Before The Secret City War of '08

Trying to tweak the photo galleries here...so I am trying a new widget for Flickr.com. The photos in this are all from past years at the Secret City Festival reenactment.

The Secret City War '08 - TechnoColor

The Secret City War '08 - Part III

The Secret City War '08 - Part II

The Bully Beef Series

The Secret City War '08

One of my other incarnates is an British ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Services) correspondent. I usually do this with a living history group who does WWII British Airborne. We recently went to an event in Oak Ridge, TN called the Secret City Festival. It has all the standard festival stuff -music, crafts, and food. But it also features two fictional battles done by reenactors portraying fractions from America, the UK, Germany and France (Viva La Resistance!) and encampments. So, what do I do? I run around with period cameras...

I am going to post these during the next few days. So here are the first...

Coal Creek

Lake City, Tennessee. It was a Saturday and typical of this photo project, I drove right past my destination, the Lake City Coal Mine Museum. Finally, after stopping to ask directions (the local police were very helpful), I turned around and found myself at the town's community center. I went in one door and landed at a dead end. Hmmm. No museum. The screaming in my head began to get really loud. Oh, no. Not again, I thought. Why is this so hard? I am a museum person. I have a radar for finding them. Why is it so hard to locate them in Tennessee?

So, I took a breath and walked around to the front of the building. Oh, thank goodness. There it was, right where it was suppose to be. There was the sign, yet in front of the door, there was also a grill. Strange. But there seemed to be a few people inside, so in my companion and I went.

Basically, it is a one room museum. However, if you are thinking about visiting it, you may want to call in advance. It has the feel of a private collection that is in the process of needing to be cataloged and labeled. There is a proposal in the works, apparently, to create a much larger national coal mining museum.

After fifteen minutes or so, we wandered out and decided to go on the Motor Discovery Tour of the Coal Creek mine disasters. It is a fascinating history. That was challenging as well, as the tour really does not exist. It, like the museum, is holding its breath for signage and funding (sorely needed). So, we meandered and made a day of it, looking for the past, sometimes finding it, sometimes not.

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• MUSEUM LOCATION:
• Latitude: 36.222898
• Longitude: -84.157441
• 216 N. Main Street - Lake City, TN 37769

• A LITTLE HISTORY:
• Coal Creek was the site for the Cold Creek Coal War of 1891 to 1892, where miners fought against the notion of coal companies using convict labor.
  
• Location of the United States' third largest mining disaster - the 1902 Fraterviller Explosion.
• Location of the 1911 Cross Mountain mine disaster.
  

• STRUCTURES:
• Lake City Coal Miner's Museum
• Bridges, churches and other structures along the Motor Discovery Tour.
  

• CURRENT USAGE:
  
• Museum
• The Motor Discovery Tour
  

• REFERENCE
• Coal Creek Watershed Foundation
  

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