Archie Campbell

Bulls Gap, Tennessee. "Do you even know who Archie Campbell is?" my partner asked me as I followed his navigation. Now, I admit I might have gotten him mixed up with Sargent York at one time (I know, I know...), but I had distinctly remembered visiting that home site. Hmmm. Archie Campbell. Did he have something to do with country music? Okay, that is a little lame. This is Tennessee after all. Chances are if you were not military history, football history, you might just be all about the music. Not quite. Try country comedy. And after listening to one of the jokes (it just wouldn't be right to tell it all, brother, not on this here page), I too discovered the joys of Rindercella.

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• LOCATION:
• Latitude: 36.255612
• Longitude: -83.08636
• 3139 S. Main Street, Tennessee 37711

• A LITTLE HISTORY:
• Archie Campbell was born in Bulls Gap, Tennessee on November 7, 1914.
• He began his career as a disc jockey at WNOX in Knoxville.
• He was in the Navy during WWII.
• Country Playhouse, Knoxville's first country television show featured his personality, plus he also helped start it.
• When the show ended, he went onto the Grand Ole Opry.
• In 1968-9, he became a member of the cast of the television show Hee Haw.
• Campbell was also a painter and a gallery owner (his college degree from Mars Hill College was in art).
• He passed away in 1987.
  

• STRUCTURES:
• This is the Archie Campbell Complex.
  
• Structures include:
• The Archie Campbell Museum
• Archie Campbell's Childhood home
  
• A train caboose
  

• CURRENT USAGE: Museum and Park
  

• REFERENCE
1. Country Music Television
   
2. Hee Haw
3. Rogersville Chamber of Commerce
   

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge, Tennessee. For the past three years I have had a grand romance, a romance that still makes my heart feel warm when I think about it. It is a romance with the Secret City. This World War II historic town is ever engaging and always interesting. I look for any chance to go there.

This past winter (alright, cold spring) found me exploring what is now the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. As I climbed guiltily on the colorful playground equipment (fabulous stuff), I hoped no one would mind my quick moment of relieving childhood. I was totally happy and about to come down one of the funky slides when I noticed that a road crew working on the road just in front of me had stopped their noisy tasks and all eyes were upon me. Drat. Sheepishly, I slide down and walked away.

I have to admit I was a little unenthused with the facade of the building until I remembered that it was indeed a historic site. I looked a little closer. This was an original school during the Secret City years. It now manages to retain the style of that time period and yet is inviting as a children's museum.

As I walked the length of the building, at the end I discovered a very catchy outdoor exhibit featuring a model train rail road track and a Norfolk Southern caboose. (Though you can see this anytime, please be check with the museum to see when it is available for actual entry and exploration).

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• LOCATION:
• Latitude: 36.031956
• Longitude: -84.267197
• 461 West Outer Drive, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

• A LITTLE HISTORY:
• Built in the 1940s, what is now the Oak Ridge Children's Museum was then the Highland View elementary School. It was the fifth school built in the Secret City. (1)
  
• It became the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge in January 1974. (2)

• CURRENT USAGE: Museum
  

• REFERENCE
Oak Ridge by Ed Westcott, pg. 48

• www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org

Oliver Springs Southern Railway Depot

Oliver Springs, Tennessee. My head buzzed with pressure from an on-coming change in the weather. When I had set out earlier in the day to photograph the Oliver Springs Southern Railway Depot, now the Oliver Springs Library and Museum, the sky was clear (as clear as a hot day summer day in Tennessee can be). Now rain threatened. As I hurried on ignoring the pain in my head, I found the depot rather easily (not so for a few other historic sites in East Tennessee).

Barely had I begun to investigate this piece of railroad history when indeed a summer shower began. I waited in my car. The rain grew harder. So balancing an umbrella and the camera, I slogged ahead.

As I traveled beyond the parking lot side of building, the other side was brimming with the color red. The contrast of this vibrant color lit up the rather bleak looking day it had become. There was a Southern Railway Caboose and a very well maintained historic firetruck. Also, a separate little ticket booth also stood its ground.

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• LOCATION:
• Latitude: 0.001895
• Longitude: 0.002961
• 610 Walker Ave., Oliver Springs, TN 37840
• Moved from original site
  

• A LITTLE HISTORY:
• Imagine being wealthy in the late 1800s. You hear about about the miraculous health benefits of mineral springs. You choose a little holiday at a luxury hotel and you get there by train, leaving from Knoxville, Tennessee. Such patronage is how the town of Oliver Springs gained a bit of affluence in the world and why the Oliver Springs Southern Railway Depot came into being. But it truly prospered from nearby coal production.
• The last passenger train pulled through the depot in 1968.
  
• In 1983 Southern Railway planned to demolish the structure. The town rallied for saving this historic remnant and eventually struck a deal with Southern Railway, provided it would be removed from the site and relocated elsewhere. In 1986, the citizens of Oliver Springs were able to have the building moved across the street.

• THE STRUCTURE
• This depot is a small-frame style, one story structure. It features gabbles and overhangs. Its original pressed metal shingle roof has been replaced with asphalt shingles.

• CURRENT USAGE: Oliver Springs Library, Museum operated by the Oliver Springs Historical Society

• REFERENCE
• The quarterly Bulletin of the Oliver Springs Historical Society in an article written by Bruce R. Schulman found at www.oshistorical.com/depot.htm
• For more information about the Oliver Springs Southern Railway Depot, visit the Oliver Springs Historical Society web site.