This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including

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They're some of our favorites.

In 1938, German scientists learned the power of splitting an atom, and with that,

they gained a huge head start and what was truly the first nuclear arms race.

But instead of a stockpile, the race was to just get it right and then maybe they could replicate the results.

In the town that housed the bulk of the work of the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge, Tennessee,

there was a single photographer, Ed Westcott.

This is the story that led to the end of World War II and the one man that photographed it all. Here's Arthur Richard Cook with his story.

In August of 1934, President Hindenburg of Germany died.

Chancellor Hitler moved quickly to consolidate the office of President and Chancellor

and molded it into a new position as dictator.

His new title was Fura. A national referendum weeks later

was approved by 90 percent of the voters. Meanwhile in Nashville Tennessee

Ed Westcott's father after saving for a year about 12 year oldyear-old Ed, his first camera.

They found a used mobile lunch wagon, which they renovated into a dark room.

Family, friends, and neighbors could get film developed for 50 cents a roll.

He was largely self-taught. He started working with portrait studios in Nashville while

still a teenager. There were clues in East Tennessee in September of 1942. A press release

published in newspapers said the military was building an ammunition testing range outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.

This partially explained the condemnation of 58,000 acres by the government.

The reports in newspapers were a total lie.

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