State: Tennessee
Link: https://www.nps.gov/mapr/oak-ridge.htm
Days: 1
Month: March
Hotel: N/A
Hikes: N/A
Ice Cream: The Creamery
Day 1
On our way to the Manhattan Project – Oak Ridge, we stopped at Buc-ee’s. This was our first ever trip to the convenience store chain and we weren’t disappointed. This place was huge and had a ton (120ish) of gas pumps. The rapid but fresh food was also interesting to see and tasted pretty good.
We continued our journey for a little over 2 hours until we reached Oak Ridge, TN, also known as the Secret City, home of one of the Manhattan Project sites.
In 1942 around 1,000 families were forced out of the area so the Manhattan Project could take over the land. The site encompasses 59,000 acres and included train tracks, nearby labor, farmland, water, and power. In 1942 Army Engineers built this secret city for 13,000 people. By 1943, their target was to build for 42,000. By 1945 the actual number of people reached 75,000.
This city was not published on any maps. People living here knew they were contributing to the war (WWII) efforts but very few knew they were working toward building an atomic bomb. As for the school system, it went from 830 students in October 1943 to 8,223 in October 1945. Once the war ended, enrollment quickly dropped to 7,000.
There are many things you can visit in Oak Ridge but remember, this is a city people actually live in. Some places are still off limits for people to go to unless they have the proper credentials.
Once we arrived to Oak Ridge, the first place we went to was the visitor center, which is inside the Children’s Museum. Of course, we stamped our passport book. There’s a cool 3 part stamp that completes a circle once you get the stamps from each of the 3 locations for Manhattan Protect.
Next, we headed to the International Friendship Bell. The Bell is a symbol of the peace and reconciliation between the US and Japan. It was designed in Oak Ridge and produced by Japan.
For the final adventure at the Manhattan Project, we took a short stroll from the Bell over to the Secret City Commemorative Walk. There was a short walk that had plaques you could read going over the history and achievements of the project. There were also a few walls containing names of people who were part of the project.
Once we were done here, we headed for the Great Smoky Mountains NP area to continue our adventure. On our way we stopped at The Creamery. The ice cream was very good, everyone in our group loved their ice cream.
