Oak Ridge, Tenn. – (June 2, 2010) –The American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) is gearing up for the 8th Annual Secret City Festival with a special admission rate for everyone, a newly remodeled 1940’s Flat Top home, a “Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace” traveling exhibition, and Manhattan Project site public bus tours.
AMSE, the first museum in the United States to tell the story of nuclear energy, offered the public their first glimpse of the Secret City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Visitors to AMSE will receive a Secret City Festival admission rate of $1.00 per person on June 18 – 19, 2010, which is up to a $4 discount off regular admission.
Secrets of the Manhattan Project and the first atomic bomb are revealed in AMSE’s flagship exhibition “Oak Ridge Story: World War II Secret City.” This permanent exhibition features hundreds of photographs by Edward Westcott, official photographer in Oak Ridge under contract for the U.S. Corps of Engineers, as well as vintage newsreels and a wealth of fresh information on WWII and the dawn of the atomic age.
Through artifacts and oral histories preserved and showcased in “The Oak Ridge Story” exhibition, AMSE visitors will see the actual objects that tell the citizen and soldier stories of war, lifestyle and peace experienced by 75,000 people who would keep the secret in the military pioneer town.
Register at AMSE June 18 & 19 for the Manhattan Project Bus Tours to the three 1940's mystery plants that enriched uranium for the world’s first atomic weapon. Bus Tours with guide commentary will be offered on June 18 and 19 to the K-25 History Trail at 9:00, 11:30 am and 2:00 pm; to the Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on June 18 at 3:30 pm and June 19 at 10:00 am, 1:30, 2:00 and 4:00 pm; and to the Y-12 National Security Complex to see the Alpha Calutron Building and more on June 19 with shuttle buses departing AMSE every 30 minutes from 9 am - 4 pm. Bus tour participants must be U.S. citizens. For more information on these bus tours and other events, visit www.secretcityfestival.com.
On Friday, June 18 the Department of Energy Facilities Public Bus Tour with guide commentary is offered to all three Manhattan Project plants with off the bus stops at the Y-12 New Hope Visitor Center, the Spallation Neutron Source lobby and the Graphite Reactor, both located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and finally a drive to the K-25 Overlook. Participants must be U.S. citizens, 10 years of age and up, with photo identification. Registration for the DOE Facilities Public Bus Tour begins at 9 am when AMSE opens. Departure for the three-site tour departs at 12 noon and returns at 3 pm. The DOE Facilities Public Bus Tour is included with AMSE admission, when the visitor registers for the tour. Space is limited and is based on a first come, first served basis. Some restrictions apply. The DOE Facilities Public Bus Tour runs once daily Monday through Friday, except government holidays (July 5 & 6), through September 3, 2010.
Visitors can take the boardwalk to the 1940's original Flattop house with period furnishings. One of the first pre-fab types of housing made by trailer companies in Indiana and Michigan, the 576 sq.ft. two-bedroom, one-bath flattop conveys a time when form and function of a structure met the wartime needs of a young family. See the original kitchen cabinets, metal shower, small closets and artifacts that make a house a home.
“Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace” exhibition has landed at AMSE through June 20. The beloved beagle Snoopy, created by Charles M. Schultz in his Peanuts comic strip, coincides with the military emphasis of the Secret City Festival. AMSE visitors encounter Snoopy as he battles the Red Baron, a German fighter pilot, who was the ace of aces during World War I. Snoopy was introduced in his Flying Ace persona atop his Sopwith Camel (doghouse) bi-plane on October 10, 1965 by Schultz, a WWII veteran who served in France and Germany. The Snoopy Flying Ace adventures ran for 34 years with 400 strips and appeared for the last time on November 28, 1999.
AMSE visitors can view 40 high quality reproduction prints of Schultz's original design of Snoopy as the Flying Ace. Explore the beagle's life in the 100 Snoopy Flying Ace collectibles, Snoopy art and Snoopy cartoons that feature his sly humor and endless imagination.
In addition to the interactive science exhibits and live demonstrations AMSE features, visitors can “Discover Life In America: All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory” being discovered in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park ecosystem. Through captivating illustrations of the Smokies plants, animals and micro-organisms, the public can see first hand the diversity of nature of the most visited U.S National Park in the AMSE lobby exhibition on view through September 26.
The American Museum of Science and Energy, located at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm and Sunday from 1 - 5 pm. For more information on AMSE, visit on www.amse.org or call (865) 576-3200.
Immediate Release: June 2, 2010