Tennessee State Museum will have fall bus excursion to Oak Ridge

 

The Tennessee State Museum will have its fall bus excursion to Oak Ridge on Saturday, November 4. It will be a one-day guided trip to the former “Secret City,” a press release said.

“Local historian Ray Smith will join the bus in Oak Ridge and accompany the group on its stops at the American Museum of Science and Energy, the Y-12 History Center, as well as drive by other locations,” the press release said. “Don’t miss this chance to see the museum before it closes at the end of the year and moves to a new, smaller location.”

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians, the area that is now Oak Ridge was created when the U.S. government started buying up more than 50,000 acres of land for one of three major sites for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. (Besides Oak Ridge, the other two major sites were Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.)

“Even Governor Prentice Cooper didn’t initially know what was going on as he complained about 1,000 Tennessee families losing their homes,” the press release said.

“It didn’t matter about Cooper’s complaints,” the release said. “The government had chosen the area to be one of three research centers for the Manhattan Project’s work on the first atomic bomb. Hundreds of locals were hired to work on the base, and they didn’t even know what was being built. They just knew what their job was.”

The Tennessee State Museum trip on November 4 will leave the State Employee Parking lot in downtown Nashville at 7 a.m. and return around 5:30 p.m.

Participants may leave their vehicles in the lot. Cost of the trip is $90 per person with an early bird special of $75 for tickets purchased by October 19. This includes the cost of the bus, ticket costs, snacks, tips, and lunch at a local favorite, The Soup Kitchen, located off the square in Oak Ridge. Tickets can be purchased online by clicking the button below.

Want to learn more about the “Secret City?” Click here to listen to WPLN’s recent story about this Tennessee town.

The Tennessee State Museum is in Nashville. You can reach the museum at (615) 741-2692 or visit the website at http://www.tnmuseum.org.