Stories
Y-12 preserves the past for the future
The dedication of New Hope Cemetery in October marks the completion of its renovation.
A dedication ceremony recently was held at New Hope Cemetery to honor the family members of those displaced in the New Hope Community in 1942 for the war effort.
"New Hope Cemetery is one of the many indications of history that goes beyond the bricks and mortar of Y‑12," Steve Liedle, BWXT Y‑12 acting general manager, told the crowd attending the cemetery's recent dedication.
The dedication of the cemetery marked the completion of its renovation, which included landscaping the area and erecting a new rustic wooden fence and informational kiosk describing the history of the cemetery. Y‑12 volunteers also cleaned all the headstones and footstones to remove algae, and trimmed concrete borders around the graves.
Many of the people buried in New Hope Cemetery are members of the families that once owned the land where Y‑12 is now. Occasional burials continue to take place in the cemetery, where there are 223 graves, the oldest dating back to 1878.
Efforts to preserve the cemetery are part of Y‑12's commitment to preserve historical information, artifacts, buildings and structures according to the National Historic Preservation Act. As a key component to the WWII Manhattan Project, the Y‑12 site has a wealth of historic data that continue to be documented.
"Just about anywhere that you look at Y‑12, there are items relating to the Manhattan Project that have historic significance," said Historical Preservation Act coordinator Jennifer Dixon. "I think we sometimes take that for granted because we see it every day. You really have to step back and look at it from a historic perspective."
The National Historic Preservation Act, created in 1966, is the nation's largest piece of legislation regarding historic preservation. All federal agencies (including the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration) are responsible for adhering to the act's mandates, which include identifying, collecting and preserving items that provide insight into a historic site's past.
Dixon said Y‑12 has begun preservation efforts that include taking oral histories from current and former employees, salvaging artifacts from soon-to-be-demolished buildings and videotaping the historic "look and feel" of the site. The recent public tours of the Beta 3 calutrons produced a number of unsolicited oral histories when many members of the tour party began to reminisce about their duties at Y‑12 in the 1940s.