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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A new supervisor has been named for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.
The selection of Wendy Berhman as the new superintendent was announced by National Park Service Acting Regional Director Kate Hammond.
Berhman succeeds Kris Kirby, who served in the position for six years before accepting a position as associate state director for the Bureau of Land Management Wyoming State Office, the NPS said.
Besides Oak Ridge, the three-site national park includes Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The three sites were part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. The park was established in 2015, and it is administered through a collaborative partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.
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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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The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will host a Tennis Court Dance in Oak Ridge on Thursday, July 21.
The dance is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Jackson Square tennis courts.
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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.
[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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Note: This story was updated at 9 a.m. Feb. 4.
Two federal agencies have agreed to build a K-25 Viewing Platform at the historic site in west Oak Ridge that was used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants during World War II and the Cold War. The design is expected to be complete in March and the building completed by the end of 2023.
The construction agreement for the viewing building at the former K-25 site was signed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The viewing platform will give visitors a view of the large 44-acre footprint of the former K-25 Building. K-25, which was the world’s largest building, was erected during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project to help enrich uranium for the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. The K-25 Building was demolished in 2013, and many other structures at the site have been removed as the federal government turns over property for private development.
The K-25 Building site itself is now part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. That project commemorates the workers, equipment, and processes used during the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The K-25 Viewing Platform and associated exhibits are the final components of a multi-project agreement that the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management signed in 2012, clearing the way for demolition of the North Tower of the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building. The projects commemorate the history of the K-25 site, which has also been known as the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
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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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