Happy Memories under the Mushroom Cloud: Utopia and Memory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Abstract

On 19 March 1949, the ‘atomic city’ of Oak Ridge, Tennessee was opened with a tiny mushroom cloud. A standard ribbon cutting ceremony executed with a snip of scissor blades would have been far too gauche for this science city of the future. In its place, a mini-simulacrum of an atomic bomb blast was ignited, setting ablaze the scarlet ribbon that stretched across the city’s main gate.¹ As part of the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) ‘Operation Open Sesame’ the ribbon burning helped to usher in a new phase of visibility for the former secret city of the Manhattan Project. This spirit of openness marked a drastic change for Oak Ridge, the city responsible for producing all of the uranium-235 that went into the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. From 1943–49, Oak Ridge operated as a completely closed federal military reservation, unmapped and invisible to the Rand-McNally universe.² Although the AEC referred to Oak Ridge’s transition as part of a process of normalization, ‘Operation Open Sesame’ was a spectacular event with 10,000 people in attendance, including numerous celebrities and politicians, such as the movie stars Marie MacDonald and Rod Cameron, as well as Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut and Vice President Alben Barkley (Figure 9.1).