Washington’s Manhattan Project park marks first year

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s Manhattan Project National Historical Park is a year old and proving to be quite popular.

About 13,000 people visited the Hanford park in its first year, despite its relatively remote location. The park is in southeastern Washington, far from the state’s major population centers.

It was created a year ago, with the signing of an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy, which owns the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the U.S. Department of Interior, which includes the National Park Service.

Denver-based Superintendent Kris Kirby is the first employee of the national park, but officials are in the process of hiring someone to work specifically at the Hanford site, which played a key role in developing the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II.