Oak Ridge Escort Notes
Oak Ridge, located in Bear Creek Valley, between Black Oak Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau, is more than just a place and more than mere historical fact. It is in the truest sense, is a vision brought to reality. Over 40 years before it was conceived in the minds of our government officials, it was seen in a true-to-life vision by John Hendrix, who is now called "The Prophet of Oak Ridge." John Hendrix, a mystic who roamed the East Tennessee woods around the turn of the 20th century, more than 40 years before Oak Ridge existed, told the future regarding Bear Creek valley that lay between two East Tennessee ridges and Black Oak Ridge just north of that valley.
He was told by a voice, he said, to sleep on the ground for 40 nights and he would learn about the future. He did as he was told and on the 41st day he emerged from the woods and beginning at the local crossroads general store he told everyone who would listen about the amazing things he had seen in his visions while sleeping on the ground.
"Bear Creek Valley some day will be filled with great buildings and factories and they will help toward winning the greatest war that will ever be."
"There will be a city on Black Oak Ridge."
"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."
His predictions were uncannily accurate. Twenty-eight years after his death, the Y-12 uranium enrichment facility was built in Bear Creek Valley. It was constructed in 18 months with nine huge buildings and all the necessary support facilities. The uranium U-235 needed for the first atomic bomb was produced there that led to the end of World War II. The city of Oak Ridge was built on Black Oak Ridge.
Oak Ridge existed for seven years as a truly "Secret City". It was not shown on any maps, did not allow any visitors without special approval, had guards posted at the entrance to the city, and required all residents over the age of 12 to wear identification badges at all times when outside their homes. This once secret city of 75,000 residents played an integral part of the historic Manhattan Project that was responsible for the development of the atomic bomb and the end of WW II.
As part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, three plants were built to aid in the development of the A-bomb. Y-12, now part of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); X-10, the current home of the world-renown Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and K-25, once the largest industrial building project in the world. Two of these facilities (X-10 and Y-12) continue to serve the national security and scientific research needs of the country. Portions of the K-25 facility are being decontaminated and re-industrialized while others are carefully being torn down. The Department of Energy has agreed to leave the north tower of the U-shaped building intact for the future development of a museum, heritage area and visitors center.
Oak Ridge, the "Secret City" is now a thriving community with substantial impact on national and international issues. From the Spallation Neutron Source (the single largest basic science project in the world), to the creation of the world's fastest computer, to the storage of the nuclear material and equipment recently relinquished by Libya, to the storage of the nations supply of weapons grade enriched Uranium, to the remanufacturing of the nation's nuclear stockpile, to the medical isotopes being used worldwide, to the remediation of the contaminated structures, equipment and land resulting from the nuclear operations at Oak Ridge, to a growing awareness of the World War II historical legacy that is uniquely Oak Ridge, a wide range of activities keep growing and contributing to Oak Ridge's future.