The Secret City Displacement: Wheat, Tennessee project was produced in the spring of 2018 by Colbi Layne W. Hogan, Jessica Smyth, and Rachel J. Lambert, graduate students in the Public History Program at Middle Tennessee State University. As part of a graduate course entitled, “Digital Tools for Historians" taught by Dr. Molly Taylor-Poleskey, our goal was to humanize the issue of displacement in modern-day Oak Ridge, Tennessee. By connecting geographical data with individual land owners and families, we hoped to tell a more complete story of the effort to end World War II by presenting information that has often been overlooked in historical studies of the region.
Colbi Layne Hogan is a Ph.D. candidate in MTSU’s Public History program. She received her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Social Studies Education from Auburn University in 2008 and 2010. After teaching history and English, Hogan continues to contribute to the education community through her assistantship with the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources – MTSU at the Center for Historic Preservation. Her dissertation research focuses on displacement in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Jessica Smyth is an M.A. student in MTSU's Public History program. She received her Bachelors degree in History from the University of West Alabama in 2013 and plans to graduate from MTSU in 2019.
Rachel Lambert is an M.A. student in MTSU's Public History program. She received her Bachelors degree in History and Theatre from Slippery Rock University in 2016. Lambert plans to graduate in May 2019.
Sources:
Anderson County Historical Society. “Kingston Demolition Range Photos: Pre-1942 Home Places removed to build Oak Ridge, TN.” 2017.
Clinton Engineering Works, Harriman Tennessee: Roane and Anderson Counties. Oak Ridge Department of Health, July 1, 1944.
List of Anderson County Sellers. Compiled by Richard Lorenz. Courtesy of Teresa Fortney at the Oak Ridge Public Library.
List of Roane County Sellers. Compiled by Richard Lorenz. Courtesy of Teresa Fortney at the Oak Ridge Public Library.
Moneymaker, Dorathy S. We’ll Call It Wheat. Oak Ridge: Adroit Printing Company, 1979.
This research project is donated to the public domain and full permission is given to use the materials for nonprofit, educational purposes, given the individual permissions and restrictions that may apply to images, texts or other materials cited. Special thanks to history professor Dr. Molly Taylor Poleskey; Amy York at MTSU’ s Walker Library; Ron Evans, Director of the Anderson County Historical Society; Teresa Fortney at the Oak Ridge Public Library; and the late Don Raby who digitized the Kingston Demolition Range photos.
For more information, please contact Colbi Layne W. Hogan at cwh3z@mtmail.mtsu.edu. Additional photographs of properties in Wheat are available through the Anderson County Historical Society at pellissippi.org/.
