The coordinates bring you to the Y-12 History Center, a public museum dedicated to one of the original production facilities of the Manhattan Project. Visitors can enjoy many historic displays and videos here. The museum is open Monday - Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Located in the New Hope Center, the address is 602 Scarboro Rd in Oak Ridge, TN. Driving directions can be found here.
Visitor parking is available near the front entrance. There are three pairs of doors as you approach. Look for the small silver box to the right of the first pair of doors. Press the button and, if asked, say that you are here to visit the History Center. You will hear the lock click and push on the door to the right of the button.
When you enter, the History Center room is to your left and directly ahead is a long hallway with several displays about Y-12. Enjoy some fascinating history as you seek answers from the information available to solve for the final location of this multi-cache.
N35 59.8AB W084 13.9CD
A - During the war years the entire city of Oak Ridge was behind seven gates. Every person over 12 years old had to wear a badge. Find the display in the History Center that has two resident badges. One is a lady and the other is a youth. Take the badge number on the youth badge and subtract 73 from the last two digits of this badge number to get "A".
B - Look around at the various tools and instruments used during the Manhattan Project. Consider how these compare to what we use today. Find the display with electrical instruments. Look for the "MILLIVOLTMETER 1943." Take the Model number shown there and subtract 36 to get "B".
C - After the end of World War II in December 1946 nearly all the calutrons in Y-12 were shut down, removed, and most of the silver borrowed from the U. S. Treasury was returned. Then the era of "Atoms for Peace” began. The remaining calutrons continued to make history by creating stable isotopes used to make radioactive material for medical, industrial, and research applications. Look for the display of "LOG BOOKS for stable Isotope Process.". Find the page containing a table and get the Mass No. for the first sample on the list. Subtract 83 from this number to get "C".
D - After the fall of the Soviet Union, Y-12 took the lead in global threat reduction efforts to secure nuclear materials. In 1994 the government of Kazakhstan secretly asked the U. S. for help in handling 600 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium they found in one of their closed cities. The fear was that this poorly protected nuclear material would reach the hands of terrorists or hostile powers. Y-12 got the call to secure the vulnerable materials and the secret mission (code name: Project Sapphire) was successfully completed. Find the Project Sapphire display in the History Center. There you will see an official photo with the caption that begins: "STAINLESS STEEL CAN OF HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM..." Locate the "Image ID" of this photograph and subtract 3 from the last digit to get "D".
Many thanks to D. Ray Smith, the Y-12 Historian, for his help in creating this cache and for granting permission to locate this multi-cache stage here.
Please sign the museum’s visitor log and include your hometown plus a note that your visit included geocaching. We want to show how our activity attracts people from near and far.
The physical cache contains a log only. BYOP. Please replace as found.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Congratulations to Lostnspace for getting the First To Find!