Apollo 11 at 50: A 50 State Tour

By Lauren Hamric

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 safely splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins had flown all the way to the moon and back. Armstrong and Aldrin had set foot upon the moon, the first human beings to do so.

Apollo 11 Astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. This photograph was sent to Governor Buford Ellington as part of a press kit for the Apollo 11 Fifty-State Tour from 1970-1971. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1867-1971.
Available via the Tennessee Virtual Archive.

Apollo 11 Launch. This photograph was sent to Governor Buford Ellington as part of a press kit for the Apollo 11 Fifty-State Tour from 1970-1971. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1867-1971.
Available via the Tennessee Virtual Archive.

Apollo Log, Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1967-1971.
Tennessee State Library and Archives

Looking back on it, knowing what we all know now, it is easy to forget how impressive the feat truly was. Reading through issues of The Nashville Tennessean from July 1969, available to Tennesseans through the Tennessee Electronic Library, you see the uncertainty, wonder, and excitement felt by so many. Tennesseans can access that resource HERE. Like all Americans, Tennesseans were glued to their televisions and newspapers.

Nashville Tennessean, July 25, 1969, front page, accessed via Tennessee Electronic Library.

Over the course of 1970 and 1971, NASA sent the Apollo 11 module, a moon rock, and other artifacts on a tour of all 50 state capitals. The exhibit visited Nashville on September 18-21, 1970. In Governor Buford Ellington’s papers is a press kit for the exhibit. The press kit includes photographs, a press release, technical drawings, and a log of events from the voyage. Two of the photographs can be viewed HERE on the Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA).

Press release, Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1967-1971.
Tennessee State Library and Archives

Drawing from Press Kit, Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1967-1971.
Tennessee State Library and Archives

Map of state capitals tour, Governor Buford Ellington (Second Term) Papers, 1967-1971.
Tennessee State Library and Archives

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Students Invited to Participate in Tennessee's First Ever Student Mock Election

Governor Frank Clement giving a speech,
possibly at a re-election rally in Lebanon.

This fall students across Tennessee will be able to do something most kids can't: vote for president of the United States.

The Secretary of State's office is pleased to announce Tennessee's first ever Student Mock Election. Students in preschool through high school from all public and private schools as well as home school associations in Tennessee can participate.

Paper ballots letting students choose between Democratic and Republican presidential nominees will be provided, but schools may elect to include additional candidates or conduct elections locally in different ways.

Early voting for the mock election opens October 17 and results must be submitted by Mock Election Day, November 1. Mock presidential election results will be revealed on November 2, less than a week before the real general election.

The program also offers lesson plans created by Tennessee teachers. The goal is offer an easy way for teachers to incorporate civic engagement and citizenship into their curriculum leading up to the Student Mock Election.

The Library and Archives also offers several resources for students and teachers interested in learning more about civic education and our government at the state level, including...

• Governors Papers
• Tennessee Legislative Petitions
• Tennessee Supreme Court Case Files
• and Education Outreach

For more information go visit: sos.tn.gov/civics. Read more from our press release at: http://sos.tn.gov/news/students-invited-participate-tennessees-first-ever-student-mock-election.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State

A Secret City is Born

By Megan Spainhour

In July of 1943, U.S. Army Capt. George B. Leonard handed Gov. Prentice Cooper a letter of proclamation from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Roosevelt's Public Proclamation No. 2 designated “Clinton Engineer Works as a total exclusion area no longer under state control."

In other words, the president had informed Cooper that the federal government held authority to seize approximately 60,000 acres of Tennessee land west of Knoxville, with no explanation. Years later, this area became known as Oak Ridge, one of the main sites for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Cooper didn't take the news well. In Leonard's presence, he angrily tore the proclamation into pieces.

Actually, though, the story began months earlier.

Letter dated July 14, 1943 to Governor Prentice Cooper from Lieutenant Colonel Thomas T. Crenshaw, Corps of Engineers, Clinton Engineer Works, Manhattan District. This correspondence demonstrates tensions between states and the federal government during World War II. In this letter, Crenshaw references an incident in which Governor Cooper is reported to have angrily torn up President Roosevelt's Public Proclamation No. 2 that designated Clinton Engineer Works as total exclusion area no longer under state control. Governor Prentice Cooper Papers, 1939-1945 (GP 44), GP 44, Box 140, Folder 2.

In October of 1942, U.S. Gen. Leslie Groves and federal lawyers went to court to get permission for the government to take ownership of the 60,000 acres of land in Anderson and Roane counties. This area contained the homes and farms of approximately 1,000 families. The Army Corps of Engineers acquired land for the Manhattan Project, but failed to work effectively with local property owners. According to historical accounts, many residents simply came home to find eviction notices tacked to front doors, trees or gates.

Business and Residential Oak Ridge Map, 1973, Tennessee Virtual Archive, Library & Archives Map Collection.

The Corps of Engineers was supposed to allow six weeks for evacuation, but some residents were only given two. Schools, churches, and groceries were closed. Homes and cemeteries were abandoned. Piling their belongings on trucks or wagons or in some cases leaving them behind, departing residents crossed paths with the thousands of construction workers pouring into the area.

Anderson County leaders complained about the land grab to Cooper, who hadn't yet heard about the project. Cooper accused the army of stealing people’s land for a socialism project.

Although Cooper refused to read the federal proclamation and tore it to pieces, he could do nothing to stop the project. In later years, Tennesseans expressed pride in the part their state had played in the Manhattan Project, which helped to end the war.

Cartoons such as these appeared in Oak Ridge newspapers, as well as on billboards throughout the town, to remind residents to keep quiet about their work. The Oak Ridge Journal, Sept. 21, 1944. Library & Archives Microfilm Collection.

The name "Oak Ridge" was chosen for the settlement in 1943 from suggestions submitted by project employees. The name related to the settlement's location along Black Oak Ridge and officials thought the rural-sounding name "held outside curiosity to a minimum."

However, officials did not formally adopt the name until 1949. Up to that time, officials referred to the site as the Clinton Engineer Works. Oak Ridge also adopted several nicknames such as “The Secret City," “The Atomic City," “The Ridge," “The City Behind The Fence," and “Mud City."

The purpose of the Oak Ridge facility centered around processing uranium ore so that workers could extract from it particular kinds of radioactive materials. These materials, like U-235 and plutonium, were used to make an atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy," which was ultimately used in the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

At its peak population in May 1945, 75,000 people lived in Oak Ridge, making it the state's fifth largest city - even though it never appeared on any map at the time. The town also consumed one-seventh of all the electrical power produced in the United States.

An aerial view of part of the Oak Ridge community, with the Cumberland Mountains in the background, Tennessee Department of Conservation Photograph Collection, 1937-1976, Box 17, File 87.

Today, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is still in operation and local residents take pride in the laboratory's scientific development and the important role the city played in national and world history.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State