Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Authority’s hydroelectric plants nearby, was chosen as a production site. In just three short years Oak Ridge (the “City Behind a Fence”) became the fifth largest city in Tennessee
The
secret “Manhattan
Project” resulted in the world’s first use of atomic energy as
a weapon at Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The Graphite Reactor, a National
Historic Landmark, is located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The reactor
was
used
as a pilot plant and for producing the first measurable quantities of the
manmade element plutonium. Visitors can see the control room and radioisotopes
and experiment rooms.
The laboratory also features interactive videos and an
exhibit area.
in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park exhibiting reconstructions of the pioneer way of life. John Oliver, the first permanent settler to the area, arrived in 1818. Rugged mountains surrounded the little settlement, and the people and the area became selfsufficient, isolated from the
development taking place in the outside world. The twentieth century brought automobile roads that provided easier access to Cades Cove. Now the
town
is part of the 500,000-acre national reserve set aside in the 1930s,
providing campgrounds, horseback riding, fishing, and
800 miles of
hiking trails, including the Appalachian Trail. Cades Cove is an
exception to the “naturalness” of
the park itself;
it is an outdoor museum of southern Appalachian life featuring
reconstructed log cabins, churches, and mills. Permanent exhibits, a self-guided
driving tour, and demonstrations
of pioneer crafts are offered. Residents, many
the descendents of early settlers, have special permits to keep over two thousand
acres in farmland.
one containing many of his personal belongings. He is buried in the National Cemetery at the site. Johnson (1808–1875), tailor, alderman, military governor of Tennessee, Congressman, and
United States senator, was vice president under Lincoln. Upon Lincoln’s death he became the
17th presidentof the United States, the only one
never to have had formal education and the only one to have been returned to Congress after serving as president. During his presidency he was impeached by the radical Congress for his lenient reconstruction policies and escaped conviction by only one vote.
inn, a hotel, and an apartment building. Many famous people have stayed at the inn, including United States Presidents Andrew Jackson, James
K.
Polk, and Andrew Johnson, and John Sevier, governor
of the state of Franklin and Tennessee’s first governor. President
Jackson held a reception for his friends on the porch of the inn during
the summer of 1832, the
year he was elected president for a
second term. In recent years the inn
has undergone an extensive rehabilitation and
houses the National Storytelling
Association. The association boasts a library of over
200 hours of audio
and video recordings of storytelling material and every October
hosts the
annual Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, the first town to be chartered
in Tennessee.
Capitol of the Territory South of the River Ohio (the area that is now Tennessee) from 1790-
1792. It was here that the pioneer Tennesseans known as “over-mountain men” stopped in route to Sycamore Shoals to rendezvous for the Battle of Kings Mountain, “turning point of the Revolutionary War.” Selected in 1790 as his headquarters by Territorial Governor William Blount, this house was the capitol of the first
recognized government west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is the oldest original territorial capitol still standing in the United States. Costumed interpreters give tours of the original main house and other outbuildings. The building also houses the Museum of Overmountain History.
