Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin

The gate she kept was five small rooms around a patio at 109 East Palace Avenue, opened on March 27, 1943, and rented under a false name to hide what it served. Every recruit bound for the Hill stopped there first for a pass and directions, and a tired arrival's first Santa Fe face was usually hers. She learned what the physicists were building only when the bomb fell on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The office ran until she retired in 1963, when the University of California closed it. A curio shop holds the address now.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin 1897-1985 In 1943, J. Robert Oppenheimer hand-picked Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin, a Smith College graduate, to run a liaison office for the Manhattan Project out of 109 East Palace Avenue in Santa Fe. Known as the "Gatekeeper of Los Alamos," McKibbin vetted all newly arriving scientists and their families before they embarked for "the Hill," the top-secret Manhattan Project Headquarters at what became Los Alamos. She oversaw vital day-to-day logistics, which included handling clearance credentials, processing paperwork for new employees, arranging their transportation to Los Alamos, and coordinating their housing once there. Official Scenic Historic Marker (Continued) McKibbin also provided social support to the Manhattan Project community. Entrusted with a top-secret "Q" security badge, she managed communications between scientists and the outside world during World War II. Her home, as the only secure private residence in Santa Fe for a time, hosted confidential meetings, social gatherings, and even weddings for scientists. Remembered for her warmth and generous spirit, McKibbin remained head of the Santa Fe office of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory until her retirement in 1963. This is an official women's history marker established under the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palace of the Governors — steps away
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.
• Pecos National Historical Park — 17 mi
  The red walls of a 1717 mission church inside the foundations of a far larger one, beside the kiva Pecos people dug in front of the old church during the revolt of 1680.
• Bandelier National Monument — 20 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 22 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.

More markers nearby

• Mother Magdalen and the Sisters of Loretto (1852-1968) — steps away
• Myra Ellen Jenkins — steps away
• Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche — steps away
• Inez Bushner Gill (1918-1982) and Maralyn Budke (1936-2010) — steps away