James B. Osbon

Sand River James B. Osbon

A small, horsey, winter resort town, Aiken, South Carolina, is forced through a major upheaval when the United States Atomic Energy Commission announces and then constructs a massive nuclear weapons plant during the beginning of the Cold War. The project is enormous in every respect, requiring 8,000 people to build it and as many as 22,000 employees to run it when completed. When it began operations, it encompassed 310 square miles and occupied a significant portion of two existing South Carolina counties. The main characters in "Sand River" include a promising orphaned baseball player destined for the Major Leagues and his best friend, who happens to be a pretty girl. All of the characters must adjust their lives to the changes brought on by the arrival of the plant, but one of them stumbles onto a disturbing secret that disrupts two entire families and causes everyone in the story into a new behavior and onto a different path. The terrible secret would compel one of the characters to disappear for years.