Oak Ridge, TN is no longer a mystery. John Hendrix prophesied the 'great buildings of great importance' some 40 years prior to Bear Creek Valley being secretly bought up by the government. Before a security wall was erected to silence and protect the Manhattan Project in 1942. Workers arrived by the hundreds, at such a rate that forced an ocean of square constructions to blossom in the once tranquil lands. Each worker receiving frequent lie detector tests and told only enough of their job description to navigate a sea of hazardous possibilities. Only one documentarian was allowed to document this insular, secret and very important place, Ed Westcott.
Today, the gates are no more and talking about your job is likely normal. Though most of the roads are open, Google's Trekker doesn't go down the Patrol Road nor North Perimeter. You can stand on the bank of the Clinch River and observe how the ridge line creates a natural barrier to the town. Perhaps the factory stacks don't extend above the tree line–I'm sure that was intentional. I wonder what secrets do to nature? How do the trees know to absorb and not continue the murmur of whispers? As John Hendrix lay with his head resting on the dirt for 40 nights, looking into the sky just past the tree limbs, who's voice did he register? Maybe nature felt the pulse underground just as Albert Abraham Michelson wrote of his failed experiment in 1887 that would pave the path for Albert Einstein to theorize special relativity some 20 years after. That would lead Oppenheimer to go against nature and develop the inner workers of the atomic bomb in the valley beside the Clinch River and where the shape of John Hendrix's reclined body must be stained.
Image one, Ed Westcott, 1942
Image two, Google Satellite view of Oak Ridge, TN, 2014