Black Hole of Los Alamos: Seller of surplus nuclear research materials (2011)
atlasobscura.com68 points by Bluestein 5 days ago
68 points by Bluestein 5 days ago
This place was amazing, and worth a whole afternoon every time I went there. The owner was even more interesting, and a whole story in his own right. (I just looked at his wikipedia entry- wasn't aware there have been features on him! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus)
He was not just an interesting person, but had a fantastic memory for what was in the place (though I think that was quite selective.) I came in one day looking for an aluminum plate I could use as a heatsink, but I was hoping for something with rounded edges so it wouldn't cut my car seat (for my overly-hot laptop.) He squinted for a few seconds, and then walked directly to a giant pile of random metal debris, and threw a bunch of things aside, reached in up to his shoulder, and pulled out _exactly_ the piece I needed, including chamfered edges on one side.
I am sad places like this are going away quickly. I made a map a long time ago dedicated to documenting places like The Black Hole - scraphounds are welcome to update it with interesting destinations. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1Y1XmPsqClK...
I grew up in Los Alamos and remember shopping at that location when it was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. There is much more detail here about its subsequent incarnation as the Black Hole and the activism of the man who owned it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus
Sadly modern Los Alamos is only served by a single Smith's now. The old Furr's at Merrymac center is became a Smith's and now sits abandoned, the new Smith's being across the road where the auto mechanic used to be, and the White Rock Smith's is similarly abandoned
Ed's (Ed Metzger, who's family runs the hardware store, not the black hole) grocery, formerly next to the UNM campus, is long gone as well
Los Alamos also had a scattering of 1960s A-frame churches. Ed bought the one "next" to the Black Hole (although it was in a ponderosa/piñon forest and set back about 500 feet from where the black hole lot was), nailed a bunch of crutches to the exterior wall, and mostly used it as surplus storage for the Black Hole. Never went inside, but rode past it nearly every school day on the way to after school care, and always wondered what was inside
I remember going there with my parents one day when I was in my late 20s. It was one of those days that stands out in my memory. Old computers the size of refrigerators. There was a rocket out front. Rows and rows of strange lab equipment from the 50s. I could have spent days there.
I am of the opinion we categorically need please like that: Places that speak to our curiosity with a sense of wonder.-
My Dad and I used to drive down there when I was a kid. We would call ahead to make sure they would be open and Ed would write a welcome message for us on the whiteboard. Put my first decent vacuum systems together with parts from there that would have otherwise been cost prohibitive. Such a great place to look around in.
No longer in operation since 2017, =(
edit: wonder if that means they sold everything
I heard that it was effectively a hasmat site for quite some time with spills of several nasty things including mercury. Also I have fond memories from I popped in there to get some random tech things in the 1990s.
Surplus stores have been replaced by online auctions.[1] If you have something really obscure, you might find a buyer on online. Piling the stuff up locally means most of it sits there for years.
Weird Stuff Warehouse. Haltek. HSC. All gone. Excess Solutions moved online. Jameco took down their "open to public" sign. Anchor Electronics [2] is perhaps the only remaining electronics surplus place in Silicon Valley you can visit in person.
Many of those online auction sites are still surplus warehouses, but they just don’t need to operate as retail operations. You can still visit and inspect the goods when they’re listed.
A favourite in Australia that emerged over the last ten or so years is Grays Online [1], which sell everything from estate sales and office equipment, to military vehicles and mining machinery.
(Mentioning the name often made people think I was into alien conspiracies, which had some parallels to the subject of this post.)
Was always a great source of original parts for prop replicas. Found a ton of exact Ghostbusters proton pack greebles there.
The other main source is the hazmat special:
(careful coming back through LAX with parts from there, it set off some sort of detector last time, although they took one look at the stuff I had, rolled their eyes, and sent me on my way)
Huh, person who contributed this to Atlas Obscura has an interesting username.
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