DAY 5

Day 5-Sunday, April 25

 

We slept in this morning, 7:30 AM, and had breakfast at our campsite.  It rained all night, so in anticipation of a cloudy morning, we passed on the ranger’s advice and  did not attempt to catch sunrise from Clingman’s Dome, which is the highest point in the park, and at 6634 ft., one of the highest peaks east of Colorado.  

 Since it is Sunday, the day of rest, we planned only a short drive today, a 150 mile roundtrip to Oak Ridge, one of the two key cities in the Manhattan project, along with Los Alamos, New Mexico.  

On the way to Oak Ridge we drove through Dolly Parton's home town, continued on and then stopped for lunch at a family restaurant, Corner 16, that specialized in heart attacks, aka, tater tots!

Oak Ridge was a small town of three thousand residents in 1943, but in six months grew to 75,000 scientists and support staff in order to develop the uranium for the atom bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima.  Although Oak Ridge is still a thriving scientific community it does not have the same feel as Los Alamos. 

 

There are a number of historic sites that have been preserved, but due to the pandemic restrictions, almost all were closed, so most of our site seeing was in the drive by mode.  

 

The main museum for the Manhattan Project Historical Park is located in an elementary school that was built for project’s children.  The only exhibits we could see were three different interviews with some of the workers, all of whom had no idea what they were working on other than being told it was important for the war effort .

 

We were able to walk through the Peace Park which was a joint creation by both the U.S. and the Japanese governments.  In the center of the park was a huge Japanese bell which commemorated the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the armistice that was signed in September of 1945.  

We took a much more scenic route back to the National Park, avoiding Gatlinburg, and Sevierville, where Dollywood is located, and arrived at our campsite around 3:30 PM.  

 

The Little River

Dinner was simple, cut ziti with Joni’s homemade meatballs.