You can learn about Oak Ridge history at Jackson Square on Saturday.
The free program is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, January 14. It is organized by the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
“Join a park ranger for a walk through Jackson Square,” the National Park Service said.
The program will begin in the upper parking lot of Jackson Square in front of the fountain.
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The City of Oak Ridge has been designated a World War II Heritage City, the only city in Tennessee to receive that designation.
The National Park Service has notified the city of the designation, Oak Ridge said in a press release Tuesday.
“The American World War II Heritage Cities Program honors the contributions of local towns, cities, (and) counties, and commemorates the stories of the men, women, and children whose bravery and sacrifices shaped the U.S. home front during World War II, and still impact our nation today,” the press release said. “Only one American World War II Heritage City can be designated in each state or territory. Oak Ridge played a critical role in history and has been designated Tennessee’s American World War II Heritage City through the program. ”
Oak Ridge was a key production site during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could. Among other work, Oak Ridge enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime and had the first reactor to make plutonium-239. A plutonium sample was sent to scientific facilities at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and more of that isotope, the fuel used in the second bomb, was produced at Hanford, Washington.
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You can learn about secrecy, security, and spies during the Manhattan Project in World War II in Oak Ridge on Saturday, December 17.
This National Park Service program is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. December 17 at the Oak Ridge Turnpike gatehouse on the west end of town.
“The program is accessible to all visitors and will give insight to what life was like in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project with heightened security, need for secrecy, and worry of spies,” the NPS said in a newsletter.
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Early Oak Ridge, including its school system, shopping centers, and housing, will be discussed during a hike with National Park Service rangers on Saturday, December 10.
The hike is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. December 10 at Cedar Hill Park, the former location of Cedar Hill Elementary School.
“Along the hike, we’ll discuss the early school system of Oak Ridge, early shopping centers, and housing in the Clinton Engineer Works (a name for Oak Ridge during World War II),” the NPS said.
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During a hike on Saturday, the National Park Service will discuss settlements in the area before World War II and the drastic changes to the area during the war.
The hike is scheduled on North Boundary Greenway. It will start at the East Quarry Road Trailhead at 2 p.m. Saturday, November 26.
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Luminarias with peace messages will be lit this year to remember and acknowledge the atomic bombings of Japan in August 1945, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park said.
A luminaria is a lantern with a candle inside a small paper bag.
The peace messages will be written by the public before events in August, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park said.
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U.S. Department of Energy public bus tours have resumed in Oak Ridge after a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tours began running again on July 11, and they are scheduled to continue through November.
“The program is a longtime staple in the community, helping educate residents and visitors about the site’s rich history and current missions,” DOE said in an EM Update newsletter published Tuesday. (EM stands for environmental management.)
The tour program started in 1996 and has attracted tens of thousands of visitors from all 50 states, DOE said.
The three-and-a-half-hour tours allow visitors to see all three DOE sites on the Oak Ridge Reservation, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Y-12 National Security Complex, and East Tennessee Technology Park.
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“The Holocaust is a lesson in human (and inhuman) history that took place because of hate, bigotry, indifference—all characteristics that know no bounds. These traits spread like wildfire. If we remain indifferent to human suffering, it can happen again; it can happen here, and who knows who the next victims will be? Only by remembering the bitter lesson of Hitler’s legacy can we hope it will never be repeated. Teach it, tell it, read it.”—Mira Ryczke Kimmelman, “Echoes from the Holocaust”
Mira Kimmelman challenged students to reflect upon the history of the Holocaust and contemporary examples of injustice as she gave talks about her own experiences for more than 50 years, according to Larry Leibowitz, Knoxville attorney who is chair of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission.
The Mira Kimmelman “Learning from the Holocaust” Contest, established after her death in 2019, continues her legacy, a press release said. The contest invites Tennessee high school and middle school students to submit essays and projects that reflect how the lessons of the Holocaust are relevant to current events and their own lives.
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Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee will discuss the compelling stories of five American soldiers captured and held as prisoners of war by the Germans during World War II during a lunchtime meeting next week, a press release said.
The Lunch with the League is scheduled from 12-1 p.m. Tuesday, February 15. The meeting will be virtual, meaning it will be online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lunch is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, and the public is welcome to attend the virtual meeting.
“Personal history led Justice Lee to her interest in World War II, specifically POWs, and how their experiences shaped their lives after release,” the press release said. “Justice Lee’s father was a World War II POW. Although Justice Lee describes her family as being very patriotic and her father faithfully flying an American flag, their family did not talk about her father’s wartime experiences when she was growing up. Her interest in World War II POWs was sparked by ‘Soldiers and Slaves,’ a book shared with her by then Chancellor Arnold Goldin from Memphis, which later led her to research and prepare a presentation entitled ‘American Heroes With Common Bonds.'”
[Read more…]You can hike with a park ranger and learn about history on Cedar Hill Greenway this month.
“Grab your boots and jacket to join us on a hike through the Secret City,” a press release said. “Manhattan Project National Historical Park will be hosting a hike with a ranger along the Cedar Hill Greenway in Oak
Ridge.”
The hike will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, February 26. The 2.5-mile moderate hike will begin at Cedar Hill Park, the former location of Cedar Hill Elementary School.
“Park rangers will be discussing the early school system of Oak Ridge as well as the shopping centers and housing in the Clinton Engineer Works,” the press release said.
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A celebration of the life of museum founder John Rice Irwin will be held in April at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris. The celebration of life is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 24.
Irwin was a cultural historian and founder of the Museum of Appalachia, among other notable achievements.
Irwin died Sunday, January 16, in Clinton. He was 91.
He was born on December 11, 1930, in Union County, Tennessee.
“While Irwin was still a toddler, his family was forced to move from their farm to make way for the flooding of Norris Lake and the construction of Norris Dam,” his obituary said. “They first settled in Robertsville (in Oak Ridge), but the Manhattan Project forced them to move yet again, this time to the Bethel Community.”
Irwin’s obituary said he was captivated by the rich cultural history of East Tennessee and its people for as long as he could remember.
“As a young boy, he would sit at the feet of his grandmother, Ibbie Jane Rice, and grandfather, Marcellus Moss ‘Sill’ Rice, and listen intently to their stories of the past,” the obituary said. “Sill took notice of his grandson’s fascination and said to him, ‘you ought to keep the old-timey things that belonged to our people and start you a little museum sometime.’ It was this advice that would ultimately inspire Irwin to create the Museum of Appalachia.”
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The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will ring the International Friendship Bell 76 times on Friday morning, August 6, to commemorate the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 76 years ago.
The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. It was the first atomic bomb used in war and the first of two dropped on Japan near the end of World War II. Uranium for the first bomb, which was code-named “Little Boy,” was enriched in Oak Ridge. The bomb had about 140 pounds of uranium fuel and had an explosive force equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, according to Atomic Heritage. Between 90,000 and 166,000 people are believed to have died from the 10-foot, 9,700-pound bomb in the four-month period following the explosion, Atomic Heritage said.
The National Park Service is calling the August 6 ceremony “Days of Peace and Remembrance.”
“During this silent event, we will be requesting visitors to come up and ring the bell,” a press release said. “Visitors will be able to write down their own hopes and messages of peace.”
The United States dropped a second atomic bomb, a plutonium-fueled weapon, on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima bombing. It had about 13.6 pounds of plutonium fuel and an explosive force equivalent to 21,000 tons of TNT. About 80,000 Japanese died by the end of 1945 because of that bomb, which was called “Fat Man,” Atomic Heritage said.
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