Oak Ridge, Tennessee

In 1942, the U.S. government forcibly purchased nearly 60,000 acres (240 km²) of farmland in the Clinch River valley for the development of a planned city supporting 75,000 residents. It was constructed with assistance from architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, from 1942 to 1943. Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project—the massive American, British, and Canadian operation that developed the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, and several private nuclear and scientific facilities are still in Oak Ridge, and scientific and technological development plays a crucial role in its economy and culture. In 2016, the element tennessine was named for Tennessee, in recognition of the role Oak Ridge and other institutions in the state played in its discovery.

History

The earliest substantial occupation of the Oak Ridge area occurred during the Woodland period (c. 1000 BC – 1000), although artifacts dating to the Paleo-Indian period have been found throughout the Clinch River valley. Two Woodland mound sites—the Crawford Farm Mounds and the Freels Farm Mounds—were uncovered in the 1930s as part of the Norris Basin salvage excavations. Both sites were just southeast of the former Scarboro community. The Bull Bluff site, which was occupied during the Woodland and Mississippian (c. 1000–1600) periods, was uncovered in the 1960s in anticipation of the construction of Melton Hill Dam. Bull Bluff is a cliff immediately southeast of Haw Ridge, opposite Melton Hill Park.

The Oak Ridge area was largely uninhabited when Euro-American explorers and settlers arrived in the late 18th century, although the Cherokee claimed the land as part of their hunting grounds. The European-American settlers who founded these communities arrived in the late 1790s after the American Revolutionary War and after the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Holston, ceding what is now Anderson County to the United States.

During the early 19th century, several rural farming communities developed in the Oak Ridge area, namely Edgemoor and Elza in the northeast, East Fork and Wheat in the southwest, Robertsville in the west, and Bethel and Scarboro in the southeast.

A popular legend holds that John Hendrix (1865–1915), a largely unknown local man, predicted the creation of the city of Oak Ridge around 40 years before construction on the project began. Hendrix lacked any formal education and was a simple logger for much of his life. Following the death of his youngest daughter, Ethel, to diphtheria, and the subsequent departure of his wife and three remaining children, Hendrix began hearing voices in his head. These voices urged him to stay in the woods and pray for guidance for 40 days and 40 nights, which Hendrix proceeded to do. As the story is told, following these 40 days spent in rugged isolation, Hendrix began seeing visions of the future, and he sought to spread his prophetic message to any who would listen. According to published accounts, one vision that he described repeatedly was a description of the city and production facilities built 28 years after his death, during World War II.

The version recalled by neighbors and relatives reported:

In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looked up into the sky, there came to me a voice as loud and as sharp as thunder. The voice told me to sleep with my head on the ground for 40 nights and I would be shown visions of what the future holds for this land.... And I tell you, Bear Creek Valley someday will be filled with great buildings and factories, and they will help toward winning the greatest war that ever will be. And there will be a city on Black Oak Ridge and the center of authority will be on a spot middle-way between Sevier Tadlock's farm and Joe Pyatt's Place. A railroad spur will branch off the main L&N line, run down toward Robertsville and then branch off and turn toward Scarborough. Big engines will dig big ditches, and thousands of people will be running to and fro. They will be building things, and there will be great noise and confusion and the earth will shake. I've seen it. It's coming.

Hendrix, in light of his tales of prophetic visions, was considered insane by most and at one point was institutionalized. His grave lies in an area of Oak Ridge now known as the Hendrix Creek Subdivision. There are ongoing concerns over the preservation of his gravestone, as the man who owns the lot adjacent to the grave wishes to build a home there, while members of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association are fighting to have a monument placed on the site of his grave.

Manhattan Project

In 1942, the federal government chose the area as a site for developing materials for the Manhattan Project. Major General Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, liked the area for several reasons. Its relatively low population made acquisition affordable, yet the area was accessible by highway and rail, and utilities such as water and electricity were readily available with the recent completion of Norris Dam. The project location was established within a 17-mile-long (27 km) valley. This feature was linear and partitioned by several ridges, providing natural protection against the spread of disasters at the four major industrial plants—so the plants would not blow up "like firecrackers on a string".

In October 1942, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring approximately 59,000 acres (24,000 ha) in the Oak Ridge area for the Manhattan Project. Due to the project's urgency and secrecy, the Corps' "declaration of taking" was swift and final. Many residents came home to find eviction notices on their doors. Others found out when their children came home from school with a message from the principal: Senator McKellar wants me to tell you to go home and tell your parents you are going to have to find another place to live." There was no further explanation. All the students were told was, "The government is going to take your property for the war effort." Several families who had moved to the Oak Ridge area after displacement by the Tennessee Valley Authority were displaced again by the Manhattan Project campaign. The average price per acre paid was $46.86.

By March 1943 the Corps had removed the area's earlier communities and established fences and checkpoints. Anderson County lost one-seventh of its land and $391,000 in annual property tax revenue. The manner in which the government acquired Oak Ridge created a tense, uneasy relationship between the Oak Ridge complex and the surrounding towns. Although the area's original residents were allowed to be buried in existing cemeteries, every coffin was reportedly opened for inspection. The Corps' Manhattan Engineer District (MED) managed the acquisition and clearing for what was to be first known as the Clinton Engineer Works. The Y-12, K-25, and S-50 plants were each built in Oak Ridge to separate the fissile isotope uranium-235 from natural uranium, which consists almost entirely of the isotope uranium-238. The X-10 site, now the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was established as a pilot plant for production of plutonium using the Graphite Reactor, used to develop full-scale plutonium production at the Hanford Site.

During construction of the electromagnets required for the uranium separation process at the Y-12 site, a shortage of copper forced the MED to borrow 14,700 tons of silver bullion from the United States Treasury as a copper substitute in wire for the electromagnet coils.

When Tennessee Governor Prentice Cooper was officially handed the July 1943 presidential proclamation by a junior officer (a lieutenant)—making Oak Ridge a military district not subject to state control—he tore it up and refused to see the Manhattan Project engineer, Lieutenant Colonel James C. Marshall. The new district engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols, had to placate him. Cooper came to see the project (except for the production facilities under construction) on November 3, 1943, and he appreciated the bourbon-laced punch served (although Anderson County was "dry").

House and dormitory accommodations to support construction workers contracted to build the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) in Oak Ridge were basic, consisting of trailers, barracks, and many "hutments"—pre-fabricated five-person huts heated by a central coal-powered furnace. Construction camps were segregated between black workers and white workers. Two of the largest were Gamble Valley, with up to 4,000 trailer spaces, and Happy Valley, whose population grew from about 5,000 to about 15,000. In addition to trailers and hutments, the camp towns included various recreational buildings (e.g., theaters and bowling alleys), cafeterias, and commissaries. Medical care was provided by Army doctors and hospitals, with civilians paying $2.50 per month ($5 for families) to the medical insurance fund.

Planned community

The location and low population helped keep the town a secret, though the settlement grew from 3,000 to 3,750 in 1942 to about 75,000 by 1945. Because of the large number of workers recruited to the area for the Manhattan Project, the Army planned a town for project workers at the eastern end of the valley. The time required for the project's completion caused the Army to opt for a relatively permanent establishment rather than an enormous camp. The name "Oak Ridge" was chosen for the settlement in 1943 from suggestions submitted by project employees. The name evoked the settlement's location along Black Oak Ridge, and officials thought the rural-sounding name "held outside curiosity to a minimum". The name was formally adopted in 1949.

The architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was contracted to provide the layout for the town and house designs. John O. Merrill moved to Tennessee to take charge of designing Oak Ridge's secret buildings. He directed the creation of a town, which soon had 300 miles (480 km) of roads, 55 miles (89 km) of railroad track, ten schools, seven theaters, 17 restaurants and cafeterias, and 13 supermarkets. A library with 9,400 books, a symphony orchestra, sporting facilities, church services for 17 denominations, and a Fuller Brush Company salesman served the new city and its 75,000 residents. No airport was built, for security reasons. Prefabricated modular homes, apartments, and dormitories, many made from cemesto (bonded cement and asbestos) panels, were quickly erected. Streets were laid out in the manner of a "planned community".

The original streets included several main east-to-west roads, namely the Oak Ridge Turnpike, Tennessee Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Hillside Road, Robertsville Road, and Outer Drive. North-to-south oriented streets connecting these main roads were designated "avenues", and streets branching off from the avenues were designated "roads", "places", "lanes", or "circles". "Roads" connected two streets, while "lanes" and "places" were dead ends. The names of the main avenues generally progressed alphabetically from east to west (e.g., Alabama Avenue in the east, Vermont Avenue in the west), and the names of the smaller streets began with the same letter as the main avenue from which they started (e.g., streets connected to Florida Avenue began with "F").

The dramatic population increase and the secret nature of the project meant chronic shortages of housing and supplies during the war years. The town was administered by Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary named the Roane-Anderson Company. But most residents knew their "landlord" as "MSI" (Management Services, Inc.). All workers wore badges. The town was surrounded by guard towers and a fence with seven gates.

Segregation and desegregation

Oak Ridge was developed by the federal government as a segregated community at the insistence of the Southern bloc of Democrats in Congress, which authorized its funding. Because Black workers generally held lower-ranked jobs, their assigned dwellings were predominantly government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) very close to the Y-12 plant, in the one residential area designated as colored. Nichols, the MED District Engineer, was told by the main construction contractor for the K-25 plant that the black construction labor force had a large turnover rate, so Nichols gave permission to set up a separate black women's camp. When Groves visited the plant with K. T. Keller of Chrysler, Keller saw twelve Black women sweeping the 30-foot wide alley between the production units, and said, "Nichols, don't you know there is a machine made to sweep a concrete floor like this?" Nichols replied, "Sure I do, but these gals can do more than one of those machines". The men had an opportunity to "fracas" on Saturday night, and labor turnover had reduced.

During the war, plans were made for a colored neighborhood of houses equal in quality to those for whites, but it was not implemented because of limited resources. After the war, all hutments were dismantled, and a colored neighborhood of permanent houses was developed in the Gamble Valley area, which during wartime had been occupied by a white trailer community.

Oak Ridge elementary education before 1954 was segregated; it was legally part of the Anderson County system but built and operated primarily with federal funds. Black children could attend only the Scarboro Elementary School. Oak Ridge High School was closed to black students, who had to be bused to Knoxville for education. Starting in 1950, Scarboro High School was established at Scarboro Elementary School to offer classes for African-American students. In 1955, 85 young Black students from the Scarboro community were the first to enter all-white classes in Oak Ridge High School and Robertsville Junior High School (now Robertsville Middle School). In 2023, on the 68th anniversary, a Scarboro 85 Monument was erected in Oak Ridge.

Robertsville Junior High School, serving Oak Ridge's western half, was desegregated at the same time as the high school. Elementary schools in other parts of the city and Jefferson Junior High School, serving the city's eastern half, were desegregated slowly as African-American families moved into housing outside Gamble Valley. In 1967 Scarboro Elementary School was closed, and African-American students from Gamble Valley were bused to other schools around the city.

The nearby high school in Clinton was desegregated in 1956. On October 5, 1958, the school was severely damaged after a series of dynamite explosions. An estimated 75 to 100 sticks of dynamite had been placed in three locations in the building. No one was injured, but the school closed while it was rebuilt. Oak Ridge provided space at a recently vacated elementary school building (the original Linden Elementary School) for the education of high school students from Clinton for two years while Clinton High School was rebuilt.

After the Brown decision, public accommodations in Oak Ridge were integrated over several years. In 1955, the spring-fed Oak Ridge Municipal Outdoor Swimming Pool, which had been completed in 1945, became integrated. In the early 1960s, Oak Ridge briefly experienced protest picketing against racial segregation in public accommodations, notably outside a local cafeteria and a laundromat.

Since World War II

Two years after World War II ended, Oak Ridge was shifted to civilian control, under the authority of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The Roane Anderson Company administered community functions, including arranging housing and operating buses, under a government contract. In 1959 the town was incorporated. The community adopted a city manager and City Council form of government rather than direct federal control.

The S-50 liquid thermal diffusion plant was demolished soon after the war. The K-25 building, where uranium was enriched by the gaseous diffusion process until 1985 as the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP), was demolished in 2013–15 under Superfund as well as the other nearby production and support facilities in the years after. Much of the land associated with the former ORGDP has been transferred or leased for private and federal industrial reuse or dedicated as a National Historic Park.

Two of the four major plants created for the wartime bomb production remain in use today:

• Y-12, originally used for electromagnetic separation of uranium, is now used for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage and known as the Y-12 National Security Complex. Y-12 is managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
• X-10, site of a graphite test reactor, is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The Department of Energy (DOE) runs ORNL, a nuclear and high-tech research establishment.

In 1983, the DOE declassified a report showing that significant amounts of mercury had been released from the Oak Ridge Reservation into the East Fork Poplar Creek between 1950 and 1977. Circa 1989, a federal court ordered the DOE to bring the Oak Ridge Reservation into compliance with federal and state environmental regulations, such as RCRA. In addition, the Oak Ridge Reservation was put on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List as a Superfund site.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest multipurpose lab in the DOE's National Laboratory system. It is home to the Spallation Neutron Source, a $1.4 billion project completed in 2006, and "Titan", one of the world's most powerful scientific supercomputers, which has peak performance of more than one quadrillion operations per second. In 2018, IBM and ORNL unveiled Summit, the "world's fastest supercomputer", claimed to be more than twice as powerful as the previous world leader, with a peak performance of 200,000 trillion calculations per second.

The Y-12 National Security Complex is a component of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The DOE's Environmental Management office is conducting an extensive program of decontamination and decommissioning, environmental cleanup, and waste management to remove or stabilize the hazardous residue remaining from decades of government production and research activities.

Oak Ridge's scientific heritage is curated in the American Museum of Science and Energy. Its role in the Manhattan Project is preserved in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (along with sites in Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico), run cooperatively by the National Park Service and the Department of Energy. A bus tour and several virtual tours are available for the public.