Fair America (eBook)

The expo site was a 65-acre plot not far from downtown known as Lower Second Creek, a stream running the length of the city, partly in a tunnel. The proposed site has little public access and a railroad track running through it. Expo planners thought the stream and the rest of the site could be cleaned up and made useful. By the time of the fair, the stream had been buried and a shallow 4-acre pond, called Waters of the World, had been constructed, but the railroad track proved too expensive to move and remained in place throughout the fair. Pedestrian bridges over the track allowed visitors to get from one side of the fairgrounds to the other.

The theme of the exposition, contrived in the context of the energy crisis of the mid-1970s, was Energy Turns the World, and it seemed fitting inasmuch as Knoxville was the home of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a regional energy system built during the 1930s. In addition, Knoxville lies near Oak Ridge, the site of the National Atomic Energy Laboratory, and is not far from the coal deposits in the Cumberland Mountains. Exhibits from 24 nations, 30 corporations, and seven states generally reflected the theme, although it could best be seen in the $21.1 million US pavilion, which included an IMAX film on America's energy resources and numerous exhibits on energy availability and use in the United States. An interactive video system allowed visitors to express their opinions about energy issues, and other video displays informed visitors about different forms of energy production. Most of the international participants hewed to the energy theme as well in their pavilions, although Egypt, Peru, and China all displayed historical relics, and Hungary's exhibit focused on the then popular Rubik's Cube, developed by Hungarian mathematician Erno Rubik.