National Park Service and Department of Energy officials have begun touring the Manhattan Project sites to be included in the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park. In March the officials visited Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge Today reported, “Stops included the Alexander Inn, Chapel on the Hill, the former K-25 Building site, the Graphite Reactor at ORNL, and two buildings at Y-12: Building 9731, a pilot plant, and Building 9204-3, also known as Beta 3.”
“Several of those sites are just amazing,” said Vic Knox, associate director of park planning, facilities, and lands for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. “They seem like they are just the way they were in 1943. It seems like they take you back in time.” The officials held an open house at the Oak Ridge Civic Center, and were “blown away” by the number of people who attended.
The legislation requires the Departments of Energy and Interior to work out an agreement by December 2015. The agreement will define their respective roles in providing enhanced public access, management, interpretation, and historic preservation of the sites. The NPS and DOE officials will be visiting Hanford in mid-April and Los Alamos in early June.
With the National Park Service (NPS) celebrating its centennial in 2016, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park could become a “poster child” for NPS’s second century. The National Park Service plans to focus more on America’s science, technology and industrial history which were underrepresented in the park’s first century.
As part of its centennial campaign, NPS and the National Park Foundation have launched Find Your Park, encouraging Americans to visit national parks and historic sites around the country. It is an exciting time to become part of the National Park system