July 17, 2026 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1943, the U.S. government transformed farmland outside Oak Ridge, Tennessee, into a top-secret city of 75,000 people racing to build the atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. Cameras were forbidden, except for one.
Richard Cook, author of Ignored Heroes of World War II: The Manhattan Project Workers of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, shares the remarkable story of photographer Ed Westcott, whose images became the definitive visual record of America's greatest wartime secret.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
In nineteen thirty eight, German scientists learned the power of
splitting an atom, and with that they gained a huge
(00:32):
head start and what was truly the first nuclear arms race.
But instead of a stockpile, the race was to just
get it right and then maybe they could replicate the results.
In the town that housed the bulk of the work
of the Manhattan Project, oak Ridge, Tennessee, there was a
single photographer, ed Westcotton.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is the story that led to the.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
End of World War Two and the one man that
photographed it all. Here's Arthur Richard Cook with his story.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
In August of nineteen thirty four, President Hindenburg of Germany died.
Chancellor Hitler moved quickly to consolidate the office of president
and Chancellor and molded it into a new position as dictator.
His new title was Fura. A national referendum weeks later
(01:30):
was approved by ninety percent of the voters. Meanwhile, in Nashville, Tennessee,
ed Westcott's father. After saving for a year, about twelve
year old ed his first camera. They found a used
mobile lunch wagon, which they renovated into a dark room. Family, friends,
(01:52):
and neighbors could get film developed for fifty cents a role.
He was largely self taught. He started working with Portrait
Studios in Nashville while still a teenager. There were clues
in East Tennessee. In September of nineteen forty two, a
(02:14):
press release published in newspapers said the military was building
an ammunition testing range outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. This partially
explained the condemnation of fifty eight thousand acres by the government.
The reports and newspapers were a total line. Farmers who
(02:36):
owned the land were totally in the dark. Survying crews
asked permission to be on their land for a few hours.
In November, owners found a single piece of paper attached
to the screen front door announcing that the owners of
the land had three weeks to vacate the property. It
(02:58):
was being confiscated by the federal government. Many of these
families had farmed their land for generations. The farmhouses were
bulldozed down in a matter of days after the eviction date.
The ammunition testing range excuse was done on purpose. It
(03:19):
discouraged squatters, and it worked. The families viewed their farms
as a personal garden of Eden. The land provided for
all their needs, both physically and spiritually. Most families never
ever got over the quick, harsh eviction. They were compensated
(03:41):
for their land, but hundreds of farmers were looking for
new farmland at the same time. Prices went through the roof.
Many of the farmers ended up working at the industrial
plants which were built on their former land. Meanwhile, one
hundred and sixty miles to the west, in Nashville, a
(04:04):
twenty year old man had a decision to make. Ed
Westcott was a photographer for the Nashville office of the
Army Corps of Engineers. The office was being closed. Ed
was offered two options. He could transfer to the Alaskan
Highway to document the construction of it, or he could
(04:27):
go to a new installation outside of Knoxville. Ed had
spent all of his entirely two brief life in Tennessee.
He had recently gotten married and had a new born son. Knoxville.
It was. He accepted the job in November and would
start in January of nineteen forty three. His employee number
(04:53):
was twenty nine. Little did he know that in less
than three years he would create the mo important photographic
archive of twentieth century American history. Ed said there wasn't
much going on when he reported to work. Putting in
roads and rail lines was the first order of business.
(05:14):
Ed said, if this was a war project, it wasn't
much of a project. Ed dove into his work from
January nineteen forty three until the end of the war
in August of nineteen forty five. He took somewhere between
fifteen thousand to twenty thousand photographs in an error where
(05:36):
everyone has a camera on their cell phone. That doesn't
sound like much sixteen to twenty one photographs every single day,
but it was a different time. The cameras were heavy,
and often he needed heavy tripods to mount his camera on.
During the war, Ed had a four x five speed
(05:59):
graphic which used role film with six exposures on each roll,
and then he had an eight x ten Deerdorfer, which
used a single sheet of film for each photograph. If
he was shooting inside, he had to use bulky floodlights,
(06:20):
which took a long time to set up and oftentimes
for just a single shot. And at the end of
the day he had to go back to his dark
room and develop the day's film and print proof sheets.
Then there might be a dance to shoot later that night.
(06:41):
Cameras were banned in the Secret City. His was the
only camera in a town of seventy five thousand, and
for a guy with ambition, his side hustle as a
photographer was almost a full time job on its own.
There were many weddings each weekend. The fastest growing department
(07:02):
at the hospital was the maternity ward. If you needed
photos of your firstborn, Ed was the man.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And when we come back, we'll continue this remarkable story
of a man, a town, and a time. Ed Westcott's
story here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
(07:33):
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life, and if you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
(07:56):
learn more. And we're back with our American stories and
the story of the Manhattan Project, the perfecting of atomic weaponry,
and the building of a seventy five thousand person town
(08:20):
in less than three years.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We continue with Richard Cook.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The speed and scale of oak Bridge was unlike anything
the country had ever seen. From the time the farmers
were evicted until the day Japan surrendered was a mere
twenty days. This top secret installation went from cow's grazing
(08:47):
pasture land to the fifth largest city in the state
and one of the largest industrial complexes in the history
of mankind. Splitting an atom was an astonishing new energy source,
and it was fully realized in Oakridge, Tennessee. Timing, both
(09:12):
good and bad, can be a terribly random thing. In
December of nineteen thirty eight, two scientists in Germany discovered
a uranium atom could be split and release a massive
amount of energy. Barely eight months later, Germany invaded Poland
(09:35):
and World War II started. The first perception of atomic
power by the world would be during a war. General
Dick Groves ran the Manhattan Project. He was a no nonsense,
impatient taskmaster. His second in command was Colonel Ken Nichols.
(09:58):
They were hired in September of nineteen forty two. Things
happened quickly. They made the decision to step up the
process to condemn sixty thousand acres of farmland west of Knoxville, Tennessee.
They also obtained from the War Production Board a triple
A priority rating. It was the highest rating possible. There
(10:23):
were shortages of thousands of materials during the war. The
Manhattan Project would be first in line for anything and everything.
Another objective was to borrow from the US Treasury fourteen
thousand tons of silver for the industrial plants in oak Ridge.
(10:45):
That is equal to the weight of nine thousand cars.
And finally, they also contracted with a uranium mine owner
in the Belgian Congo for twelve hundred and fifty tons
of high quality uranium or Dick and Ken completed these
(11:05):
four vitally important objectives during the first four days on
the job. In eighteen months, they built the fifth largest
city in the state. During the peak, a home was
completed every thirty minutes. There were over six thousand massive
industrial machines separating two isotopes of uranium. Oakridge devoured ten
(11:31):
percent more electricity than New York City. During the war,
New York had over seven and a half million residents,
Oakridge about seventy five thousand. For safety reasons, workers lived
miles from the industrial sites. These were new experimental processes
(11:51):
creating a new type of uranium. There were worries an
accident would be catastrophic, so to ferry workers to and
from the plants, they built the ninth largest bus system
in the country. A bus arrived or departed from the
main terminal every sixty seconds, twenty four hours a day,
(12:14):
seven days a week. Even with the industrial plants, the
speed of construction was head spinning. The problems were huge.
For every two thousand pounds of raw uranium, there was
only fourteen pounds of the precious uranium two thirty five.
(12:38):
The plants were named S fifty, K, twenty five, and
Y twelve. The names were total gibberish. They were created
to make sure absolutely nothing was conveyed to the workers
or the outside world about the purpose of these plants. Normally,
(12:58):
after a theory is proved out in the laboratory, a
prototype is built to see if the idea is scalable.
There was no time for that. K twenty five used
a filter method. There was a two percent difference in
the size of uranium two thirty eight and the smaller
(13:19):
uranium two thirty five. A filter would have holes small
enough that the larger two thirty eight could not pass
through it easily, but the smaller two thirty five could.
A filter the size of your thumbnail would have over
fifteen million poles in it. When they started building K
(13:39):
twenty five, the scientists had not developed a filter which worked.
The scientists just kept grinding out possible solutions until they
developed one which worked. Much of what happened in Oakridge
was based mostly on blind faith. Why such a rush.
(14:01):
Only people in the highest echelons of the military, government
in science knew the horrible secret which kept all of
them awake at night. Hitler had his own atomic weapons program.
We knew almost nothing about it, but what was known
(14:21):
was nightmarriage. Hitler had a two year head start. This
was the original arms race. If Hitler got the weapon first,
London would be gone, Moscow most likely too. If Hitler
could get an airfield in Greenland, the entire east coast
(14:43):
of the United States would be under threat. The resulting
carnage would make the Holocaust look like a tiny blip
on a moral radar screen. There were seventy five thousand
workers in oak Ridge. Only two to three hundred wars
knew the purpose of the giant industrial site, but all
(15:05):
the workers were highly motivated to end the war. They
had family and friends dying in distant lands. The loss
of American life during World War II would equal a
nine to eleven attack every five days for three and
a half years. From the bottom up, workers were pleading
(15:28):
with their bosses, what can we do to end the killing?
And from the top down, the leaders did their own
pleading faster, just work faster. Forces from the very top
of the Manhattan Project and the fears of workers on
the bottom run of the labor pool all came together
(15:50):
an Oakridge, Tennessee. Unlike anywhere else in the nation, the
officials kept the purpose of this place secret, almost against
all odds. But there were two aspects of the top
secret project which could not be hidden from the workers.
(16:10):
One was the scale of what was going on. Nobody
knew what it was, but it was the biggest effort
they had ever seen in their young lives, and it
would be the biggest effort of their entire lives. The
other aspect, which could not be hidden was the speed
(16:31):
of the effort. Everyone could see it was moving at
a blistering pace. It seemed that housing and industrial plants
were built almost overnight. These two elements speed and scale
made the atmosphere electric, throw into the equation youth and hormones,
(16:55):
and it was the most amazing place in the country.
The worker said. It was the most exciting time of
their lives, and the scariest too. The terror and carnage
of war was the backdrop for everything.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And you've been listening to Richard Cook telling the story
of Oakridge, Tennessee and the Manhattan Project, which, by the way,
this should be a story that every school child knows, right,
I mean, how we don't know this story will shame
on all of us in the end. In a very
short time, going from the eviction of farmers to the
fifth largest city in a state, most of the people
(17:34):
there not knowing precisely what was going on. The folks there,
the folks fighting, the generals. The president had no idea,
what was going to happen? And that's why the rush
and the speed. When we come back, we continue with
Richard Cook the story of the Manhattan Project here on
our American Stories, and we're back with our American Stories
(18:10):
and the story of the Manhattan Project, America's World War
II project that was hellbent on beating Germany to the
atomic bomb. But with the immense size and scale of
this enterprise and all the people involved, how the heck
did they keep it a secret?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Back to Richard Cook.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can't hide a town of seventy five thousand people.
But what was going on out there? Folks in Knoxville wondered?
And other military plants. The narrative was straightforward. Thousands of
railcars over raw materials would be shipped in and thousands
of jeeps or tanks would come out, or the locals
(18:54):
could see thousands of newly finished planes taking off. No
mystery at all. Oakridge was different. Thousands of railcars delivered
draw materials and nothing, absolutely nothing was coming out. Well,
something was coming out, but nobody saw it. It was
(19:17):
a single piece of gray looking metal the size of
a volleyball. It was made up of ninety percent uranium
two thirty five, not thousands of volleyballs, but a single one.
Over seventy five thousand workers were working desperately around the
(19:40):
clock making a volleyball, and if they could make one,
they might be able to make a second one. In
twenty twenty dollars, they would spend fourteen billion dollars on
a single one hundred and forty pound volleyball. Of course,
if this was a hum would movie, the entire volleyball
(20:02):
would be delivered to Los Alamos, New Mexico, in a
security convoy. There'd be forty trucks and security guards with
machine guns and American flags waving. It didn't happen that way, though.
As enough uranium was separated, a military officer dressed in
(20:25):
a business suit would be given a sealed briefcase. Inside
the lined case was two teacup sized containers with screw
lids nestled in a special carrier. The officer would go
to Knoxville, get on a public train, and travel to Chicago.
(20:47):
At the train depot, he would meet another officer dressed
as a businessman. He would take the briefcase and get
on a train bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then
he would drive to Los Alamos. The officer going to
Chicago from Ukridge never knew where the briefcase was going,
(21:10):
and the other officer never knew where the briefcase came from.
Sometimes workers went to Knoxville to shop or eat, and
they were trained how to answer questions from nosey natives.
So what are you making out there? Anyway? About eighty
(21:33):
five cents an hour? What do you do out there? Anyway?
I'm in project management. How many people work out there? Oh?
About half of them. The obsession with secrecy and security
(21:53):
was well founded. Officials were deeply concerned that the Germans
learn the extent of the American efforts and would double
down on their own program, or, more likely, the Germans
would infiltrate Oakridge and steal industrial secrets about American methods
(22:16):
so it could aid their own work. When all workers
were hired in Oakridge, they went through an eight hour orientation.
Six hours of it was keep your mouth shut, don't
talk about your work to anyone, including your spouse. You
could be fired and possibly go to prison for espionage.
(22:41):
There were billboards everywhere in town which said shut up
and do your job. Every six months there was a
refresher course in case you couldn't get the message. The
other four times outgoing mail was opened, read importions were
(23:03):
blacked out if necessary. One of the tragic, unintended consequences
of these dictates was that nobody kept diaries or journals.
Workers were petrified that military police would find them if
they searched their homes. Oral histories, done decades after the
(23:28):
war will be the only record of the memories of
these ignored heroes. There was something very conflicted about working
and living in Oakrage during the war. At work, there
was little to node job security. There were prohibitions, procedures, protocols,
(23:53):
and security standards. Asking too many questions was a sure
to be fired. Of all the people who left the
Manhattan Project, forty percent of them were fired. But officials
were greatly concerned that the workers would up and quit
(24:16):
in droves. They were all strangers. Many of them were
away from home and family for the first time. The
secrecy grated some. All the rules at work put strains
on others. Sometimes co workers simply disappeared. The mythology was
(24:39):
that they were reassigned to a radar tracking station in Alaska.
You didn't dare ask about workers who disappeared, it would
bring you unwanted attention because of all these strains. Outside
of work, officials were deta herman to keep the workers
(25:01):
happy so they wouldn't quit. To the extent possible, the
workers were pampered. Movie theaters were packed, dance halls were
full because most of the workers were working rotating shifts
each week. Athletic leagues competed around the clock. There was
(25:26):
a symphony orchestra made up of volunteers. A playhouse was open,
which is still in operation today. If you wanted a
special interest club for a hobby, you would tell authorities
and they would do the publicity. At one time there
(25:46):
were eight different orchid clubs. Ed Westcott created a vivid
record of the social history of the town. He took
thousands of pictures of the industrial plants. Honestly, these are
photos only a scientist could love. A machine is a machine,
(26:09):
but photos of folks living their lives was where Ed's
talents really came to the fore. Those photos tell a
human story, and Ed was a master at that part
of the story.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
And you've been listening to Richard Cook telling this remarkable
story of a town that was built from scratch to
compete with the Germans to be the first country to
create a nuclear bomb. And my goodness, what a complicated
place to live, and what a complicated place to work.
Forty percent of the people who left the Manhattan Project
were fired secrecy, of course, putting strains on everybody and everything.
(26:54):
You certainly didn't ask questions about workers who disappeared.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
There were no.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Diaries, but we're just too afraid to keep written records.
And the oral histories we have are fine and fair,
but nothing from the immediate time.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
But mister Westcott's pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
When we come back, more of this remarkable story of
a town, a time, a place and a photographer.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Here on our American stories. And we're back with.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Our American stories and with the rest of the story
of the Manhattan Project, the end of World War two
and Ed Westcott the only man with a camera in
oak Ridge, Tennessee. But let's go back to Richard Cook
for the rest of this remarkable story.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There was a sense of expectation in the summer of
nineteen forty five among some of the Elkridge workers. Some
workers got a heads up from their bosses something was afoot.
Certainly Ed Westcott knew something was up. It was toward
the end of July of nineteen forty five, and he
(28:19):
was instructed to print hundreds of copies of eighteen of
his photographs for press packets to be sent out to
hundreds of newspapers across the country and even some foreign newspapers.
He printed thousands of photographs Ed had in the last
(28:42):
few months pieced together what was happening in Oakridge. He
went everywhere and saw almost everything. He wasn't totally sure,
but he was mostly sure. In late August of nineteen
forty five, he was sent rolls of film from military
(29:03):
photographers in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was after Japan had surrendered.
He was the only one allowed to develop the film
in print the photographs. It took him three days. Armed
guards were posted outside his darkroom door the entire time.
(29:26):
President Truman gave a midday address to the nation on
August sixth of nineteen forty five. He revealed that the
United States had developed a devastating new weapon called an
atomic bomb. They had dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan.
(29:47):
It was equal to fifteen thousand tons of dynamite, almost
as an aside Truman said the weapon had been developed
in Pascoe, Washington, in Los Alumn, New Mexico, and in Oakridge, Tennessee,
outside of Knoxville. That is how almost all the workers
(30:08):
learned about what they had been working on. Hugh Barnett
joined the Manhattan Project while its offices were actually in
Manhattan in New York City. He learned the purpose of
the Manhattan Project his first day at work. He moved
(30:31):
to Oakridge in nineteen forty three. In the summer of
nineteen forty five, it was obvious to Hugh that the
project was closing in on the amount of uranium two
thirty eight they needed for a weapon. He carpooled out
to K twenty five each day with four other workers.
(30:55):
They all knew the purpose of their work in Oakridge.
August fourteenth was Hugh Barnett's twenty ninth birthday. Hiroshima was
bombed on August sixth, and Nagasaki on August night. The
entire country was on pins and needles, expecting the surrender
(31:16):
of the Japanese. Hugh was not celebrating his birthday that day,
but he was also on pins and needles too. His
wife had gone into labor with their first child. They
were at the hospital. It was three blocks from the
(31:38):
main town site called Jackson Square. There was no air conditioning,
so the windows were open to fight the intense summer heat.
Hugh's first son was born at seven pm. The commotion
in the hospital room subsided, but Hugh and Shirley could
(31:59):
hear distant cheering outside their room. He who wondered how
word had spread so quickly about the birth of Lee.
President Truman, in a nationwide radio address at seven PM,
announced Japan had surrendered in that World War II, after
(32:22):
sixty five million deaths, was finally over. There was great
joy in the hospital room that night, and in the
entire nation too.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
More than a million singing and dance in the streets
in the biggest celebration the Windy City has ever seen.
Joy is unconfined.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Meanwhile, in Jackson Square, three blocks away, Ed Westcott was
taking photos of oakragers celebrating the ending of the war.
There's a famous photograph of a huge crowd celebrating, looking
directly at Ed, who was standing in the bed of
(33:08):
a truck. Many held up the Knoxville newspaper with a
half page headline which shouted out war ends With that photo,
Ed Westcott must have wondered what the future held for him.
(33:30):
His job assignment was essentially done. With that photograph, Ed
had brought to a close the most important work of
his professional life. On that night, he finished the most
important photographic archive of twentieth century American history. On that night,
(33:55):
Ed Westcott was twenty three years old. As it turned out,
Ed stayed in Oakridge as a government photographer for another
twenty years. In twenty seventeen, he was nominated for the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honour. In
(34:18):
twenty sixteen, the Honour Air Program in Knoxville, which is
twenty five miles from Uakridge, decided to expand their definition
of a veteran to include Manhattan Project workers who worked
in Oakridge. The program flies over one hundred thirty veterans
(34:38):
each trip to Washington, d C. To tour the war memorials.
This trip is done at no charge to the veterans.
They leave in the morning and are back in Knoxville
the same evening. It's a long day for all the
veterans and the volunteers who make it all possible. In
(35:03):
October of twenty sixteen, four Oakridgers took the trip. Among
them was at Westcott. I was not there for the sendoff,
but I was there that evening for their welcome home,
along with thousands of other people. Warren Buffett, along with
(35:30):
Bill Gates, were interviewed by Charlie Rose in twenty seventeen.
It was a set up question, but fascinating nonetheless. Charlie
asked Warren what he thought was the second most important
document in American history. Warren said, of course, the Constitution
(35:54):
and the Declaration of Independence were most important, but Buffett
said the second most important document was written by two
immigrants to President Roosevelt in nineteen thirty nine. They weren't
really immigrants, but rather refugees from Nazi Germany. One not
(36:16):
quite as well known, was Leo Sillard, a brilliant physicist
from Hungary. The other letter writer was a refugee from
Germany and happened to be the most famous scientist in
the world, Albert Einstein. In Buffett's estimation, these two refugees
(36:41):
save the world. The two told Roosevelt that Hitler was
working on developing atomic weapons and Germany had a huge
head start. If Germany won this arms race, Nazism and
Japanese Olotruism would rule most of the globe. The letter
(37:05):
got to the White House in August of nineteen thirty nine,
and eight weeks later the earliest version of the Manhattan
Project was created.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And a very special thanks to Richard Cook for that
remarkable storytelling and great job on.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
This by Robbie R.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Crackerjack, producer here at Our American Stories. And Richard is
the author and compiler of Ignored Heroes of World War Two,
the Manhattan Project, Workers of Oakridge, Tennessee, and Oral History.
And by the way, Ed Westcott, on March twenty ninth,
twenty nineteen passed. He was still taking photographs a week
(37:50):
before his death, and you can find his photos by
punching in Ed Westcott and the words Oakridge into your
search engine. There are thousands of pictures out there taken
by this one man. The story of a town, Oakridge, Tennessee,
a photographer Ed Westcott here on Our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
In nineteen thirty eight, German scientists learned the power of
splitting an atom, and with that they gained a huge
(00:32):
head start and what was truly the first nuclear arms race.
But instead of a stockpile, the race was to just
get it right and then maybe they could replicate the results.
In the town that housed the bulk of the work
of the Manhattan Project, oak Ridge, Tennessee, there was a
single photographer, ed Westcotton.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is the story that led to the.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
End of World War Two and the one man that
photographed it all. Here's Arthur Richard Cook with his story.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
In August of nineteen thirty four, President Hindenburg of Germany died.
Chancellor Hitler moved quickly to consolidate the office of president
and Chancellor and molded it into a new position as dictator.
His new title was Fura. A national referendum weeks later
(01:30):
was approved by ninety percent of the voters. Meanwhile, in Nashville, Tennessee,
ed Westcott's father. After saving for a year, about twelve
year old ed his first camera. They found a used
mobile lunch wagon, which they renovated into a dark room. Family, friends,
(01:52):
and neighbors could get film developed for fifty cents a role.
He was largely self taught. He started working with Portrait
Studios in Nashville while still a teenager. There were clues
in East Tennessee. In September of nineteen forty two, a
(02:14):
press release published in newspapers said the military was building
an ammunition testing range outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. This partially
explained the condemnation of fifty eight thousand acres by the government.
The reports and newspapers were a total line. Farmers who
(02:36):
owned the land were totally in the dark. Survying crews
asked permission to be on their land for a few hours.
In November, owners found a single piece of paper attached
to the screen front door announcing that the owners of
the land had three weeks to vacate the property. It
(02:58):
was being confiscated by the federal government. Many of these
families had farmed their land for generations. The farmhouses were
bulldozed down in a matter of days after the eviction date.
The ammunition testing range excuse was done on purpose. It
(03:19):
discouraged squatters, and it worked. The families viewed their farms
as a personal garden of Eden. The land provided for
all their needs, both physically and spiritually. Most families never
ever got over the quick, harsh eviction. They were compensated
(03:41):
for their land, but hundreds of farmers were looking for
new farmland at the same time. Prices went through the roof.
Many of the farmers ended up working at the industrial
plants which were built on their former land. Meanwhile, one
hundred and sixty miles to the west, in Nashville, a
(04:04):
twenty year old man had a decision to make. Ed
Westcott was a photographer for the Nashville office of the
Army Corps of Engineers. The office was being closed. Ed
was offered two options. He could transfer to the Alaskan
Highway to document the construction of it, or he could
(04:27):
go to a new installation outside of Knoxville. Ed had
spent all of his entirely two brief life in Tennessee.
He had recently gotten married and had a new born son. Knoxville.
It was. He accepted the job in November and would
start in January of nineteen forty three. His employee number
(04:53):
was twenty nine. Little did he know that in less
than three years he would create the mo important photographic
archive of twentieth century American history. Ed said there wasn't
much going on when he reported to work. Putting in
roads and rail lines was the first order of business.
(05:14):
Ed said, if this was a war project, it wasn't
much of a project. Ed dove into his work from
January nineteen forty three until the end of the war
in August of nineteen forty five. He took somewhere between
fifteen thousand to twenty thousand photographs in an error where
(05:36):
everyone has a camera on their cell phone. That doesn't
sound like much sixteen to twenty one photographs every single day,
but it was a different time. The cameras were heavy,
and often he needed heavy tripods to mount his camera on.
During the war, Ed had a four x five speed
(05:59):
graphic which used role film with six exposures on each roll,
and then he had an eight x ten Deerdorfer, which
used a single sheet of film for each photograph. If
he was shooting inside, he had to use bulky floodlights,
(06:20):
which took a long time to set up and oftentimes
for just a single shot. And at the end of
the day he had to go back to his dark
room and develop the day's film and print proof sheets.
Then there might be a dance to shoot later that night.
(06:41):
Cameras were banned in the Secret City. His was the
only camera in a town of seventy five thousand, and
for a guy with ambition, his side hustle as a
photographer was almost a full time job on its own.
There were many weddings each weekend. The fastest growing department
(07:02):
at the hospital was the maternity ward. If you needed
photos of your firstborn, Ed was the man.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And when we come back, we'll continue this remarkable story
of a man, a town, and a time. Ed Westcott's
story here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
(07:33):
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life, and if you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
(07:56):
learn more. And we're back with our American stories and
the story of the Manhattan Project, the perfecting of atomic weaponry,
and the building of a seventy five thousand person town
(08:20):
in less than three years.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We continue with Richard Cook.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The speed and scale of oak Bridge was unlike anything
the country had ever seen. From the time the farmers
were evicted until the day Japan surrendered was a mere
twenty days. This top secret installation went from cow's grazing
(08:47):
pasture land to the fifth largest city in the state
and one of the largest industrial complexes in the history
of mankind. Splitting an atom was an astonishing new energy source,
and it was fully realized in Oakridge, Tennessee. Timing, both
(09:12):
good and bad, can be a terribly random thing. In
December of nineteen thirty eight, two scientists in Germany discovered
a uranium atom could be split and release a massive
amount of energy. Barely eight months later, Germany invaded Poland
(09:35):
and World War II started. The first perception of atomic
power by the world would be during a war. General
Dick Groves ran the Manhattan Project. He was a no nonsense,
impatient taskmaster. His second in command was Colonel Ken Nichols.
(09:58):
They were hired in September of nineteen forty two. Things
happened quickly. They made the decision to step up the
process to condemn sixty thousand acres of farmland west of Knoxville, Tennessee.
They also obtained from the War Production Board a triple
A priority rating. It was the highest rating possible. There
(10:23):
were shortages of thousands of materials during the war. The
Manhattan Project would be first in line for anything and everything.
Another objective was to borrow from the US Treasury fourteen
thousand tons of silver for the industrial plants in oak Ridge.
(10:45):
That is equal to the weight of nine thousand cars.
And finally, they also contracted with a uranium mine owner
in the Belgian Congo for twelve hundred and fifty tons
of high quality uranium or Dick and Ken completed these
(11:05):
four vitally important objectives during the first four days on
the job. In eighteen months, they built the fifth largest
city in the state. During the peak, a home was
completed every thirty minutes. There were over six thousand massive
industrial machines separating two isotopes of uranium. Oakridge devoured ten
(11:31):
percent more electricity than New York City. During the war,
New York had over seven and a half million residents,
Oakridge about seventy five thousand. For safety reasons, workers lived
miles from the industrial sites. These were new experimental processes
(11:51):
creating a new type of uranium. There were worries an
accident would be catastrophic, so to ferry workers to and
from the plants, they built the ninth largest bus system
in the country. A bus arrived or departed from the
main terminal every sixty seconds, twenty four hours a day,
(12:14):
seven days a week. Even with the industrial plants, the
speed of construction was head spinning. The problems were huge.
For every two thousand pounds of raw uranium, there was
only fourteen pounds of the precious uranium two thirty five.
(12:38):
The plants were named S fifty, K, twenty five, and
Y twelve. The names were total gibberish. They were created
to make sure absolutely nothing was conveyed to the workers
or the outside world about the purpose of these plants. Normally,
(12:58):
after a theory is proved out in the laboratory, a
prototype is built to see if the idea is scalable.
There was no time for that. K twenty five used
a filter method. There was a two percent difference in
the size of uranium two thirty eight and the smaller
(13:19):
uranium two thirty five. A filter would have holes small
enough that the larger two thirty eight could not pass
through it easily, but the smaller two thirty five could.
A filter the size of your thumbnail would have over
fifteen million poles in it. When they started building K
(13:39):
twenty five, the scientists had not developed a filter which worked.
The scientists just kept grinding out possible solutions until they
developed one which worked. Much of what happened in Oakridge
was based mostly on blind faith. Why such a rush.
(14:01):
Only people in the highest echelons of the military, government
in science knew the horrible secret which kept all of
them awake at night. Hitler had his own atomic weapons program.
We knew almost nothing about it, but what was known
(14:21):
was nightmarriage. Hitler had a two year head start. This
was the original arms race. If Hitler got the weapon first,
London would be gone, Moscow most likely too. If Hitler
could get an airfield in Greenland, the entire east coast
(14:43):
of the United States would be under threat. The resulting
carnage would make the Holocaust look like a tiny blip
on a moral radar screen. There were seventy five thousand
workers in oak Ridge. Only two to three hundred wars
knew the purpose of the giant industrial site, but all
(15:05):
the workers were highly motivated to end the war. They
had family and friends dying in distant lands. The loss
of American life during World War II would equal a
nine to eleven attack every five days for three and
a half years. From the bottom up, workers were pleading
(15:28):
with their bosses, what can we do to end the killing?
And from the top down, the leaders did their own
pleading faster, just work faster. Forces from the very top
of the Manhattan Project and the fears of workers on
the bottom run of the labor pool all came together
(15:50):
an Oakridge, Tennessee. Unlike anywhere else in the nation, the
officials kept the purpose of this place secret, almost against
all odds. But there were two aspects of the top
secret project which could not be hidden from the workers.
(16:10):
One was the scale of what was going on. Nobody
knew what it was, but it was the biggest effort
they had ever seen in their young lives, and it
would be the biggest effort of their entire lives. The
other aspect, which could not be hidden was the speed
(16:31):
of the effort. Everyone could see it was moving at
a blistering pace. It seemed that housing and industrial plants
were built almost overnight. These two elements speed and scale
made the atmosphere electric, throw into the equation youth and hormones,
(16:55):
and it was the most amazing place in the country.
The worker said. It was the most exciting time of
their lives, and the scariest too. The terror and carnage
of war was the backdrop for everything.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And you've been listening to Richard Cook telling the story
of Oakridge, Tennessee and the Manhattan Project, which, by the way,
this should be a story that every school child knows, right,
I mean, how we don't know this story will shame
on all of us in the end. In a very
short time, going from the eviction of farmers to the
fifth largest city in a state, most of the people
(17:34):
there not knowing precisely what was going on. The folks there,
the folks fighting, the generals. The president had no idea,
what was going to happen? And that's why the rush
and the speed. When we come back, we continue with
Richard Cook the story of the Manhattan Project here on
our American Stories, and we're back with our American Stories
(18:10):
and the story of the Manhattan Project, America's World War
II project that was hellbent on beating Germany to the
atomic bomb. But with the immense size and scale of
this enterprise and all the people involved, how the heck
did they keep it a secret?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Back to Richard Cook.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can't hide a town of seventy five thousand people.
But what was going on out there? Folks in Knoxville wondered?
And other military plants. The narrative was straightforward. Thousands of
railcars over raw materials would be shipped in and thousands
of jeeps or tanks would come out, or the locals
(18:54):
could see thousands of newly finished planes taking off. No
mystery at all. Oakridge was different. Thousands of railcars delivered
draw materials and nothing, absolutely nothing was coming out. Well,
something was coming out, but nobody saw it. It was
(19:17):
a single piece of gray looking metal the size of
a volleyball. It was made up of ninety percent uranium
two thirty five, not thousands of volleyballs, but a single one.
Over seventy five thousand workers were working desperately around the
(19:40):
clock making a volleyball, and if they could make one,
they might be able to make a second one. In
twenty twenty dollars, they would spend fourteen billion dollars on
a single one hundred and forty pound volleyball. Of course,
if this was a hum would movie, the entire volleyball
(20:02):
would be delivered to Los Alamos, New Mexico, in a
security convoy. There'd be forty trucks and security guards with
machine guns and American flags waving. It didn't happen that way, though.
As enough uranium was separated, a military officer dressed in
(20:25):
a business suit would be given a sealed briefcase. Inside
the lined case was two teacup sized containers with screw
lids nestled in a special carrier. The officer would go
to Knoxville, get on a public train, and travel to Chicago.
(20:47):
At the train depot, he would meet another officer dressed
as a businessman. He would take the briefcase and get
on a train bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then
he would drive to Los Alamos. The officer going to
Chicago from Ukridge never knew where the briefcase was going,
(21:10):
and the other officer never knew where the briefcase came from.
Sometimes workers went to Knoxville to shop or eat, and
they were trained how to answer questions from nosey natives.
So what are you making out there? Anyway? About eighty
(21:33):
five cents an hour? What do you do out there? Anyway?
I'm in project management. How many people work out there? Oh?
About half of them. The obsession with secrecy and security
(21:53):
was well founded. Officials were deeply concerned that the Germans
learn the extent of the American efforts and would double
down on their own program, or, more likely, the Germans
would infiltrate Oakridge and steal industrial secrets about American methods
(22:16):
so it could aid their own work. When all workers
were hired in Oakridge, they went through an eight hour orientation.
Six hours of it was keep your mouth shut, don't
talk about your work to anyone, including your spouse. You
could be fired and possibly go to prison for espionage.
(22:41):
There were billboards everywhere in town which said shut up
and do your job. Every six months there was a
refresher course in case you couldn't get the message. The
other four times outgoing mail was opened, read importions were
(23:03):
blacked out if necessary. One of the tragic, unintended consequences
of these dictates was that nobody kept diaries or journals.
Workers were petrified that military police would find them if
they searched their homes. Oral histories, done decades after the
(23:28):
war will be the only record of the memories of
these ignored heroes. There was something very conflicted about working
and living in Oakrage during the war. At work, there
was little to node job security. There were prohibitions, procedures, protocols,
(23:53):
and security standards. Asking too many questions was a sure
to be fired. Of all the people who left the
Manhattan Project, forty percent of them were fired. But officials
were greatly concerned that the workers would up and quit
(24:16):
in droves. They were all strangers. Many of them were
away from home and family for the first time. The
secrecy grated some. All the rules at work put strains
on others. Sometimes co workers simply disappeared. The mythology was
(24:39):
that they were reassigned to a radar tracking station in Alaska.
You didn't dare ask about workers who disappeared, it would
bring you unwanted attention because of all these strains. Outside
of work, officials were deta herman to keep the workers
(25:01):
happy so they wouldn't quit. To the extent possible, the
workers were pampered. Movie theaters were packed, dance halls were
full because most of the workers were working rotating shifts
each week. Athletic leagues competed around the clock. There was
(25:26):
a symphony orchestra made up of volunteers. A playhouse was open,
which is still in operation today. If you wanted a
special interest club for a hobby, you would tell authorities
and they would do the publicity. At one time there
(25:46):
were eight different orchid clubs. Ed Westcott created a vivid
record of the social history of the town. He took
thousands of pictures of the industrial plants. Honestly, these are
photos only a scientist could love. A machine is a machine,
(26:09):
but photos of folks living their lives was where Ed's
talents really came to the fore. Those photos tell a
human story, and Ed was a master at that part
of the story.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
And you've been listening to Richard Cook telling this remarkable
story of a town that was built from scratch to
compete with the Germans to be the first country to
create a nuclear bomb. And my goodness, what a complicated
place to live, and what a complicated place to work.
Forty percent of the people who left the Manhattan Project
were fired secrecy, of course, putting strains on everybody and everything.
(26:54):
You certainly didn't ask questions about workers who disappeared.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
There were no.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Diaries, but we're just too afraid to keep written records.
And the oral histories we have are fine and fair,
but nothing from the immediate time.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
But mister Westcott's pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
When we come back, more of this remarkable story of
a town, a time, a place and a photographer.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Here on our American stories. And we're back with.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Our American stories and with the rest of the story
of the Manhattan Project, the end of World War two
and Ed Westcott the only man with a camera in
oak Ridge, Tennessee. But let's go back to Richard Cook
for the rest of this remarkable story.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There was a sense of expectation in the summer of
nineteen forty five among some of the Elkridge workers. Some
workers got a heads up from their bosses something was afoot.
Certainly Ed Westcott knew something was up. It was toward
the end of July of nineteen forty five, and he
(28:19):
was instructed to print hundreds of copies of eighteen of
his photographs for press packets to be sent out to
hundreds of newspapers across the country and even some foreign newspapers.
He printed thousands of photographs Ed had in the last
(28:42):
few months pieced together what was happening in Oakridge. He
went everywhere and saw almost everything. He wasn't totally sure,
but he was mostly sure. In late August of nineteen
forty five, he was sent rolls of film from military
(29:03):
photographers in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was after Japan had surrendered.
He was the only one allowed to develop the film
in print the photographs. It took him three days. Armed
guards were posted outside his darkroom door the entire time.
(29:26):
President Truman gave a midday address to the nation on
August sixth of nineteen forty five. He revealed that the
United States had developed a devastating new weapon called an
atomic bomb. They had dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan.
(29:47):
It was equal to fifteen thousand tons of dynamite, almost
as an aside Truman said the weapon had been developed
in Pascoe, Washington, in Los Alumn, New Mexico, and in Oakridge, Tennessee,
outside of Knoxville. That is how almost all the workers
(30:08):
learned about what they had been working on. Hugh Barnett
joined the Manhattan Project while its offices were actually in
Manhattan in New York City. He learned the purpose of
the Manhattan Project his first day at work. He moved
(30:31):
to Oakridge in nineteen forty three. In the summer of
nineteen forty five, it was obvious to Hugh that the
project was closing in on the amount of uranium two
thirty eight they needed for a weapon. He carpooled out
to K twenty five each day with four other workers.
(30:55):
They all knew the purpose of their work in Oakridge.
August fourteenth was Hugh Barnett's twenty ninth birthday. Hiroshima was
bombed on August sixth, and Nagasaki on August night. The
entire country was on pins and needles, expecting the surrender
(31:16):
of the Japanese. Hugh was not celebrating his birthday that day,
but he was also on pins and needles too. His
wife had gone into labor with their first child. They
were at the hospital. It was three blocks from the
(31:38):
main town site called Jackson Square. There was no air conditioning,
so the windows were open to fight the intense summer heat.
Hugh's first son was born at seven pm. The commotion
in the hospital room subsided, but Hugh and Shirley could
(31:59):
hear distant cheering outside their room. He who wondered how
word had spread so quickly about the birth of Lee.
President Truman, in a nationwide radio address at seven PM,
announced Japan had surrendered in that World War II, after
(32:22):
sixty five million deaths, was finally over. There was great
joy in the hospital room that night, and in the
entire nation too.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
More than a million singing and dance in the streets
in the biggest celebration the Windy City has ever seen.
Joy is unconfined.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Meanwhile, in Jackson Square, three blocks away, Ed Westcott was
taking photos of oakragers celebrating the ending of the war.
There's a famous photograph of a huge crowd celebrating, looking
directly at Ed, who was standing in the bed of
(33:08):
a truck. Many held up the Knoxville newspaper with a
half page headline which shouted out war ends With that photo,
Ed Westcott must have wondered what the future held for him.
(33:30):
His job assignment was essentially done. With that photograph, Ed
had brought to a close the most important work of
his professional life. On that night, he finished the most
important photographic archive of twentieth century American history. On that night,
(33:55):
Ed Westcott was twenty three years old. As it turned out,
Ed stayed in Oakridge as a government photographer for another
twenty years. In twenty seventeen, he was nominated for the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honour. In
(34:18):
twenty sixteen, the Honour Air Program in Knoxville, which is
twenty five miles from Uakridge, decided to expand their definition
of a veteran to include Manhattan Project workers who worked
in Oakridge. The program flies over one hundred thirty veterans
(34:38):
each trip to Washington, d C. To tour the war memorials.
This trip is done at no charge to the veterans.
They leave in the morning and are back in Knoxville
the same evening. It's a long day for all the
veterans and the volunteers who make it all possible. In
(35:03):
October of twenty sixteen, four Oakridgers took the trip. Among
them was at Westcott. I was not there for the sendoff,
but I was there that evening for their welcome home,
along with thousands of other people. Warren Buffett, along with
(35:30):
Bill Gates, were interviewed by Charlie Rose in twenty seventeen.
It was a set up question, but fascinating nonetheless. Charlie
asked Warren what he thought was the second most important
document in American history. Warren said, of course, the Constitution
(35:54):
and the Declaration of Independence were most important, but Buffett
said the second most important document was written by two
immigrants to President Roosevelt in nineteen thirty nine. They weren't
really immigrants, but rather refugees from Nazi Germany. One not
(36:16):
quite as well known, was Leo Sillard, a brilliant physicist
from Hungary. The other letter writer was a refugee from
Germany and happened to be the most famous scientist in
the world, Albert Einstein. In Buffett's estimation, these two refugees
(36:41):
save the world. The two told Roosevelt that Hitler was
working on developing atomic weapons and Germany had a huge
head start. If Germany won this arms race, Nazism and
Japanese Olotruism would rule most of the globe. The letter
(37:05):
got to the White House in August of nineteen thirty nine,
and eight weeks later the earliest version of the Manhattan
Project was created.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And a very special thanks to Richard Cook for that
remarkable storytelling and great job on.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
This by Robbie R.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Crackerjack, producer here at Our American Stories. And Richard is
the author and compiler of Ignored Heroes of World War Two,
the Manhattan Project, Workers of Oakridge, Tennessee, and Oral History.
And by the way, Ed Westcott, on March twenty ninth,
twenty nineteen passed. He was still taking photographs a week
(37:50):
before his death, and you can find his photos by
punching in Ed Westcott and the words Oakridge into your
search engine. There are thousands of pictures out there taken
by this one man. The story of a town, Oakridge, Tennessee,
a photographer Ed Westcott here on Our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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