Category: The Oak Ridge Connection

Cudjo’s Cave, Cumberland Gap Tunnel, and World Events: A Timeline

UPDATED April 11: the date of 1942 added to reflect the Allied forces discovering the Nazis using saltpeter to make heavy water for nuclear bombs in Norway.

1740- Caves in the western portion of Virgina are mined for saltpeter, also known as nitre, a crucial ingredient in gunpowder

1765-1783 and 1812-1815- The American Revolution and War of 1812. The saltpeter caves in Virginia continue to be a valuable source of nitre needed for the war efforts

1815-1860- Consumption of western Virginia nitre increased so much the caves could no longer keep up: the state had to import nitre to satisfy the demand

1861-1865- The Civil War. If nitre production was going to be profitable for Virginia and the Confederacy in the war effort, they had to find more saltpeter caves and invest capital in their development.  The Confederacy established the Nitre Corps (which became the Nitre and Mining Bureau) to this effect. Their efforts were successful; Virginia nitre production easily kept up with the military demands.

–NOTE: Because of their deep underground location, the scattered saltpeter caves were valued by the Confederate military, as they proved to be an elusive target for enemy forces. (1. Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy)

1920- Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate TN purchases Cudjo’s Caverns (one of the Virginia saltpeter caves) from private owners, including the caves known as Soldiers Cave and King Solomon’s Cave.

Although originally separate caves, these two caves “were connected by a passageway and a larger main entrance by blasting and tunneling” although the date this connection was accomplished is unknown. We do know the caves remained separate at least as late as 1937. (2. Thacker, 212)

1939- World War II begins

1940- Congress authorizes the acquisition of land in the Cumberland Gap area for Cumberland Gap National Park, only after language is omitted from the Act calling it a “recreational area” (3)

1941- Pearl Harbor attacked, the United States enters WWII

1942-Allied Forces discover a Nazi-occupied Norwegian hydroelectric plant that also makes fertilizer out of saltpeter. They discover the real purpose of this plant: the production of heavy water, an essential component of nuclear weapons.

1947
-the start of the Cold War

-the title to Cudjo’s Cave (also known as Saltpeter Cave) is signed over to the state of Virginia and eventually transferred to the federal Park. Originally, the saltpeter cave was a separate holding within the National Park.

1954- a Masonic lodge, Martin’s Station Lodge No. 188 opens 1000 feet below Cumberland Mountain in Cudjo’s Cave. 345 Masons are present for the conferring of a Master Mason degree. (4)

1955- Although acquired in 1940, the Park was not opened to the public until 15 years later in 1955. (5)

1972- in November, hijackers threaten to crash plane into the Oak Ridge nuclear complex in Tennessee (6)

1973- Congress tells the National Park to construct the tunnels under Cumberland Gap (5)

1990 to 1991-  The Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield) begins, leading to Operation Desert Storm
– Construction of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel begins (5)

1992- the federal government closes Cudjo’s Caverns to the public indefinitely

1996- the Cumberland Gap Tunnel opens. The road to Cudjo’s Cave and over Cumberland Gap is removed soon after.(5)

It is 2015, and only recently did the Park start allowing very limited access to Cudjo’s Cave. See my post here about Cudjo’s Cave.

 

The federal government has had a keen interest in the saltpeter caves of western Virginia (including Cudjo’s Cave) from the 1700’s. As our government becomes less transparent, it’s hard to ignore the coincidental timing of Congress to act on the development of these caves, the Cumberland Gap area and the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in relation to world events, specifically military conflicts.

Coincidence? Or conspiracy?

Sources:
1. Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy;  http://dmme.virginia.gov/dgmr/civilwar_niter.shtml

2. Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia; Thacker, Larry. 2007

3. Cumberland Gap National Historic Park; Luckett, William. 1964
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/cuga/luckett/index.htm

4. “York Lodge No. 22 Bulletin”; 2010
http://www.masonsinmaine.org/york22/TB112010.pdf

5. “Cumberland Gap Tunnel marks fifteenth anniversary”; Simmons, Morgon. 2011  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/nation-and-world/cumberland-gap-tunnel-marks-15th-anniversary

6. “Convicted hijacker  shares story; details 1972 threat to Oak Ridge”; Welsch, Anthony. 2011 http://archive.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=170845

 

How a nun helped prove the nuclear weapons labs have left Oak Ridge

Did you hear about the 80 year-old nun who broke into Oak Ridge with bolt cutters? No, this isn’t a joke.

Consider the glaring examples from this incident that bolsters support for the theory the nuclear weapons laboratories in Oak Ridge have been relocated:

An 80-year old nun, and two men, 63 years-old and 57-years-old, cut their way through the fences and spent hours on the Y-12 facility grounds before finally being arrested.

This is supposed to be the only facility in the United States where weapons-grade uranium is processed and stored. This is some of the most radioactive material on earth.

Clearly neither the NNSA (National Nuclear Safety Administration), NSA, CIA nor the Department of Homeland Security were very concerned about the Y-12 breach. In fact one report stated the trio did trigger security sensors- but these organizations have no answer why the intruders weren’t stopped.

From the Reuters article:

Barfield [spokeswoman for the activists] forwarded a statement from the group in which it said the activists had passed through four fences and walked for “over two hours” before reaching the uranium storage building, on which they hung banners and strung crime-scene tape.

From CNN:

Hours later, the three activists were finally confronted by a guard after hoisting banners, spray-painting messages and splattering human blood on a building that houses highly enriched uranium.

Hours later. Let that sink in. Weapons grade uranium and they are there for hours before a lone guard finally arrests them. Does that make any sense?

I have an answer why they weren’t stopped: there is very little security because I believe there is no weapons-grade uranium there. Why spend resources protecting empty buildings? You wouldn’t, especially as cash-strapped and debt-laden as our government is. It is the only thing that makes sense.

The breach occurred on a Friday. The facility was finally locked down almost five days later, on Wednesday. What took so long?

Someone finally realized, maybe they should act a little more concerned, otherwise, people might figure out there wasn’t anything left there to guard. So almost five days later, they decided to get grave and concerned, temporarily shuttering the plant. From the Reuters article cited above:

“We’re taking this very, very seriously,” added Steve Wyatt, a spokesman for the NNSA office in Oak Ridge, which supervises the activities of Y-12 contractors.

Sure you are, Steve. Sure you are.

Consider this: it’s after the terrorist attacks of 9-11. You are building a new weapons-grade uranium processing facility. You have two choices:
  1. Will you build the new facility aboveground on a campus that everyone already considers the nucleus of nuclear weapon building?
  2. Or are you going to put the facility underground, inside the mountain miles away from where everyone believes it is?

It’s a no-brainer. If data centers are sensitive enough to be put underground post 9-11, then you can bet our nuclear weapons program has gone underground too:

On the demand side, an increase in extreme weather events, heightened concerns about security since 9/11 and the need to provide higher levels of security…have made these spaces more attractive to some organizations. Underground facilities offer security and structural protections that would be cost prohibitive to build from scratch.

A multinational security firm provided the security for the Y-12 site, not the U.S. military.

Multinational security firm G4S, the contractor at the time, had offices in China, Russia, and India, among other places, at the same time they were supposedly guarding our nation’s nuclear weapon complex.

Do you really think our nation’s national nuclear security rests on a company with interests in China and Russia? I hope we haven’t gotten that gullible yet. Again, the simpler answer is, there is no sensitive nuclear weapons building, uranium enrichment or storage going on at the Y-12 site.

Very little media coverage of the security breach at the “nuclear Fort Knox”

An eighty year-old nun breaking into the Y-12 Oak Ridge nuclear complex is a significantly newsworthy event. Yet there was such little media coverage of the event that people in surrounding communities hadn’t even heard of the incident. From Greg Mitchell’s “Nun, Two Others, Sentenced to Prison for Incident at Oak Ridge Nuclear Site“:

There was very little coverage of the trial itself, nothing like the Harrisburg case received four decades ago, and the Knoxville local news and the AP, in their reporting, kept referring to the defendants as the Y-12 trespassers, not the Oak Ridge 3, thereby de-nationalising the case.

Why did they de-nationalize the case and control what the media reported and how much air time the story received? To keep people from realizing the nuclear weapons complex had been moved, like the evidence seems to support.

I am not the sharpest tool in the tool shed. But if I can figure out there’s a real chance our nuclear weapons program has been relocated, I am confident our enemies have already figured it out, too. That means there is a community somewhere close that is now a target…and they don’t even know it.

What’s most disconcerting is this community is at risk of radiation as well as beryllium exposure without their knowledge or consent. (Beryllium is a rare earth metal crucial to the nuclear industry. Although it is not radioactive, in certain persons even the tiniest exposure can be fatal.)  People have/had a choice to live and/or work in Oak Ridge. The people where this weapons-grade uranium is now being stored, do not.

Could it be the reason our lung cancer rates and cancer rates in general are so much higher in the 5th Congressional District than the rest of Kentucky, even though smoking habits are the same?