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MAC'S MEMORIES OF PRE-OAK RIDGE, TN

Rev. C. L. Bruington was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister who moved his family to Oliver Springs in 1924, including his son McAdoo Bruington. They moved away in 1929 when "Mac" was 14 years old, but he has retained many fond memories of that period and has written about his recollections in his book "The Rest of The Story." He has kindly agreed to share with us, and the following excerpts from this book gives us some sense of what it was like to be a young person in Oliver Springs during the late 1920's. (The book may be ordered directly from Mr. Bruington ($9.95) at 1711 Bellevue Ave, Apt P-14, Richmond, VA 23227.)

Mac was  guest speaker at the Oliver Springs Historical Society's banquet in May 1998

Since World War II, and the Atomic Bomb, almost everyone recognizes the name of Oak Ridge and thinks of it as being the fifth largest city in the state of Tennessee. However, most people think of it as being the home of the Atomic Bomb. The present generation thinks of Oak Ridge as having existed for a long time. Well, not quite as long as Plymouth Rock or St Augustine!

The truth is that "Black Oak Ridge" has been there since time began, but it was not a town or city. There are a number of mountain ridges that run virtually parallel to each other on a diagonal up across East Tennessee and as a result, there are valleys in between them.

Parallel to Black Oak Ridge you will find Pine Ridge, Copper Ridge and others. With the advent of World War II, and the need to develop a more powerful type of weapon for defense, a location had to be selected for such a development.

Now it was completely secret to the public but there was a plan to design a new type weapon, that was not only new, but was completely different. Since the design and construction of an Atom Bomb had never been done before, the scientists really had no idea what all might happen during their experimentation. They really had no idea of just what might trigger a premature explosion. Some earlier speculation was that in "splitting an atom" a chain reaction might be started that would destroy the universe.

Not knowing what reactions to expect during their experiments, it was decided that some remote desolate location should be found. A further requirement was that each building, laboratory or plant should be "physically" isolated from the other so that if one accidentally blew up it would not destroy more than one facility. Well the ridges and valleys of East Tennessee seemed to fit that requirement. There certainly was a degree of isolation and this particular area was sparsely populated, comparatively speaking.

I remember those ridges and valleys quite well as I lived there BEFORE they had rural electrification, TVA Dams and paved roads. That made it all even more remote and isolated! Taking a look in retrospect: In 1933 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed the bill approving the construction of the huge dam in Clinch River, near cove Creek (now known as Lake City), the lifestyles of these East Tennessee residents was changed forever.

Amid much controversy and cries, such as socialism and Communism, work began on this huge dam,, and the eyes of the world were on this previously unknown corner of Tennessee.

Despite the promise of prosperity, opposition to the project ran rampant. It would displace people whose families had lived on that same farm for generations and would cover hundreds of acres of the fertile river bottom farm land.

Little did these people realize that just a few miles south of them, and some ten years later, an even larger displacement of people would take place when the government would move in and take over to design an "atomic bomb" and build what would become an "instant" city, OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE!

During one of the trips that President and Mrs. Roosevelt made to see the dam, my good friend, Mrs. Pauline Smith Lovelace, was there and saw Mrs. Roosevelt ride the concrete bucket across the dam!

That was the day while the President was speaking to the assembled throngs of people that he changed the name of the dam from Cove Creek Dam to Norris Dam, honoring Senator Norris, who had been instrumental in obtaining appropriations for the project.

In considering the hills and valleys as a possible site location was the fact that by 1942 there had been a number of TVA dams constructed for water control and hydroelectric power generation.

Having this much electrical power so near made the site even more attractive. It was soon learned that the TVA dams did not provide nearly as much electrical power as was needed. They constructed a big coal burning steam generating plant to be able to have the needed electrical power.

This is one large steam plant, and is visible from the present day Interstate 40 Highway, just to the south of Oak Ridge proper. It has been said that when it is running at full capacity that it burns a "train load" of coal each day!

To develop and build the city that is now known as OAK RIDGE, the government had to acquire the necessary land. To do this they bought, or condemned and took, some 159,000 acres of land. Everyone had to move out and away, whether they wanted to or not! This created a lot of displaced people. There was no town in this area, but the community of Wheat was as much of a town as there was there. They had two stores, a Post Office, two churches and a school.

Lots of the people in the surrounding areas were hired to work there, and a lot of scientists and electrical engineers were brought in from all over the United States.

I well remember hearing Billy Cobb, W4XUW, tell about being one of the first hired from another area. They took him in a four wheel drive Jeep and drove through the mud up to a site on the side of Black Oak Ridge and told him that his house was to be built right there, and it was!!

It was not too long until most all of the existing buildings were torn town--don't remember but one building in that area that was made out of brick. It just happened to be the Wheat School building. The school situation in Wheat was as unique as their churches. Long before the era of consolidated schools, Wheat had been an educational center. Roane College was established in the 1800's and had a long list of famous Americans and Tennesseans on its rolls. Among them was Hon. Sam Rayburn, Mr. Wyatt (Bing Crosby's in law), George Jones, D. J. Brittain etc.

Time passes and changes were made as Roane College gave way to the Wheat High School, also known as Roane County High School, where I attended in 1928. The institution was also known as a boarding school until the 1930's, and some of the students came from far away to live at the school, since the mud roads, and no school busses, electricity or telephones helped to isolate the area even more.

Some of the construction companies used the brick school building for their offices during the earlier stages of the Oak Ridge construction, then it was also torn down.

There is only one original building left in those 159,000 acres. It is the George Jones Memorial Baptist Church. The frame building has been left and is open only once a year. This is for the annual homecoming of the people who were forced to move out!

I mentioned that there were only two churches in Wheat. Now originally there had been three churches, but the Methodist Church building, near McKinney's store had gotten into a bad condition of disrepair a long time ago, and had been torn down.

The Methodists were few in number and an agreement was worked out to share the Crawford Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church building on alternate Sundays with the Cumberland Presbyterians.

My father was the pastor of that Cumberland Presbyterian Church during the 1920's, and since he only preached there on the third Sunday of each month when we came over from Oliver springs, where we lived, I never realized the sharing of the building with the Methodists until later years.

Now they left the original Baptist Church building standing, but they tore down the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. However, they did erect a monument at the site. I suppose one of the main reasons for tearing it down was to be able to build an interchange on Oak Ridge Avenue for the road to take off for Lenoir City at that particular location!