A ribbon-cutting has been scheduled at the renovated K-25 Visitors Center and Overlook in west Oak Ridge on Thursday, April 25.
The ceremony has been scheduled from 4-6 p.m. April 25. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
“This project has been a labor of love between Bionomics and Roane County Visitors Bureau/The Roane Alliance, and we are excited for you to see all the changes that have already taken place,” a press release said. [Read more…]
The Visitor’s Overlook, part of the Happy Valley property purchased in November 2016, is pictured above across from East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
K-25 Overlook will be ‘bigger and better,’Â provide Manhattan Project and recreational information
The K-25 Overlook next to State Route 58 in west Oak Ridge will soon be re-opening as a much larger and nicer visitor center that will also have a new purpose, a press release said.
Owner John McCormick, vice president of Bionomics, purchased the 160-acre property known as Happy Valley through an auction at the end of 2016. The overlook on SR 58 across from the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, was part of the purchase.
But the overlook needed building repairs and updates to the historical information inside, the press release said. In 2017, McCormick partnered with Pam May, vice president of the Roane Alliance, who reached out to local historians, the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Energy, and Explore Oak Ridge to discuss the future of the overlook.
“The idea to expand the overlook into a visitor center and recreational hub came from the National Park Service in one of the early meetings,†May said. “That aligned perfectly with what John had envisioned—to create trails and open spaces that people could enjoy while also learning Happy Valley’s history through its landmarks still evident on the property.†[Read more…]
An early aerial photo of Happy Valley, a construction camp that was like a small city and used to help build the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. This picture was taken May, 22, 1944, by Ed Westcott, the official government photographer in Oak Ridge during World War II. (Photo courtesy Ed Westcott/Emily Hunnicutt)
It was once home to a large construction camp that was like a small city and housed workers building K-25 during World War II.
Now the 160-acre parcel known as Happy Valley has been sold.
Happy Valley was in west Oak Ridge, across State Route 58 from the K-25 site. One of three major sites in Oak Ridge, K-25 was built to enrich uranium for atomic weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II.
Today, Happy Valley appears to be mostly a rolling tree-covered landscape between Oak Ridge and Kingston along SR 58. To the public, there is little or no obvious evidence of what was once there—homes, a grocery store, schools, a post office, recreation halls, a gas station, and a bowling alley.
But those who have walked the property have seen evidence of the small city that was once there. [Read more…]
