The History Behind This Secret Tennessee City Will Fascinate You
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Meghan Kraft
Author
Tennessee has a wide variety of history, ranging from the early days of Davy Crockett to the history that Tennesseans are now making every day. But there was one period in the 20th century where one Tennessee town was laying the groundwork for some of the most impactful history the world has ever seen. The craziest part about it? At the time, the entire town was a government secret.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks is the subject of many scientific news articles nowadays, but when the town was first created, no one knew it existed except for the folks living there.
The town was the home of the federal government's Manhattan Project in the early 1940's. The plant was constructed to secretly isolate the uranium used in the creation of the first atomic bombs. Here, scientists were tending to the Graphite Reactor, used to enrich plutonium.
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The laboratory has been the site of other scientific inventions as well. In 1950, a team of scientists became the first people in the world to find proof of neutron decay.
The lab has been visited by presidents ever since its creation. While the town is now publicly accessible, and you can take bus tours of the National Lab, the entire town was originally completely secret, surrounded by walls and guard towers, and inaccessible to anyone who didn't work at the laboratory.
There have even been Nobel Prize-winning discoveries at Oak Ridge, most of which revolve around nuclear physics. Who would have guessed that Tennessee has such a scientific history?
Today, the town is home to nearly 30,000 people, many of whom work at the National Lab or for the Department of Energy, which also has extensive operations in the Oak Ridge valley.
If you want to tour the facilities, head over the the American Museum of Science and Energy website for information and registration for the tours.
If you’re looking for more unique Tennessee gems, check out this burger joint in Memphis that makes 12-pound burgers.
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Oak Ridge, TN, USA