Mrs. Richardson, a Tennessee Eastman Company employee, is seen here accepting an Air Medal and Oak Leaf Cluster posthumously awarded to her husband SGT Jasper J. Richardson. This photo was taken two months before the end of the war.
The first of the three primary Manhattan Project sites selected by project leader General Leslie Groves, Oak Ridge, Tennessee was also the largest by population. Originally designed for 13,000 workers, by 1945 the population of America’s Secret City had increased to over 75,000 workers and their families. The top-secret community existed for one purpose- to construct and operate massive uranium-enrichment facilities for use in the Little Boy atomic bomb being developed at Los Alamos. Learn more about life in the secret city below, from the revolutionary science to the invaluable contributions of women and the segregated African American community, to the fate of those who called this mountainous region home for decades prior to the advent of the Manhattan Project.
The creation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, called Kingston Demolition Range and Clinton Engineer Works during the Manhattan Project, centered around one main goal- the development of enriched uranium for atomic weapons. The three facilities that achieved this goal, the Y-12 Electromagnetic Isotope Separation Plant, the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and the S-50 Liquid Thermal Diffusion Plant, did so in markedly different ways.
In September, 1942 United States Army General Leslie R. Groves was assigned to manage the Manhattan Project. He acquired funding, mobilized a diverse workforce including attracting top scientists, and selected the ideal locations for the project to ensure secrecy and success in this new, top-secret undertaking. Ultimately, Groves approved three locations for this new clandestine project: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
More than 200,000 people died by the end of 1945 as a direct result of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. After World War II ended, Japan and the United States worked faithfully to move toward peace. In the decades since the end of World War II, the two countries have evolved from bitter enemies to close allies. In addition, the three primary Manhattan Project communities have reflected on the bombings in poignant ways.
The Calutron Girls operated the arrays, or racetracks, at the Y-12 Electromagnetic Isotope Separation Plant in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. These young women, many of whom were just out of high school, did not know that their work involved separating uranium for use in an atomic bomb.
With the pressing demands of feeding the nation’s fighting forces and the nationwide rationing of canned foods there was a desire and need for people to grow locally. Victory Gardens could be found all over the country during WWII, from the backyards in Oak Ridge to the rooftops in New York City.
National Park Service, Manhattan Project National Historical Park
c/o NPS Intermountain Regional Office
One Denver Federal Center, Building 50
Denver,
CO
80225-0287
Phone:
Hanford: 509.376.1647
Los Alamos: 505.661.6277
Oak Ridge: 865.482.1942
