Learn about Wheat, a community before the war, during Saturday walk

Posted at 6:57 pm June 3, 2021
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Wheat Community Before the Manhattan Project — *The Wheat community before the Manhattan Project during World War II in the area that is now west Oak Ridge. (Photo submitted by National Park Service)*

You can learn about Wheat, a community before World War II, during a walk in west Oak Ridge on Saturday.

The walk will be led by a National Park Service ranger starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 5. The program will begin at Blair Road and the North Boundary Greenway.

Wheat was a community that existed in what is now west Oak Ridge before the city was built as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. That was a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could.

Oak Ridge is one of three sites that are part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The other two are Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

There is no charge for the Saturday walk in Oak Ridge. It will be about 1.5 miles, so you should wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water to drink, the National Park Service said.

Stops will include â€œdowntownâ€ Wheat, George Jones Memorial Baptist Church, Roane College site, and the Crawford Cumberland Presbyterian Memorial. There will be stories about the development and significance of each site, the Park Service said.

The Wheat site is on a wide trail, making it acceptable for social distancing, the NPS said.

Wheat is located on Blair Road 0.3 miles off the Oak Ridge Turnpike, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830. For directions, information is available at the National Park desk in the Childrenâ€™s Museum of Oak Ridge or call (865) 482-1942.

For more information, call the Manhattan Project National Historical Park at (865) 482-1942. Visitors are encouraged to visit the website for more information about the park at https://www.nps.gov/mapr/oak –ridge.htm.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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