The people of Ellenton showed their frustration with the Savannah River Plant's seizing of their town by posting their own signs. SPECIAL

Emotions over plant were mixed

Web posted Friday, November 3, 2000

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By Eric Williamson
Staff Writer

After a bomb is dropped, there are shock waves.

In the Augusta area, those shock waves occurred Nov. 28, 1950. Residents at ``ground zero'' received with differing emotions the announcement that the Atomic Energy Commission would build a nuclear materials plant 20 miles south of Augusta in South Carolina.

But they all agreed at some level that the event would change their lives, and the future of the region, profoundly.

History has proved that collective gut reaction correct.

With World War II not even a decade in the past, and with the Cold War growing with Russia's testing of nuclear weaponry, the South felt ill at ease, along with the rest of the nation. Even if there had been no declarations, it was clear from President Truman's presidential directive to build the plant that a war effort was under way.

Strom Thurmond, who was governor of South Carolina at the time, welcomed news of his state being selected to build the plant.

``We are glad that South Carolina and its people will have a part in preparing this nation to maintain a free world,'' Mr. Thurmond said after the release of the news. ``The citizens of our state will cooperate to everything possible in promoting the defense of the nation.''

The magnitude of the announced $260 million H-bomb materials site inspired many fears, anxieties and questions.

Front page of The Augusta Chronicle announcing the construction of an H-bomb facility in South Carolina. The plant would become the Savannah River Plant, then later the Savannah River Site, or SRS. SPECIAL

When would affected residents have to move, and how would they be compensated for their property?

How would the surrounding area meet the demands of a soon-to-multiply population?

And would area residents be at risk of nuclear contamination or an attack by a foreign nation?

``You'll find some people who think we're going to get bombed off the map,'' Ellenton Town Councilman Horace Cassels said in the days shortly after the announcement. ``But anyone who has got any sense will realize that this is the beginning of the future.''

Dutiful patriots

A headline in The Augusta Chronicle above an Associated Press story read, ``Hardships for many: New Savannah River AEC plant to sweep residents from area effectively as bomb.''

Another headline read, ``Ellenton's residents stunned, but accept news patriotically.''

Although residents of Jackson and Snelling were spared the forced relocation, for residents of Dunbarton, Meyers Mill and Ellenton it was not a question of if - but when - they would have to leave.

Dr. Fred C. Brinkley, a former state senator from Aiken County who maintained a medical practice in Ellenton for 40 years, commented at the time that he would face the transition bravely.

``It is rather crushing to have to give up your home, the land you love and most of all your friends,'' he said. ``But if it is the best for my country, and knowing others are sacrificing so much more, then I am willing to give it up.''

Joanne Zobel was a 22-year-old teacher from the area working at the time in West Columbia.

``I had come in from school, and my landlady's son threw a paper, the Columbia Record, down and said, `Now Dunbarton will be on the map!' I read the headlines and called my parents, and they were shocked,'' she said. ``Everybody was in a state of shock.''

The retiree, whose husband worked at the plant for a number of years, said the announcement threw a kink in just about everybody's plans, both long and short term.

``I was planning to get married in June,'' she said recently, ``and I heard they were going to tear the church (Dunbarton Baptist) down, and I was mad about that.''

She said her principal allowed her to take time off early in order to use the church before it was destroyed.

``We got married in March. We were the last couple to marry in the church before it was torn down,'' she added.

Bitter end

Anne Loadholt, also a former educator, says that although she was just a child at the time, the images are imbedded in her mind.

``I remember the houses that were moved and the graves that were moved. I remember the sadness of the people, but I don't remember the anger,'' she said recently. Because of her age, she might have been shielded from much of the hard feelings, she acknowledged.

One man who still has bitter memories is Edwin R. ``Pink'' Sanders. Mr. Sanders was 25, taking his senior exams at The Citadel, when he heard the news. He had already spent 3´ years in the Army.

``It was announced the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1950,'' he said. ``We had a meeting at the schoolhouse in old Ellenton the Monday after.''

He said that meeting, at which a representative from the Army Corps of Engineers spoke, was the beginning of a series of letdowns by the government.

Mr. Sanders said he believed property owners weren't always compensated fairly for their land and the homes or businesses on the land.

Furthermore, he said, residents had been told everybody who lived in the area could get jobs at the plant if they were qualified. But, ``I don't think I could name you 20 people who were residents of the area who retired from the plant.''

Reflecting on the once-thriving town of Ellenton, which had a number of industries, including a successful crate-manufacturing plant, Mr. Sanders said it saddened him to see outsiders come in and benefit financially while many with roots there took financial turns for the worse.

``Alex Haley stated in his book about roots, `We don't have any.' ... By us giving up our homes and our way of life, we established the largest job base in the state of South Carolina, and we reaped nothing from it,'' Mr. Sanders said.

Optimism, opportunism

Although not everyone cashed in, it was clear that many would benefit in a big way from the new plant.

It was a mind-boggling capital infusion. According to one headline, ``Cost of AEC plant exceeded total volume of Carolina bank deposits in 1948.''

That was heartening news for economic development officials, who seemed united in backing the plant from the beginning.

Suddenly, one little, unnoticed corner of the Southeast was on the front page of just about every newspaper in the nation. Reporters converged on the region.

The unemployment offices in both Georgia and South Carolina were swamped with applications for work at the mammoth new employer.

Even as local governments formed - with some apprehension - committees to study the impact of the forecasted growth, the official motto was: ``Welcome.''

What area residents said

``Eventually, the entire Central Savannah River area will reap benefits from all these things.''- Sen. Edgar Brown, president pro tempore of the South Carolina Senate

``(I) cried myself to sleep one night.''- Lucille Hays of Ellenton

``We didn't know it would absorb us. It's like having a death in the family, going to the funeral, then returning home and realizing the emptiness of the house.''- H.M. Cassels, banker, mortician, dairyman, merchant and farmer, who said he thought it would be a big plant of some kind ... and make Ellenton ``boom''

``This will change Aiken from a resort town to a boom town.''- Optometrist Dr. W.C. Bush

``We're getting our share of highly desirable citizens. The churches are packed with unfamiliar faces each Sunday.''- A clerk at the Allendale post office

``I don't like the idea much. I've always loved a small town, and this will make Aiken a thriving metropolis in no time.''- Aiken Coroner Jimmy Gregory

``Frankly, none of us know as yet just what will be needed. Our job is to try to find out, as far as possible and as quickly as possible, what must be done to meet these new school needs. We will take immediate steps to do so and will then try to move as fast as possible to meet the new situation.''- T.M. Nickles, president of the Richmond County Board of Education

``Since the plant is to be located 20 miles south of Augusta, the state of Georgia will be vitally affected. A large portion of the employees will reside in Georgia. It will add tremendously to Augusta's trade and will tax the present housing, hospital and school facilities in the area.''- Georgia Gov. Herman Talmadge

``I don't know how to express myself, it's an awful feeling, but let's all move some place together.''- W.T. Phillips, an Ellenton pulpwood engineer

Reach Eric Williamson at (706) 828-3904.

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