Apart from five years in Cleveland, two in Florida and three months in Texas I’ve lived in the greater Knoxville area my entire life. From Claxton, to Louisville and finally here in Oak Ridge my footprints have generally fallen in a thirty mile radius centered right in the middle of the Tennessee Valley.

As a native I thought I knew most of what there was to know about my beloved home. I was mistaken.

Here are some recently discovered items about my part of the world:

• Prior to 1942 the area known as Oak Ridge was made up of seven communities, all of which were destroyed during the development of Clinton Engineering Works and later The Manhattan Project. Until this week I’d assumed the destruction had been complete. While reading wikipedia articles Tuesday night I discovered that there is still a church in what was the Wheat Community that was standing prior to 1942. The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church was founding in 1901. I’m planning a visit and will post photos.
• Rocky Top is a real place. Located on the Appalachian Trail and one of the peaks of Thunderhead Mountain, Rocky Top is the lowest of the three peaks at 5400 feet.  I will be checking this out as well.

That’s it. Have a good week kids.