The Town that Changed the World....

[CII]

Some of you have waited a year for this little story. I keep blabbing on about my town and how important it is to the history of the US, now, here's the meat that goes inside all that fluff.

Now, first note, this ain't a political thread, so don't start any trouble about it. This is a thread about an important piece of history of our nation, but even more so, told from an insider rather than an outsider. What my town did was important and it had a purpose. And I'll not regret for having a family that was a part of that history. I suppose, I should start out with this little image right here.

Now everyone thinks their town is special. New York, Los Angeles, yeah, the name towns, yeah, they're special. But one of the huge changes to our history did not happen in these famous towns, it happened in a small town in Eastern Tennessee, just 15 miles west of Knoxville.

Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce you to the Atomic Capital of the World, my little town with the August 6th, 1945 front page reprint.



The picture on the front page is the picture of the K-33 in the building, the Gaseous Difusion Plant, K-25 plant. It's a U-nique building. Pun intended. My stepfather was in charge of its decomissioning in 1995. Before it was torn down, I actually had the chance of walking around inside of it, and hearing of the stories that one could roast a chicken breast in the dead of winter on the rooftop. I saw the enormous generators that seperated U-235, from 238 by ways of porus filiments, instead of electromagnetism. While Y-12 was the famous plant, K-25 was the main workhorse of the uranium bomb construction.



A better look at the K-33 building. Look at the size of it! Godzilla could fit inside, and yes, he would want to. There's enough radiation there for him to feast upon. My stepfather told me how he had to walk a literal mile and a half up and down stairs just to get to his truck in the back parking lot. And I had the thrill of walking with him one time at 'Daughter's Day At Work' in March 1994. It was the only time that I had ever gone inside of K-25. Y-12 is the more of a tourist attraction than K-25 is.

When the A-bomb was dropped, Oak Ridge was revealed. Everyone knew what it was now. But during its making, no one, not even the residents knew why this town was being created. Oak Ridge was nicknamed the 'Secret City'. One of America's best kept secrets...and in some cases, still is.

My grandmother told me all sorts of stories of this city's secret past. I mean, while other people's grandmothers told stories of how hard life was during WWII America, during the Depression, how no one had no job, my grandmother spoke of things I never thought a little old lady of 80 years could talk about. She spoke about 'F-rays', atomic particles, electromagnetism and how if one got up against the cyclotron, one's hair pens would get stuck to the glass from the charge. She talked about secretcy, and armed guards doing body checks every time she wanted to leave Oak Ridge to go to Knoxville just to shop. She talked about having to have a badge on her every hour of the day when she was even going to the general store down on the Oak Ridge Turnpike--which was nothing more than a dirt road at the time. And the signs, oh, the signs...billboards everywhere warning about keeping your mouth shut about what one sees in Oak Ridge. Little catch phrases like 'What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, stays here.' and the like. Now that's a story!

Sure, I'd love to say there's nothing special about my family, but that's not true. It seems that no other history in my family happened prior to 1942 when my grandmother and grandfather came here to Oak Ridge.

Now, 60 years have gone by and my little town in the middle of nowhere is on the front page again. Well, it always is this time of year, mostly because of one of Green Peace's favorite protest place is the Y-12 Security Complex, the birthplace of Little Boy. They lost X-10 and the National Laboratory because Bethel Valley Road was blocked off since 9-11.

My grandmother would also tell of funny little stories about how some of the outsiders from Knoxville would take to seeing those from the 'Clinton Engineer Works' walking through their nice stores. You see, we were in such a hurry to build the bomb, that we couldn't waste time on building streets, so we had dirt and mud and board planks for sidewalks. Oak Ridge was a town that was built in a matter of days, rather than decades. My grandmother would tell me of stories of truckers who were hauling lumber for some contractor and how they were stopped by secret service men with badges, saying that their load was confescated by the government and the Clinton Engineer Works Company. Even trucks hauling steel and iron to other parts of the country found that their loads would never get to their destinations. Instead, they were being bypassed and brought to build Oak Ridge.

So, famous cities like Atlanta never got their building supplies on time. Why? My little town got in the way.

And I laughed when I heard about when my grandmother saw the actual plasma rays in the cyclotron. She called them 'F-rays', and how her bobby pens would get stuck to the glass when she was allowed to see what she was creating.



The Graphite Reactor, the oldest nuclear reactor in the world. Beat that! And it is a national, historical monument. The X-10 Graphite Reactor supplied the Los Alamos lab with the first significant amounts of plutonium.

Y-12 was where my grandmother worked. The security complex was the first of the two factory buildings that created the components necessary to build the uranium bomb Little Boy.

While the men are away at war, the women worked on the first atomic bomb.



This is where my grandmother worked. And yes, mostly women worked there. These stations are still at Y-12 and are being referbished for full production again. Like my grandmother who worked at those stations, 3rd generation Oak Ridgers will now be working long ours again to create Enriched Uranium.



At least all of the work force employed at Y-12 were female. Beat that, guys. They worked long hours, doing 13-16 hour shifts. My grandmother worked on the Owl Shift, as in the night shift, staring at knobs and buttons and blinking lights and gages telling what to push, what not to push, and what to do when that little blue light went on. These machines the women operated were the very machines that controlled the cyclotrons, or 'Race Tracks' as they were also called--mile long coils of silver where U-235 was seperated from U-238 electromagnetically.



Would you believe this facility is only a two minute drive from where I live? It is. I drive by it everyday when I go to work in Knoxville. If you like to know what Y-12 does now, I can tell you. Y-12's cyclotrons are still in service and are now the nation's only factory for creating Enriched Uranium. They create Enriched Uranium to fuel the US Naval subs' neclear reactors. Yup, submarines are fueled by 'Tennessean grown' Enriched Uranium.

Funny thing about this city, it was also the place where my grandmother met my grandfather. In a little story called the 'Bullpen', my grandmother talked about how she came to Oak Ridge, and how she met my grandfather. It was printed in the Knoxville New Sentinel.

The Bullpen were a groupd of stone buildings lining the DOE building in the center of Oak Ridge.

In the Bullpen

Written by Frank Munger, Senior Writer

Gladys Wimberly (now Gladys Evens) was having a soft drink at the U Like It Cafe in Sweetwater when she got her first inkling of Oak Ridge.

A bunch of guys with muddy boots were eating at the counter, and the impetuous 20-year-old moved to a stool nearby so she could listen to their conversation. (This is my grandmother here! LOL! The snoot.)

"I heard them say the words 'Black Oak Ridge'," Evans recalled, although at the time she had no idea where that was. "I figured that's where they were working."

At the time, she was a clerk at Wright Hardware. Among her duties were keeping up with pictures of hometown soldier boys in the storefront window. She also had the difficult job of returning those who had lost their loved ones.

"That became quite traumatic," she said. "I wanted to do more for the war effort."

When she later learned about hiring in Oak Ridge, she applied. That was the spring of 1944. She met her future husband of 53 years, George Evans, while at the training center.

"They called it the bullpen," she said of the place where the workers went while waiting on their security clearances to come through.

Gladys Wimberly and George Evans both worked at the Y-12 plant during the war, and later George Evans became the plant's security director until his retirement in 1987.

It was a cute story. I was hoping she would tell more stories about the time inside the plant, but there wasn't any room.

Funny thing, grandma's maiden name became my middle name.

Hope you liked this little story.

To answer some of your questions, there were three official sites..secret sites that created the two bombs.


The production of the Uranium bomb was done only in Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge held four sites, Y-12 and the electromagnitism race tracks. K-25 and the Gaseous Difusion Plant. The experimental Graphite Reactor in X-10, which was the forefront of the larger production in Hanford, Washington, and the thermal difusion plant at Union Carbide. At the height of production Oak Ridge was consuming 14 percent of the total energy being used in the United States. To supply K-25 the power it needed for Gaseous Difusion seperation, the word's largest steam powered plant was built adjacent to it. And it's still standing and functioning.

Oak Ridge shipped 132 pounds of Enriched Uranium to Los Alamos to be used in Little Boy, the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

Fat Man's componants were also going to be fully produced in Oak RIdge, but because of hazardous risks of explosion or meltdown of the reactors to the population of Knoxville, production of the plutonium bomb was moved to Harford.

Oak Ridge 50s and Beyond.

K-25 continued to supply civilian nuclear reactors with Enriched Uranium until 1985, and that production was moved to Peducha, KY. Now, the facility that was K-25, is now busy studying the hazard effects of radiation, better ways of disposing of hazardous radioactive materials, and aiding the nation's Nuclear Regulatory Commission on waste management. The historic K-33 building only lives on in photographs. A shame. A road side, maintained overlook of K-25 is open for anyone who wants to stop by heading towards I40W to Crossville. I don't know who maintains it, but it stands. Not many people visit it though. I have. Its a nice place to stop for a rest. And, it's air conditioned in the summer. Push a button, and a DVD player will tell you of the history of K-25. And it also has bathrooms. So, anyone traveling towards Oak Ridge that needs a pitstop, stop at the K-25 overlook. You'll be happy you did.

Y-12 is still in production of Enriched Uranium, and is the country's sole provider of the stuff used in reactors of Naval subs. They even boast it on their website. No joke! And also, it's a prime target for peaceful hippies with anti nuke signs. They were there last Sunday...as they are there every year around August 6th. And they still haven't gotten the Security Chief's grandaughter to join them yet.

X-10, now the Oak Ridge National Laboritory still lies in secrecy of what it's doing. Since 9-11, Bethel Valley RD has been closed and uncleared traffic is turned away. But, you know Kiryuu? If anyone's gonna produce a fully sentient AI system, something tells me it won't come out of Silicon Valley--it's gonna come out of Oak Ridge. Currently, from what the website says, X-10 is busy building nano technology. Oh, and mirrors--for hospitals? Yeah. And the Graphite Reactor is now a tourist attraction, decomissioned.

The old guard houses are still up, and are being refurbished for tours. And some of the old barbwire fence still surrounds the city of Oak Ridge, with signs saying "NO!".

Fun facts about Oak Ridge.

Did you know that when copper was not availible, Oak Ridge had to tap the mint reserves on silver to build the two cyclotrons at Y-12? It's true. We borrowed 14,700 tons of silver from the US Treasury to create the plates used in electromagnetic seperation of the Uranium isotope.

Oak Ridge also contains more people with Ph Ds per square mile than any other city in the country. We were also the first in abolishing segregation in the classes back during the 50s. And any Oak Ridger can tell you the difference between a boiling water plant and a nuclear weapons plant...even the kiddies. I did a report on how to split the atom back in Junior High. I equated it like playing pool with atomic particals. The teacher got a kick out of it.

So, I guess, the real history is out about the construction of the A-bomb. As a joke, I thought Godzilla would find a perfect home here. See why?

[Raptor]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this, Kedz!

I can't help but wonder how many readers are saying to themselves, "I don't believe this!" *I* do. I also listened to my mother tell of her experiences during the war. How many nurses do you hear of getting shot out of the air flying air evac over enemy lines? This was before women were PILOTING the aircraft.
Unsung heroes? Amazing how many of them were female during WW II.
I especially enjoyed mention of the "rerouting" of the materials! And everyone is worried about what "the government" MIGHT DO now! Sometimes, it is a matter of what HAS TO BE DONE and that's what took place in Oak Ridge IMO. Stick that in your bong and smoke it, all you hippies out there making Kedz want to send Kiryu to join your little rally...

This is also striking about Oak Ridge:

Oak Ridge also contains more people with Ph Ds per square mile than any other city in the country. We were also the first in abolishing segregation in the classes back during the 50s. And any Oak Ridger can tell you the difference between a boiling water plant and a nuclear weapons plant...even the kiddies. I did a report on how to split the atom back in Junior High.

There are many discussions cropping up across the country about the nation's schools these days and the "education" (or lack thereof) kids are getting. Maybe our Governor (and a BUNCH of parents and school board members!) need to pay Oak Ridge a little visit...

As for us Kaijuphiles down south, along with the Great River Road, maybe we need to promote an "Atomic Tour of the South", both for interesting (and informative) day trips and to encourage tourism by Japanese radivores. OUR kaijuologists might appreciate not having to head over to Japan for their field studies!
Who's around Paducah, KY? It's also a "train place" and needs a similar write-up IMO!

[Morgoth]

Great article Kedz, absolutely great. I knew some rough history about Oak Ridge, but certainly nothing even close to the information there.

[Burkion]

Hah! TN *IS* important! And here I thought the rest of the United States forgot about us...

[ghidorahsaurus]

Great article, CII! Very interesting and informative. I travel to Oak Ridge on business now and again - usually staying at the Jameson Inn. I have managed to visit the Knoxville Zoo - but non of the nuclear plants - hopefully in the future.

One of the guys I know from Oak Ridge likes to say, "You notice very few of the roads are straight and it is sort of hard to get in and out of Oak Ridge? It was designed that way...."

[CII]

Oh, I've got a story on that.

There are two roads that are more or less straight in Oak Ridge. These two roards are the Oak Ridge Turn Pike and Illinois Ave. Why? They are the more recent roads.

If you are new to Oak Ridge, you'd notice something about our road system. Every road curves and leads to another road, and some times leads to a dead end ten miles down the road. If you don't know how to get around in Oak Ridge, you can easily get lost.

There is a legend told by Oak Ridgers of how our roads were designed. The guy in charge of designing the roads had a 4 year old daughter. The legend goes that his kid got a hold of the road plans and well....scribled on them. And that's why our roads look the way they do.

But the real reason why our roads are so curvy was this. You see, our plants are on the outskirts of the town, and our town was built inside a bowl of a valley known as Black Oak Ridge. To keep enemy spies from finding the plants, the roads had to be made confusingly into a labyranth of curves. An outsider that managed to find their way over the barbed fense and into the town, would have to navigate the streets in order to find the plants. And they would easily get lost.

One of our necessary precautions to keep nosy people out.

Another story of Oak Ridge's secrecy during the war was told by some who left Oak Ridge in order to go shopping in Knoxville.

You see, by the time Oak Ridge had been established, people around the area knew of its existence, but still, they did not know why the town was errected. Stuff was going in.....lumber, steel, silver.....all that, but none of it was going out. And that rose many questions for the citizens of Knoxville. So, some Oak Ridgers would make up stories about what Oak Ridge was making.

A man would say, "Oak Ridge, huh? Lots of comotion goin' on in that little town. Heard there was some sort of big factory there. So, what are y'all makin'?"

And an Oak Ridger would reply: "We make the holes in the doughnuts."

Or another Oak Ridger would reply: "We're making tooth paste tubes."

One scientist in Oak Ridge, to answer the question of his daughter about what he was doing in the plants. He told her Oak Ridge was making dolls. But then, when the bomb was dropped, the daughter then started to cry: "A bomb? You made a bomb? I thought you were making pretty dolls."

She did not like the idea of her daddy making a bomb.

[Raptor]

Keep 'em coming, Kedz! I don't know of another instance where a member's home town has had such an opportunity for a TRUE history to be presented, with all its quirks, fables and REAL PEOPLE stuff that make ANY place so unique it its own special way.
What you have written is also great FUN to read. How many state or local tourism/Chambers of Commerce really RELATE to regular folks rather than the statistical "tourist"/visitor/CONSUMER? You are actually INVITING everyone to come check out Oak Ridge if they have an ounce of history or curiosity left in their often fast-paced "vacation" planning methods.
I really think Roosters would get an additional kick out of visiting, not only for its atomic history but as an opportunity to experience a truly unique place that the mainstream "hospitality industry" just cannot comprehend, much less "package" as Kedz has done here!

[Angiru-San]

Thankyou so much. Being a resident of Knoxville, I relish in such historic articles. I had no idea so much took place in Oak Ridge...tem minutes form my house.

Thanks again, keep them coming!

[CII]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Keep 'em coming, Kedz! I don't know of another instance where a member's home town has had such an opportunity for a TRUE history to be presented, with all its quirks, fables and REAL PEOPLE stuff that make ANY place so unique it its own special way.
What you have written is also great FUN to read. How many state or local tourism/Chambers of Commerce really RELATE to regular folks rather than the statistical "tourist"/visitor/CONSUMER? You are actually INVITING everyone to come check out Oak Ridge if they have an ounce of history or curiosity left in their often fast-paced "vacation" planning methods.
I really think Roosters would get an additional kick out of visiting, not only for its atomic history but as an opportunity to experience a truly unique place that the mainstream "hospitality industry" just cannot comprehend, much less "package" as Kedz has done here!

Well, nothing of interest is here now, besides the plants, viewed outside guarded posts, the American Museum of Science and Energy--the only one of its kind in the world. There is no other. Not many people can say that they've placed their hands on an atom smasher, had the equivilant of the energy put out by an electric chair running through their bodies and holding onto a florescent light bulb in the other hand. Well you can at the AMSE museum.

There's another intersting story of Oak Ridge...the man that predicted its birth. His name is John Hendrix. And he was a real man. We called him the Prophet of Oak Ridge. He even predicted that the town that will be built will help the winning of the war. He even predicted where Y-12 would be built.

“Bear Creek Valley some day will be filled with great buildings and factories and they will help toward winning the greatest war that will ever be.”



“There will be a city on Black Oak Ridge and the center of authority will be on a spot middle-way between Sevier Tadlock’s farm and Joe Pyatt’s Place.”



“A railroad spur will branch off the main L&N line, run down toward Robertsville and then branch off and turn toward Scarbrough.”



“Big engines will dig big ditches and thousands of people will be running to and fro. They will be building things and there will be great noise and confusion and the earth will shake.”



“I’ve seen it. It’s coming.”


There's a memorial in his name in the suburbs of Hendrix Creek--named for John Hendrix.

There was a song telling of how farmers felt when they were suddenly hauled out of their homes and their lands to make way for Oak Ridge's construction.

"Come listen to me, people,

And hear my tale of woe,

And if you feel it tiring,

I'll shut my mouth and go.



"I had a home in Robertsville.

They call it Oak Ridge now.

T'was home for all my younguns

and their chickens and the cow.



"One day a bunch of men rode in

With papers in their hands

And great big shining badges.

They came and took our land.



"They read a lot of great big words

I couldn't understand,

But when it was all over

I didn't own the land.



"I had seen the Revenoors (sic)

Come and search and take the stills,

But I didn't think the government

Would ever seize our hills.



"Of course, we had to get right out

And start to paying rent,

But now, what can poor folks do

Against the government?



"Just sixty acres t'was all I had.

Some rich land and some poor.

But the check they sent me

Wouldn't buy a pure bred bor (sic).



"Now see I ain't complaining.

It's just my blamed bad luck,

On any deal I ever made

I'm always getting stuck.



"Of course the government was right.

They always are, you see.

T'was just the land looked worse to them

Than it ever did to me.



"I moved to Union County,

Once famous for its Stills,

And bought another cabin

and a bunch of slatey hills.



"For I couldn't keep my younguns

And their chickens and the cow

Without a little pasture

And a piece of land to plow.



"But I've done seen me a vision

And it's one I understand.

In the none too distant future

Working folks will own no land.



"There will be a bunch of planners.

Everyone will live by plan.

Plan our work, plan our religion,

Plan our schooling and our play,

Won't even have to study,

'Now what must I do today.'



"The thing to do is win the war

And when we end that strife,

Stop electing Presidents

For longer terms than life.



“Well I guess I'd better hush.

I could have said some more,

But her just let me whisper!

I'M skeered (sic) of Elinor.



This was written by Curtis Hendrix, the grandson of John Hendrix.

[Kaiser Kronos]

Originally Posted by The Blue Devil

Hah! TN *IS* important! And here I thought the rest of the United States forgot about us...

Hey, we got relatives in TN! No way we'd forget that rathole!

[Raptor]

Then there's Memphis and ELVIS (it's that time of year again...)

[CII]

Originally Posted by Kaiser Kronos

Hey, we got relatives in TN! No way we'd forget that rathole!

Rathole? You must be Memphis.

Just saw a small movie on the History Channel about the bombing of Hiroshima. Then, as I saw Little Boy being armed, I yelled for my grandmother.

"That's your baby, grandma!" I called.

And she said: "Yup, that is."

THen, after the bomb dropped, and we saw the blast and the mushroom cloud, I walked over, hugged my grandmother and then said.

"No one will ever be knocking the south again, especially Tennessee."

And she said: "Nope, they won't."

I said: "If they do, they'll have to remember August 6th and what we created here in the South."

[Kaiser Kronos]

Heh. We live in a godforsaken little town with a puffed-up mayor, a university that is one of the most pitiful in the state, that follows it's "honorable leaders" with all the ferocious independence of sheep! Louisiana sucks! Then again, we have Edwin Edwards, so that says everything you need to know about our home state.

[Burkion]

^ Haha! We created the Atomic bomb, you got Edwin! ...then why are *we* ignored? Seriously though, everytime something 'major' (I use this term rather loosely) happens, it's no where near TN. I mean hell, every other state has their own Super Hero, or atleast was visted by one. Do we have one? Not until the create Atomic Man we won't. Even then, they might just ship him over to some other city. I swear this is what happend on Nine eleven...

Some random terrorist: Hey, how bout we bomb this town called Oakridge? It makes alot of important stuff...

Osama*I don't care if I spell it wrong or not*: Where is it located?

SRT: Some place called TN...

Osama: Don't you know that TN is just some kinda of joke? There's nothing there! It's just some odd body of water that dosen't exist! We're bombing New York City, and you're going to like it!

SRT: But...

Osama: TN DOSE NOT EXSIT!

I beatcha that's what happened...

[CII]

Ah, don't give them any ideas.

Seriously though, Oak Ridge isn't on the minds of any terroists. Mostly because it's such a small town. Okay, yeah, if they bomb this place--they probably would be shot down before they even got the chance.

Our security over Y-12 is tighter than Washington DC, thanks to my grandfather of course.

Terrorists come bomb this place....it gets on the news....people would be like.....'huh?' Oak Ridge? Where's that?

But if you think on it real hard......Oak Ridge is Ground Zero for any attack.

[Cyndi]

Oh man, I can see what you meant in your PM...I'm speechless...that's just amazing!

[OniGojira]

The Lost Worlds series of the History Channel did an episode about the atom bomb and Oak Ridge was big on the list of what places did what and how it developed. From what the documentary said, alot of the old buildings are set to be demolished as they are too old now and of no more use. They interviewed some of the people who helped develop the A-bomb project and what it was like living in such security tight conditions. Originally it was to be set up then after the project was done tear it all down- nope. If it was Oak Ridge wouldn't exsist today.

I saw the documentary and it was like deja vu after reading Kedz's mention of it.

If you haven't seen that episode on the History Channel, I recommend seeing it.

[CII]

Oh, I've got an even better one.

The K-33 building, You know...this...



The city has plans to build a race track where it used to be. They said that it'll bring more tourism into Oak Ridge. Not a cylcotron 'race track', but a beep beep, vroom vroom speedy car race track. NSCAR...sheesh.

[OniGojira]

Great then everyone there will have weird tumors from radiation. I'm joking.

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by CII

The city has plans to build a race track where it used to be. They said that it'll bring more tourism into Oak Ridge. Not a cylcotron 'race track', but a beep beep, vroom vroom speedy car race track. NSCAR...sheesh.

I'd sooner see a ROAD RACE any day and you all have the perfect roads for it. Roundy round = RACING? Gimme a break...
Heck, we have a leftover RUNWAY that would be great for drag races but a bunch of retirees OUT OF EARSHOT got the Mayor behind them so it's back to the drawing board for that idea...

[CII]

Well, Oak Ridge has some of the curviest roads in East Tennessee.

But still, a race track over where part of Little Boy was built. I dunno. They could just build it in some other area around Oak Ridge. We've got plenty of land east of us.

[OniGojira]

I say keep the building as a historical museum of sorts.