Secret history

When I was very young, my family lived in Oak Ridge. Located near Knoxville, in the foothills of East Tennessee, the rural burg was the epitome of small town America.

The area, still rolling farmland then, was also very good at hiding an international secret. That is unless you knew its history.  Oak Ridge was the national headquarters for the Manhattan Project ~ the development of the Atomic Bomb.

During the early 1940s my mother and her family lived inside the city. My grandfather was involved in the Project and was even awarded a small coin signifying his role in the development of the bomb. At that time, with the U.S. deeply embroiled in WWII, the men and women working on the Project took great pride in what they were doing. I remember my grandfather rarely talked about his work there, but he was adamant that what was developed there, while horrible in nature, was a necessity at the time.

When my mother lived there, the entire city was gated. Civilian residents inside the compound were issued dog tags and had to adhere to strict curfews. My mother was no more than 5 years old at the time. She remembers her dog tag had a capital P on it. In her young mind that meant she had ‘type P blood,’ not that it identified her as Protestant ~ in case that information was needed should she die and the appropriate funeral service could be held.

My family moved back there in the late 1960s. The gates were down, but there were still signs of what happened there so many years ago.  I remember the small white cinder block buildings at the entrance to the industrial section of town.  These former guard houses still had narrow, slit windows ~ better to aim a gun through I guess.

The streams and creeks dividing the industrial sections remained off-limits to casual recreation. Mercury continued to contaminate the water.

At that time, my dad worked at the X10 Plant. An engineer, he was involved with designing collection bags for the Apollo moon missions. We even have some of the prototypes from that project. (My brother has them that is…)

I can remember Dad had a bottle of liquid mercury ~ not sure why, just that we had it. I would sit on the kitchen floor with a small pool of the molten silver, poking it with a finger to make it bead up and then ooze back into a single puddle.

Just outside of Oak Ridge was the TVA coal-fired steam plant, built next to the Tennessee River so barges full of the coal could be easily unloaded. The coal pile, used to run the dam turbines, was huge. A full-sized backhoe was needed to move the coal to a mountain of black rocks that, at times, was easily as big as a six-story building. The plant emissions were a billowy white. I still wonder what all that coal dust did to the workers there, or even those who lived near the plant. We were probably less than five miles from the plant, and we could see the smoke plumes from the stacks on clear days.

As children, my brother and I would spend our summer evenings like many kids hunting fireflies. But, most other children didn’t keep these tiny pieces of neon, freeze them and get paid by the ounce for them. The Plant where my dad worked was studying how these insects manufactured their glowing taillights. I never did learn what the final findings in this experiment were.

Thinking back on all these events from my childhood, I remember them with fondness. The intrigue of living in a long ago, top-secret city, the mystery of a strange substance that was at once both liquid and solid, the awe-inspiring size of a black mountain of rock, and the magic of a glowing beetle. It was a, strangely idyllic childhood in a city with a past shroud in mystery and war.

*From the Vault of IMSO, edited and updated. Originally published July 28, 2008.

Photo: Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, TN

“Friendship Bell ~ This bronze bell was designed in Oak Ridge and cast in Japan in 1993 to serve as a symbol of the bond of friendship and mutual regard that have developed between Oak Ridge and Japan over the past fifty years… Friendship made so much more meaningful because of the terrible conflict of World War II which Oak Ridge played such a significant role in ending. This bell further serves as a symbol of our mutual longing and pledge to work for freedom, well-being, justice, and peace for all the people of the world in years to come.

Given to the people of Oak Ridge on the occasion of their 50th birthday by the Oak Ridge Community Foundation and Friends in the United States, Japan and other nations – 1996

Oak Ridge, Tennessee – born of war, living for peace, growing through science.” ~ from a commemorative plaque at the Bell’s pagoda.