Tennessee and Kentucky

November 16-25

Leaving Virginia, we drove through the mountains into Tennessee, primarily to visit the Manhattan Project National Historic Park in Oak Ridge. We arrived on Saturday and settled into our campground at the base of the hills and waited until Monday morning when we could take the tour of the site.

On Sunday we attended the UU church in Oak Ridge, where another of Lew's UU Board friends was minister, joined members for a chili cook-off lunch, and then, while Lew attended a meeting, I was treated to a driving tour of the city by one of the church members. She was particularly interested in showing me the "architecture" of the city. Oak Ridge was a "government town" that sprang up out of nothing, almost overnight, once the project was authorized in 1942 and as such, it had typical government housing - five different models of varying sizes. Whole communities were built with a mix of houses, stores, schools, etc. The old models are still recognizable despite the fact that in the late 1950s people were allowed to purchase the homes and remodel them. Some have remained relatively unchanged for 75 years! I was very appreciative of my guide's knowledge and effort.

Later that afternoon we drove up into the hills to the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, a large maximum security prison established in 1896 and operated until 2009. One notable recent inmate was James Earl Ray! Now it's the site of the Warden's Table Restaurant, ghost tours, a museum, concerts, and (since it's the last place a prisoner wanted to find himself) the End of the Lind Distillery! That, of course, was our reason for going.

 We arrived early Monday morning at the American Museum of Science and Energy to be assured a spot on the bus tour. Some observations on our tour:

1. The Manhattan Project was a HUGE research and development operation - more than 75,000 people built and operated the complex at Oak Ridge, one of 3 primary sites in the country. They started with 60,000 acres, but it grew beyond that.

2. The Oak Ridge operation consisted of three separate areas - the X-10 graphite reactor which produced small quantities of plutonium; the Y-12 complex home to the electromagnetic separation process used in Uranium enrichment; the K-25 site where gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment technology was pioneered.

3. What was accomplished in a mere couple of years IN COMPLETE SECRECY at multiple sites was incredible. There was so much the scientists had to learn about nuclear energy and they had to learn it fast! And only a few actually knew what they were really trying to accomplish.

4. We learned that building Oak Ridge involved displacing families who had lived in the area for generations, sometimes with little notice. Just as in creating Shenandoah National Park and Great Smokey National Park, the government wasn't always kind in its handling of the situation. One of the few structures left standing was the New Bethel Baptist Church, which proved useful for meetings/conferences. Now it is a museum created by descendants of people evicted.

5. We experienced an almost visceral reaction to the site and the museum. We were awed by the accomplishments and what it took in terms of man (and woman) power, brains, creativity, determination, and luck. But we were also overwhelmed by what they were actually doing - building a bomb, ushering the world into the atomic age and all its potential for destruction (as even some of the leading scientists would come to conclude).

6. Having learned the history, we were impressed by the continuing research that takes place at Oak Ridge - nuclear research in such fields as medicine, alternative energy sources, national security, the storage and reuse of spent nuclear fuels, nanotechnology and environmental restoration. One large section of the original site is being restored and will someday be usable property for another business.

 Friendship Bell Plaza

7. Our final stop in Oak Ridge was at the Friendship Bell; a memorial built for contemplation, interpretation, and interaction, its creators wanted a symbol to remind people that Oak Ridge is more than just a place where Uranium was enriched to build the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.  "Born of War, Living for Peace, Growing through Science." That is the legacy of the Manhattan Project.

We left Tennessee behind and drove some winding back roads through the hills into Kentucky and on to our next stop at Mammoth Cave National Park. There were only a few of us braving the cold in the campground during the last week it was open. We reserved a couple of cave tours for the next two days, wandered a bit through the visitor's center, and took an afternoon hike. Mammoth Cave was not at all what we had expected. Having visited Carlsbad Caverns in the past and Luray Caverns in Virginia recently, we thought it would be more of the same.

Luray Caverns, VA. Reflections

But Mammoth Caves are just that - mammoth. Few stalactites and stalagmites, but hundreds of miles of stark caves carved out by flowing water over the past several million years. This part of Kentucky is interesting geologically because the underlying limestone layer (which is where the caves form due to erosion) is capped by a 50 ft layer of sandstone which keeps the water from seeping into the softer limestone below and forming the typical stalactite formations we are used to seeing in caves. But these are the longest caves in the world and they've been used by humans for thousands of years; the two tours we took into two very distinct parts of the cave system were very interesting - and full of lots of stairs!

Mammoth Caves, Frozen Niagara

Mammoth Cave Entrance

Mammoth Cave

From Mammoth Cave National Park we headed north to Louisville and the Bourbon trail where we visited  three distilleries and two wineries and thoroughly enjoyed our time!

Willett Distillery on the Bourbon Trail

Makers' Mark Distillery

Note the historic still at the Willett Distillery rather different from the shiny polished brass still at Makers' Mark Distillery.  Both of the distilleries started with stills like the one in the Willett picture and both have moved on to much more modern equipment, but Willett has chosen to preserve the history.

Then we moved on the Lake St. Louis, MO to join friends for Thanksgiving.