Monday, March 23, 2009

Atomic age comes to Arco, Idaho

I have an aunt who loves to send us forwards and I got a real winner today. She found two pictures taken by Life magazine with my family in 1949. The first one is Grandpa Mackley in his shoe shop.
(P.S. You can click on the picture and it will link you to Life's website)

The second is a picture of Easter dinner. The oldest girl with curls and her back to us is Aunt LaWana. The next one is my mom! Next to Mom is Uncle Bill and Aunt Irene is the little girl praying next to Grandma. Grandma died when I was three so I don't have any memories of her so that makes this extra special.


I wanted to see why in the world Life magazine was taking pictures of the family, so I looked them up on their website. The pictures are from 1949 and the photographer visited little Arco, Idaho when they decided to set aside 400,000 acres for nuclear testing. I found an article entitled Atomic Age Comes to Arco, Idaho in the May 9, 1949 issue but they don't have their magazines and articles avaible online. However, if anyone is interested you can purchase the issue for $30. :)

While looking through the forty or so pictures of Arco, we stumbled across this one in front of Grandpa Mackley's shoe store. The caption says "State Senator Earl Soelberg giving pennies to the shoemakers kids on Grand Avenue." Since Aunt LaWana, Mom and Uncle Bill were often together, then that would explain who the two little girls are (one is behind the other) and the little boy going into the shop.
Who knew?!

10 comments:

  1. Those are really amazing! What a treat to find them. I think you need to pay the $30 and buy an issue...or you can always ask Santa or the Easter Bunny. (You could also check eBay, and see if someone has listed for sale the issue you want.)By the way, I just noticed the Easter baskets in the dinner picture. Well I just LOVE these pictures!

    Speaking of pictures, thank you for your recent positive comments on my pictures. I said "Thanks Cindy" out loud to myself when I read it. Your support means a lot!

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  2. Wow! What a neat rememberance to have! I agree with Michelle that you should buy a copy of the issue. I'm a little jealous that you have such a neat addition to your family history...I think the only photos of my relatives I would be able to find would be their mug shots :)

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  3. Wow! That is so neat!!! What a story to tell.
    Sayda

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  4. imlawson's link on the history of atomic energy in Arco didn't originally work, but she sent me this one that does:


    http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~idbutte/Stories/NEWS/ArcoAtomic.html

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  5. Great idea Michelle! I was able to find on ebay for only fourteen dollars WITH shipping! Yah!

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  6. I'm SO glad you posted these! What a great idea! I was looking at these pictures with my mom last weekend and thought about how great it would be to share them because I felt so proud. Duh! Posting them here is genius!!! :)

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  7. Do you know where that bread store in Heyburn is... Wonder Bread? Just right after you pass that Wonder Bread store it will be the next left. You will see some storage units on the right side. (I think they are blue) When you turn left there is a stop sign and rail road tracks. On the right side there is those storage units and then the the hockey rink. I am terrible at giving instructions. Did that just make sense?

    Love ya sweet Cindy,

    Sayda

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  8. Do you know where that bread store in Heyburn is... Wonder Bread? Just right after you pass that Wonder Bread store it will be the next left. You will see some storage units on the right side. (I think they are blue) When you turn left there is a stop sign and rail road tracks. On the right side there is those storage units and then the the hockey rink. I am terrible at giving instructions. Did that just make sense?

    Love ya sweet Cindy,

    Sayda

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  9. I have the copy of this magazine but the pictures you shared are not in it? Where did the pictures come from?

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