The display of photos and 1940s baseball memorabilia is small, but Terry Andre hopes it will raise fans' interest about life during the construction of the Hanford nuclear site.

Andre is the education coordinator for the CREHST museum in Richland, home to the Play Ball: Hanford Construction Camp Baseball exhibit on display until the end of this year's World Series.

The exhibit features several photos declassified by the Department of Energy showing workers pitching, sliding and racing their way around a baseball diamond at the nuclear site.

Also on display are a wool baseball jersey from the era and a home plate unearthed in 2007 by Washington Closure Hanford workers.

The government built the baseball diamond in the 1940s to entertain the 51,000 workers building the reactors and plutonium processing plant next to the Columbia River.

Andre said the purpose of the exhibit is to show a facet of Hanford life many people don't often think about.

"We want to show life in Hanford and help people get a feel for the times and why did we do this," she said. "We didn't do it to mess up the earth. We did it to end a war. And occasionally they had a little fun playing baseball."

CREHST features items from throughout Mid-Columbia and Hanford history, including a 1940s-era silver trailer that served as home to a family in the construction camp.

The trailer offered less than 150 square feet of living space to house an average of 3.7 people.

Many people who came to work at Hanford during the 1940s brought these trailers to live in at the Hanford construction camp, which held about 3,600 trailers along with barracks.

CREHST is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $3.50 for ages 17 to 61, $2.75 for ages 62 and older and $2.50 for ages 7 to 17.

* On the Net: CREHST, www.crehst.org/index.htm; Hanford's declassified photos, www.hanfordnews.com/photos/