Clinton Engineer Works

Uh, and before it was Oak Ridge, Tennessee, it was rural farmland.

So Oak Ridge was built during the Manhattan Project, called Clinton Engineer Works at the time.

Uh, but about 30, 40 years before that, there was this fella called John Hendrix, and he suffered a lot of losses in his life, and it all kind of fell apart, and he took the, to the woods for 40 days and 40 nights, how you do, and he came down and shared his visions.

And he died in, I think, like, 1914 or so, and everyone was like, "That dude was off his rocker." And then 30 years later, a lot of the things he predicted happened.

There was a lot of people.

There was Clinton Engineer Works prior to ORNL and the AEC and other companies.

agencies that worked out there but again they knew they were doing something for the greater good but they didn't know exactly what they're doing so if that many people i know courage at that time didn't even exist it wasn't on any maps it was a city behind the fence and you had uh guard shacks at every entrance into town and you had to show a badge or you didn't get in there so and but nobody talked i mean it was again part of the war effort and your silence was necessary.

And people got called on that.

At first, the location of this project was known as Site X.

Then it was called Clinton Engineer Works after a nearby town.

But as project employees began submitting name suggestions, the name Oak Ridge was ultimately chosen as the permanent name for the settlement.

They felt that the name was fitting because of the settlement's location along Black Oak Ridge, and officials also thought that the rule-sounding name held outside curiosity to a minimum.

One of the ads read, When you're a grandmother, you'll brag about working at Tennessee Eastman.

Between the ads and word of mouth, the Tennessee Eastmen Company managed to recruit 10,000 women to work at the Y-12 site.

Thousands of women came to the newly established city of Oak Ridge with the understanding that they would be working for Clinton Engineer Works, which of course was a front for the Manhattan Project.

They were promised good pay and affordable lodging.