw m.

the T NL, to wh ich eve n 1IH.~ di recto r o f thelaborato ry wo uld be responsible, wou ld bea n atio n al m an age ment consort turn withre p re sentat ive s from a ll of the major re­search u ni ve r s i ti e s in t he cou ntry.Led e r m a n e mphasized that "all users willhave a ' r ig h t of access ' to the mach ine "stric tly 011 the basis of physics merit and that"th e ent h u siasm a nd r-oo pe ra tion o f thee n t i r e h igh energy com munity call beassu red " if the "fac ilities arc accessib le as arigh t to a ll }' physicist hea ring a co mpetiti ve­ly accep table pro posal."2·'

Hal f a de cade later, the TN L wo u ld offerFcrmi la b its o r ig ina l m od el , as we ll as itso r ig inal n a m e , the Nat io nal Acce ler at o rLaborato ry, Frederick Se itz, president of theNat ional Academy of Sci e nces. res pondedto Lederm an's can for a n at ional co nso r­riu m to manage th e labo rato ry by fo r mingan association of presidents of the natio n 's

mrives Ih" Na tional ,\Inial (1Sdence ill

research un ive r-si ties, the Un iversi t ies Re­sea rc h Association , Inc. (U RA), in J anuaryof 1965,:!.!> U nder Ramsey's d irecti o n . U RAdevel o ped strategi es for huilding consensusin " tash ing loJl.

T he accelerator design that Berkeley pre­se utcd in J une of 1965 was proj ected to costover 340 milli on. The tim ing was poor forsuc h a n e x p e n s ive proposal b e cu u seCo ngress beli eved that h igh-energy physics

241.t'ffen n;ln, "'1'11\, Truly Nauonal 1...aborarorv; " ,\ GSArc ctcrator Department I I ~l l'r nal Rep ort AAnI~6, PartII , Super-Hig h EnerJO' Snmna-r Study. June 25 , I~)63 ,

Fer milab H isro rv C.olkni nll ,2"'RaIll"<'y. pp. 'E)7- 61.

ADRIENNE KOLB AND LILLIAN HODDESON 9

was overfunded and that too large a propor­tion of those funds was going to California.Non-Berkeley physicists complained thatthey had not been granted enough runningtime on the Berkeley machines. In that con­text, Wilson, director of Cornell Univer­sity's Laboratory of Nuclear Studies,entered the story of the 200 GeV accelera­tor. He had studied physics at Berkeley inthe 1930s under Ernest Orlando Lawrence.During World War II, he worked at LosAlamos on the first atomic bomb and after­wards designed innovative accelerators atboth Harvard and Cornell. He also servedas an active member of a group thatplanned an idealistic international accelera­tor intended as a model for peaceful, world­wide collaboration.v'

Wilson's machines were marked by theirfrugality and innovation. He was outragedby the Berkeley design for the 200 GeVmachine, a design he considered conserva­tive (overdesigned) and far too expensive.s?Late in 1965, he put forth a bold alternativethat cost only $50 million. The design usedeconomizing features that he had devel­oped in designing the Cornell electron syn­chrotron, such as small magnets and austereexperimental facilities. He estimated thatfor only $100 million more he couldachieve 600 GeV or even 1000 GeV WhileBerkeley's accelerator physicists dismissedthose economizing suggestions, the AECdid not. The agency announced a cost ceil­ing of $240 million, and Berkeley was then

26Hoddeson. "Establishing KEK in Japan andFermilab in the U.S.: Internationalism, Nationalismand High Energy Accelerators," Social Studies of Science,13 (1983), 1-48; Kolb and Hoddeson, "The Mirage ofthe World Accelerator for World Peace: Origins of theSuperconducting Super Collider, 1953-1983."Historical Studies in the Biological and Physical Sciences. 24(t993),101-24.

27Wilson. "Some Proton Synchrotrons. 100-1000GeV," TS, Sept., 1965, Fermilab History Collection.

obliged to prepare a design of "reducedscope."

Politically, the debates during 1965focused on the location of the new laborato­ry. While Berkeley had assumed that the sitewould be in California, physicists and politi­cians questioned that assumption. In Aprilof 1965, after receiving Colorado's indepen­dent site proposal, the AEC began to adver­tise for other proposals. One hundred andtwenty-five were received, suggesting morethan two hundred sites, with one or morefrom each of forty-six states. By Septemberof 1965, the AEC had reduced the numberof proposals to eighty-five, and in March of1966, with the help of a National Academyof Sciences site evaluation committee head­ed by Emanuel Ruvin Piore of IBM, only sixremained, including two Illinois sites: thevillage of Weston, in western Du PageCounty, and Barrington.

The struggling, lower-income residents ofWeston, a dying community, hoped forrevival and progress, although the commu­nity had no clear idea of what progresswould mean. Initially they looked to the newphysicist settlers for economic salvation.When a Northern Illinois Gas Company offi­cial contacted Weston Mayor ArthurTheriault about the possibility of proposinga local site for a federal atom-smasher pro­ject, Theriault believed that his villagerswould embrace the plan. Anticipating eco­nomic development by accommodating theatomic energy project, the community ofWeston extended its hospitality on April 8,1966, to the National Academy of Sciencesteam surveying proposed sites for the newatom smasher.

The site matched the agreed upon criteriaand also offered 6,800 acres of free land,sufficient for the laboratory and for futureexpansion within the site boundaries. All ofthe sites offering proposals were expectedto donate free land, but the Weston landwas especially agreeable farmland, with suit­able utilities, geological composition, and

ADRIENNE KOLB AND LILLIAN HODDESON 11

on securing a new accelerator for theirregion, while at the same time proposalsfrom Berkeley and Brookhaven effectivelycountered each other. When the Illinois sitefulfilled the final selection criteria, the con­cerns of the East, West, and Midwest bal­anced, and democratic access, civil rights,and other noble ideals that the midwesternfacility met were underscored. Weston vil­lagers' hopes for future development werenot realized, however. When the State ofIllinois transferred the site to the UnitedStates government in 1969, the residentsand farmers, their legacy of family commit­ment to the land notwithstanding, had tovacate.s''

The selection of Weston linkedFerrnilab's history with "that astonishingChicago," which Mark Twain described inhis Life on the Mississippi (1883) as "a citywhere they are always rubbing the lamp,and fetching up the genii, and contrivingand achieving new impossibilities. "31 Adecade later, Chicago figured prominentlyin Turner's thesis. Critically located andconnected by transportation routes with all

. parts of the country, Chicago was, and stillis, a crucible for innovative ideas in marketeconomics, transportation, and communica­tion.

A son of the Midwest himself,32 Turnersaw the Midwest, and Chicago in particular,as a balance point of the American frontier.That mixed society typified America: "The

30Ramsey, pp. 158-59; Theodore J. Lowi andBenjamin Ginsberg, Poliscide (New York: Macmillan,1976); Westfall, "The First 'Truly National Laboratory':The Birth of Ferrrulab," Dies. Michigan State University1988, pp. 208-315.

.'\lTwain, Life on the Mis.riHippi (1883; rpt. New York:Penguin, 1984), p. 416.

32Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the GreatWest (New York: Norton, 1991), p. 31.

wfurner; "The Significance of the Frontier," p. 13.Turner later extended his concepts of frontier influ-

men of the frontier had closer resemblancesto the Middle region than ... the other sec­tions.... It had a wide mixture of nationali­ties, a varied society, ... a varied economiclife.... It was democratic and ... typical ofthe modern United States.... [1]t becamethe typically American region. "33 Turnerclaimed that Chicago was where "all theforces of the nation intersect. "34 Years later,the national committee that selectedFermilab's site was also attracted byChicago's centrality.

The Illinois prairie with its abundantwildlife and natural resources has long sym­bolized the American heartland. Prairiemythology was embraced within traditionalnative landscaping according to the idealsof naturalism, which inspired appreciationfor careful treatment of the outdoors dur­ing the late nineteenth century. Nostalgiafor the original prairie has been expressedin Chicago's emphasis on green spaces andpublic parks." Along with the World'sColumbian Exposition one hundred yearsago, the Prairie School of architecture pro­vided a link with prairie landscape design ofthe outdoors. As Chicago developed into ametropolis, the bucolic features of sprawlingwestern communities offered escape, whilespeculation in real estate pushed the city'sfrontier outward.

By the time Weston was selected as thesite for the 200 GeV machine, the URA con­sortium was ready to appoint a director for

ence with a closer examination of what he called sec­tionalism, in which the ideals produced by the frontierwere preserved within the sections, particularly theMidwest (see White, "Frederick Jackson Turner,"p.667) .

34Cronon, Nature's Metropolis, p- 14; Turner, TheFrontier in American History (1920; rpt. New York: Holt,1962).p.150.

3·~Prairie in the City: Naturalism in Chicago's Parks,1870-1940 (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society,1991).

12

the project. On January 15, 1967, the posi­tion was offered to Wilson. That the manselected to create Fermilab was born in aWyoming town named Frontier and thatFerrnilab was sited in the suburbs of the citycentral to Turner's thesis are coincidences.But they assumed significance to Ferrnilab'shistory, for the multip le relationshipsamong different frontiers-physical, emo­tional, intellectual-became woven into thefabric of the discourse. Wilson's early life asa cowboy and as an assistant in a black­smith's shop fostered his personal frontieridentity. Practical solutions, boldness, indi­viduality, frugality, innovation, democracy,and self-reliance were among his ideals.t"

We may envision the frontier as a migrat­ing region with shifting boundaries thatrepresent the evolving nature of civilization.There are two subregions of the frontier.The more familiar area just before theboundary is used as a preparation ground aswell as a point of departure. It is the lastoutpost to replenish supplies. Beyond thatis the uncharted wilderness, the real fron­tier. Any pioneering settlement on the fron­tier causes a disruption of the existing sys­tem. That impact is followed by reintegra­tion of the old and new elements into thenew system, which to the victors is "better."As historian William Cronon interpretsTurner, "the whole point of the frontier hadbeen to vanish.... [1] ts 'purpose' inTurner's scheme Was to prepare the way forthe civilization that would ultimately replaceit. "37 In that sense, Fermilab brought newfrontiers to the Midwest.

Wilson saw the Weston site as a promisingenvironment for a physics frontier laborato­ry, a base that could nurture creativity andindividualism. He also immediately andintuitively recognized the resonancebetween the new laboratory and the frontiermythologies of both physics and Americanhistorv" The physical advantages of the sitehad been recognized much earlier byNative American inhabitants, particularly

THE FOUNDING OF FERMILAB

around the area known locally as the BigWoods, which evoked for Wilson a vision ofthe frontier. As an artist, as well as physicistand accelerator builder, he perceived thesite's open spaces as a blank canvas uponwhich to design the laboratory. Simple ele­gance in the physics program and in thephysical layout of the laboratory became apriority, along with preserving the site's nat­ural beauty while building on it the world'sforemost scientific instrument. As a condi­tion of accepting the position of director onMarch 7, 1967, Wilson secured the AEC'sguarantee that he would have complete con­trol over the creation of the facility.

Initially, the Chicago hinterland present­ed Wilson with a dilemma. Unlike the sitesof other major American laboratories,Weston offered neither a metropolitan nor auniversity setting. How could he persuadetop physicists to work in what appeared tobe an undeveloped wilderness? In 1966, thewestern border of Du Page County metKane County in gently rolling, Widespreadfarmlands. Temporary offices for the newlaboratory were set up in Oak Brook, abouthalfway between Weston and Chicago, whilethe site at Weston was settled by an advanceteam of physicists.

With a "Westward Ho" attitude, Wilsondrew on the rhetoric of the frontier in his

36Hoddeson, "Wilson's Way," March, 1994, MS,Fermilab History Collection. By the early twentiethcentury, cowboys, an important element in BuffaloBill's Wild West shows, had assumed their place amongthe icons of frontier mythology (see White, "TheFrontier and the American Mind," p. 10).

37Cronon, "Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier, M

p.167.sewilson. "The Richtmyer Memorial Lecture-c.

Particles, Accelerators, and Society, M AmericanJournal ofPh~'Ysics, 36 (1968), 490-95.

ADRIENNE KOLB AND LILLIAN HODDESON 13

invitations to prospective employees, stress­ing the adventure and opportunities thenew site and new physics program offered.He asked Edwin Goldwasser, a physicist­diplomat from the University of Illinois, toserve as his deputy director. The twobecame a powerful team, with direct accessto government leaders, particularly mem­bers of the Joint Committee on AtomicEnergy, which was responsible for fundinglarge high-energy physics projects.w Theyinstantiated Lederman's ideal of a trulynational laboratory accessible to all andmanaged democratically, underscoring thatideal by naming the laboratory the NationalAccelerator Laboratory, a name PresidentJohnson endorsed. Open experimentalareas would allow egalitarian exploration ofthe physics frontiers.

Hoping to redeem what Los Alamos hadwrought upon the world, Wilson andGoldwasser planned a "Science City," which,unlike Los Alamos, would be without fencesor security clearances.w They envisioned aninstitution that would support peaceful anddemocratic actions and actually would helpstrengthen equality and civil rights locally.Wilson stated that "in the course of giving avery large acceleration to our particles, letus hope that we can contribute at least asmall acceleration to society. "41 Wilson andGoldwasser wanted the laboratory to serve

39Goldwasser, "Science and Man: Breaking NewGround at Batavia," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Occ.,1969, pp. 7-10.

40Wall Street journal, Feb. 11, 1983, p. 21, cols. 1-2;Goldwasser, pp. 7-10.

41Wilson, "The Richtmeyer Memorial Lecture,"p.494.

<Ooldwasser, p. 9.

as a model that could inspire creative com­munity solutions to social, economic, andcultural problems. The laboratory's policyon human rights, drafted in the turbulentyear of 1968, was "to seek the achievementof its scientific goals within a framework ofequal employment opportunity and of adeep dedication to the fundamental tenetsof human rights and dignity." The policyemphasized: "Prejudice has no place in thepursuit of knowledge.... It is essential thatthe Laboratory provide an environment inwhich both its staff and its visitors can liveand work with pride and dignity. "42

Wilson and Goldwasser also stressed theecological integrity of the site-the preserv­ing of natural habitats, protection of theland, and in general using what the site pro­vided with minimal disturbance. Put forth ata time when the ecology movement was justtaking root in national policy, those ecologi­Gilly sensitive goals helped to assuage thefears of local residents that the new installa­tion would negatively impact their quietlives. Thus, unlike Los Alamos andBrookhaven, Fcr rni labs site was notdesigned to resemble a military camp. Norlike the Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory (for­merly LRL) or the Stanford LinearAccelerator Center did it assume the modelof a university campus. Fermilab's site wasconstructed to evoke a romantic image ofnineteenth-century life on the original mid­western prairie, with expanses of open land,farmhouses, barns, and natural habitats.

As an economy measure, the older farm­houses on the land as well as the relativelynew houses that were in the village ofWeston were restored for use as offices andlater as visitor housing. Numerous nativeanimals and even a herd of North Americanbison inhabit the site. In 1969, at its firstannual Arbor Day ceremony, Fermilab insti­tuted communal planting of thousands oftrees and shrubs in an effort to help re-cre­ate the original woodland. Beginning in1974, Fermilab's Prairie Restoration Project

14

0 ... R 081E:"T R. W IL SON , OIlU :CTOR, NAT IOHM.CCII:LE:IIATOft LAS OR AT OJiIV , T ALK S WI T t{ OR .

EDWIN L . GOLDWASSER . D EPUTY D lI't I!:CTOR .IHS IDI: 10400 £1. Of' A CROSS SECT ION 01" NAL

AI "I A ec"LE"AT OR . 0 ". WH..5ON IS L£_ INCOGA IN$T . £l\I O ING "'AG "

THE F O UNDI NG OF FE R M I L AB

Robert Wilmn Of Cornell Uni ver.\·iIJ (lRj l) accepted the position as Fermilab 'sfirs t director on M arch 7,J96 7. His dejJUt)' director was Ed win Goldtoasser of the Unioersity oj Illin ois. Both n W ll worked lo /m'­serue the prologiw i in tegritJ of the site.

in the center o f th e main accelerator ringdrew 011 e m p loyees an d vo lunte e rs fromsu rro u nding com m u n ities to work with th eMorton Arho retum to rei ntro duce seed sand reestablish true prairi e vegetation . T hereconstruct ed prairie revitali zed th e o rig i­n al ha bi tats into a wild life sa nc tuary, and intime it gre w into o ne o f th e la rgest in theUn ited Stat es..t :~

Turne r e nded h is addr e ss a t th eColu m b ian Ex p os itio n on a note o f clo sure :"Since th e days whe n the fleet of Colu m b ussa iled into the waters o f the New Wor-ld.America h as h een a nother name for oppor­tu nity. ... Each frontie r did indeed furnish

a new fie ld of opport u n ity, a gate of es ca p efr o m t h e b ond a g e of the pas t. " But h eexp la ined th at "the American e nergy wi llcont in ua ll y d emand a wider field for it sexercise ," and "neve r again will suc h gifts offree la n d offer themse lve s. . . . And no w,

4~Nat ional Accele ra tor laborat ory, The Vill flW' Crier,j une, 1!1G9, pp. 1, 4.

Robert Wilson participated in the Fermilab groundbreaking in 1969. Wilson hoped that the laboratory wouldserve as a model for creative solutions to ~'ocial, economic, and cultura l problems i" the community.

16

fo ur centuries from the discovery ofAmerica ... the frontier has gone, and withits going has closed the first period ofAmerican history. "44 "Where would Americafind its new frontiers in the second period?

In much the same way that theColumbian Exposition symbolizedChicago's rebirth-a phoenix rising fromthe ashes of the 1871 fire-the frontier wasreborn in studies of the atom, the nucleus,space, the genome, and countless technolo­gies. Historian Thomas Parke Hughes hascharacterized the century of American his­tory between 1870 and 1970 as an era of"technological enthusiasm" in whichAmericans "acquired traits that havebecome characteristically American." Thelast third of the era began three years after"the Italian navigator" landed in the "newworld" of atomic energy. Vannevar Bushbrought science into its golden age of fund­ing by portraying research as an endlessfrontier to a nation impressed by theprowess of scientists who had worked on theatontic bomb and radar during World War11.45 The next four decades of science policywould be driven by a cold war defense­based economy. Fermilab was created inthat era.

What are we to make of the overlaps inrhetoric between Turner and the Fermilabcommunity? What of their common cele­bration of such frontier values as individual­ism, empiricism, simplicity, equality,courage, discovery, independence, and nat­uralisrn? The physicists who plannedFerrnilab saw the laboratory as a utopian set­tlement that met social, cultural, and scien­tific needs. They emphasized democraticaccess, individualism, human rights, ecolog­ical balance, and the solution of social, eco­nontic, and political problems. And as thesite was transformed into a managed inter­national high-energy physics laboratory,Fermilab's founders worked to re-create anactual remnant of Turner's American fron­tier.

THE FOUNDING OF FERMILAB

While it is tempting to try to applyTurner's thesis to Fermilab, detailed studyof the history reveals other explanations forthe overlaps between Turner and Ferrnilab.For example, the United States governmentallowed Ferntilab's builders to take an indi­vidualistic approach in order to cut costs,which in turn allowed Ferntilab to be thefirst national laboratory to offer broaddemocratic access of its research tools toany physicist subntitting a proposal of suffi­cient merit. Democratic accelerator accesswas a natural value for American high-ener­gy physicists in the early 1960s, followingthe sizable increase in particle energyrequired for advancement on the physicsfrontier. Owing to the high cost of suffi­ciently energetic accelerators, few machinescould be supported. The consequence wascentralization of research at those few cen­ters and pressure from members of theexponentially expanding community of par­ticle physicists for a democratic user poli­cy.46

In actual practice, both in science andpioneering settlements, individualism andruggedness turned out to be far less usefulthan cooperation. And at Weston, farmersand other settlers had to vacate their landfor the sake of science, just as NativeAmerican tribes, including the Potawatomi,Sauk, and Fox, led by such legendary lead-

wlurner, "The Significance of the Frontier," p. 18.45Hughes, The American Genesis: A CenturyofInvention

and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970 (New York:Viking, 1989), p. 1; Compton, p. 144; Bush, Science­the EndlessFrontier.

46Westfall, "Ferrmlab's Experimental Program duringthe Wilson Era," TS, 1993, Fermilab History Center.Ironically, Fermilab's user orientation became a disad­vantage in the 1980s era of very big experiments,which required strong in-house groups to build andmaintain large apparatus (see ibid.}.

ADRI E N NE K OLH AN D L11.L1A ~ 1I01l llESO N 17

Fevmila b hf'gflll i ts Pra irie Hestom tum J)rojrfl. which inrhules the rein tradsutiou o/ pmirir l'r'getfl tirJ1/ami wiMlilr, i ll 1974. Above, a herd o{ iVort h A mencan bisrm gmu infront o] the lah site.

crs as C lu-chepiuqua. Shabbona, and BlackH awk, h ad bee n driven by wh i t e settlersinto d r ie r, distant areas of the Great Pla insan d the north ern Ro cky Mo untai ns for thesake of the land. Bot h were accomplished inth e nam e of progress . Sc ie nt ifica ll y, thein tell ectual-j b v terri tory actually decreasedas a result of the research activit ies at

H C r O Il O Il, ,"'/ (/l lI rp'I AlrlroJ)(Jli s. See al so Susan E.H irsch and Robe-rt I. Coler. ;\ Ci~"f Comes f!I Aj..!'f': ChimJ.,.'oin the 18 CJt/\ (Ch il'a g-o: C hicago l li s torica l Society,1990) ; lowi a m i ( ;illSherg-: Su-ven Weinberg , Dreams oj(/ Final "f ilmY)' (New ' hrk : Panrhcou Book s. I~'92 ) .

Fe r mil ab a nd ot her high-energy laborato­ries, for the fruits of the resea rch narrowedthe parti cle p hys ics fro ntier to only the mostFu ndamenta l p roblcm s.s" Fennilab 's ccolog­ica l concerns an d ap preciation of civi lrig hts d o not reflect T urner 's thesi s, hutrathe r the perso n a l va lue s of Fer-mi labsfo unders a nd pop ular opin ion during thelate I960s.

Wh at is com pelling about the asso ciat ionsth at acco mpa ny t he m ytho logy of th eAmerican fro n t ier a nd the settlement ofFe rmilab is th e ligh t that those associationsshed o n the self-image of physicists <1.'" frou­tierfolk and how p hysicists have used fron­tier imagery in es tablishi ng their am bitio us

18

projects. Ferrnilab was conceived during theKennedy era-a period in which the fron­tier myth had currency in America. Duringthe early years of Ronald Reagan's adminis­tration, when the frontier was again an ide­alistic slogan, the Superconducting SuperCollider project was adopted. Reaganreferred to the myth explicitly in his secondinaugural address: "[AJ settler [who] push­es west and sings a song, ... l tl hat's ourheritage, that's our song." President Reaganrecalled the myth again, more alarmingly,in his support of the Star Wars Program.sf

But whereas images of scientific "wagontrainfs] into the frontier of our comprehen­sion of the universe"49 excited congressmenduring the Reagan and George Bush eras,such symbolic rhetoric was less potent in theearly 1990s, when projects having moreimmediate social returns were empha­sized.w' Historians have yet to unravel thefull range of cultural and political signifi­cance of the frontier in American scienceand culture and to comprehend theprovocative associations with frontier

THE FOUNDING OF FERMI LAB

imagery reflected, for example, in the strik­ing correlations between periods in whichscience is well supported and times when itis popular to conjure up the spirit of thefrontier.

-el rvmg ]. Sloan, ed., Ronald w: Reagan, 1911­(Dobbs Ferry, N .Y.: Oceana Publications, 1990), pp.199-204; Daniel O. Graham, The Non-Nuclear Defense ojCities: The High Frontier space-Based Defense Against ICBMAttack (Cambridge, Mass.: AbtBooks, 1983), pp. vi-viii,1-15.

-al.eder man , "What Can We Learn From theSupercollider's Demise?" The Scientist, Nov. 29, 1993,p.12.

5O"Policy Makers Invoke New Paradigm for Scienceand Technology," APS News,June, 1994, p- 2.

ALTTHOR'S NOTE: The authors thank James Barrett,Orville W. Burton, Peter Garrett, Edwin L. Goldwasser,Leon M. Lederman, Robert W. McColley, JohnPeoples, Norman F. Ramsey, Nathan Reingold, RobertW. Seidel, Robert R. Wilson, and members of theSocial History Group of the Department of History atthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fortheir contribution to the preparation of this paper.