Planning for the 2025 SIA Fall Tour in East Tennessee continues! Mark your calendars for Sept. 25–28 to join us in Knoxville. This “scruffy little city,” so nicknamed just before the 1982 World’s Fair, is situated within the Tennessee Valley, formed by the Appalachian Mountains to the east and the Cumberland Mountains to the west, providing a topography characterized by isolated “hollers” historically prone to flooding. The tribulations of this Appalachian region inspired the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933, the largest public utility in the U.S. SIA members will tour Norris Dam, the first TVA-built hydroelectric facility, and additional TVA facilities en route to other locations.

The region’s topography also attracted top-secret atomic weapons facilities and an associated “Secret City” developed by the federal government during the Manhattan Project. After WWII, Oak Ridge was officially placed on the map, and two of the military sites developed during the war continued operations, becoming world-famous research institutions. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has retained the original anchor of the X-10 site: the Clinton Pile, also known as the X-10 Graphite Reactor, the world’s first continuously operating artificial nuclear reactor. This historic resource was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and will be a highlight of the SIA Fall Tour. Attendees will also visit the K-25 History Center and the footprint of the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which at a mile long was the world’s longest roofed building in early 1945. The tour will also visit the extant buildings of the confidential community.

Private industrial sites will also be featured, including one of the state’s many tile factories. Access to raw materials makes the area a hotbed for international investment in tile production (90% of all U.S. tile utilizes Tennessee ball Norris Dam on the Clinch River, Tenn. clay). Several tours will highlight food and beverage processing, including the home of Bush’s Beans, the Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary and Distillery, and Sweetwater Valley Farm, where robots milk Holstein cows in the production of farmstead cheeses. Finally, no trip to the Marble City would be complete without visiting a historic quarry, many of which have been incorporated into Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness.

Stay tuned for confirmed schedule and hotel arrangements. Coordinators for the Fall Tour are Sarah Anderson (sanderson@etdd.org) and Erik Nordberg (enordber@utm. edu). Info: www.sia-web.org.