BusinessTN

If you are an economic development official trying to increase the national profile of Oak Ridge, it probably doesn't help that your town was literally not on the map until the late 1940s (or even existing a decade earlier).

Nicknamed the Secret City, Oak Ridge was established in the early 1940s as a location for the processing of uranium and plutonium as part of the Manhattan Project. The secrecy surrounding it created a profile for decades afterwards best described as muted, as even its central role in something as historically relevant as the development of the atomic bomb has been slow to seep into the public's consciousness.

"A lot of people don't know about our history, unfortunately, and we're trying to correct that," says Nicky Reynolds, director of communications of the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau.

While there are plenty of big steps that can be taken to redress decades of being off and under the radar -- the 8th annual Secret City Festival will be held in June -- there are plenty of small steps, as well.

To that end, another World War legend, of sorts, will do his part to draw more eyes to Oak Ridge when a traveling exhibition titled "Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace" opens at Oak Ridge's American Museum of Science and Energy from May 15 to June 20.

Organized by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, in Santa Rosa, Calif., and regional arts organization, Exhibits USA, the exhibit features 170 running feet of 40 high-resolution prints, accompanied by photographs of Peanuts writer and illustrator, Charles M. Schulz, and related text and video. Each print chronicles the daydreams of Snoopy's alter ego, a World War I pilot who battles the Red Baron in the skies over Europe from his dog house-turned Sopwith Camel airplane.

"We've been on rotation to receive this exhibit for about three years," says Lissa Clarke, the museum's public information officer. It's a change of pace for the nuclear energy-focused museum, which attracts visitors from 50 states and 20 countries each year and rarely sees collections from American popular culture. "In our archives, we have some editorial cartoon art from the 1940s -- mostly Charlie Daniels cartoons -- but we have not had one like this before," Clarke says.

The coveted exhibit is in the midst of a five-year, 28-location tour that begin July 2006 and ends June 2011. "This exhibit is fully booked," says Ramona Davis, exhibitor relations coordinator of Exhibits USA. The stop in Oak Ridge was made possible by funding from Realty Executive Associates of Oak Ridge, who helped pick up the $1,600 rental fee for five weeks of display.

It may seem a whimsical choice for a town involved in something as momentous as the Manhattan Project, but Schulz's beagle is one of the world's most adored and recognized comic strip characters. Though the battle to go from well-kept secret to well-known locale may not be an easy one, no matter the war and no matter the mission, it never hurts to have Snoopy on your side.