The Indiana Army Ammunition Plant was an Army manufacturing plant built in 1941 between Charlestown and Jeffersonville, Indiana. It consisted of three areas within two separate but attached manufacturing plants:
In 1940 it was announced that the world's largest smokeless powder plant would be built near Charlestown, as the land was close to the Ohio River, giving it the water necessary for making smokeless powder, and the fact that the land was cheap because parts of it were unsuitable for farming, and because few individuals lived on it. The plant was built and operated as a Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) facility. [1]
Actual building of IOW Plant 1, a six line plant with support facilities, started on September 4, 1940, although officially it started on August 28, and was completed on May 31, 1942. The first line was put into production in April 1941. The IOW facilities were built and operated initially by E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. During World War II the production of this plant exceeded the total World War I production of all other smokeless powder producing plants in the US. During the Korean War, DuPont cleaned away the excess powder and restarted production in 1950. The plant ran a maximum capacity with 3,000 employees until 1954.
IOW Plant 2, designed as a three line facility for the production of double base rocket propellant, was started in November 1944 but stopped, without completion, on V-J Day. All areas except the powder storage facilities were placed in caretaker status. In September 1960 all stored powder was removed and 1,546.62 acres (6.2589 km2) were submitted to GSA as excess. The remaining 2,757.49 acres (11.1592 km2) were utilized as woodland, crop land, and the site of a new automated black powder manufacturing facility.
The Hoosier Ordnance Plant was built by W-H-M-S Construction company (Winston Brothers, Haglin, Missouri Valley and Solitt) and operated by Goodyear Engineering Corporation (GEC). Production started in September 1941 and continued until V-J Day in 1945. Layaway was completed in February 1946. Limited production resumed in 1950 until a rehabilitation of the facility was completed in 1952. Goodyear took complete control over production in July 1952 under a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract and continued until layaway of the facility in September 1957. Employment at the HOP during this period reached a high of 8,067 in August 1953, during the Korean War.
In May, 1941, the three plants employed 27,520 people, which helped the area recover from the Great Depression.
The three plants were combined as the Indiana Arsenal under War Department Circular No. 329 on November 30, 1945, and renamed the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant in August 1963 by Department of the Army General Order No. 35.
In March 1959, Goodyear took over maintenance of all plants, and was succeeded by Liberty Powder Defense Corporation in November 1959. Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation dissolved Liberty Powder (an operating unit) and assumed control effective October 1, 1962 and continued operations until April 1972, when it was succeeded by ICI Americas. After disposal of Plant 2, the plant had 10,655 acres (43 km2), 1,700 buildings, 30 miles (50 km) of fence, 84 miles (135 km) of railroad track, and 190 miles (310 km) of roads. [2]
In June 1960, 67.26 acres (272,200 m2) of Plant 1 was turned over to Clark County, which uses it as the site of the 4-H Center.
 | This section needs to be updated.(March 2023) |
The ammunition manufacturing facility, placed into modified caretaker status in 1992, was operated by ICI Americas as Facility I (an industrial park), and approved for transfer to the INAAP Reuse Authority (a Local Reuse Authority, or LRA) by congressional action. It became the River Ridge Commerce Center. Title to 3,000 acres (12 km2) was transferred to the LRA in October 2007 and transfer of another 3,000 acres (12 km2) located in Plant 1 after it was cleaned up.
4,500 acres (18 km2) were transferred to the State of Indiana and is operated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as Charlestown State Park.
E W Wells Group, an environmental company based in Dallas Texas, is performing a portion of the explosive residue threat removal and building demolitions operations. The final stages of plant cleanup were scheduled for completion by 31 December 2014.
The final land transfer to River Ridge Development Authority took place in October 2016. A large amount of land along the Ohio River which includes the River Ridge houses was deeded to Charlestown State Park. The U.S. Corps of Engineers officially moved out on 31 October 2016.
3 things happened to the land
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance. These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not so quickly as to routinely destroy the barrel of the gun.
Clark County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana, located directly across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. At the 2020 census, the population was 121,093. The county seat is Jeffersonville. Clark County is part of the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY–IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Smokeless powder, also referred to as gunpowder, is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to around 55% solid products for black powder. In addition, smokeless powder does not leave the thick, heavy fouling of hygroscopic material associated with black powder that causes rusting of the barrel.
The Newport Chemical Depot, previously known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, was a 6,990-acre (28.3 km2) bulk chemical storage and destruction facility that was operated by the United States Army. It is located near Newport, in west central Indiana, thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. The site was used as a production site for the solid explosives trinitrotoluene and RDX, as well as for heavy water. It also served as the production site for all of the U.S. military's nerve agent VX, when it was in use. All VX nerve agent at the site was neutralized by August 8, 2008. It was the third of the Army's nine chemical depots to completely destroy its stockpile.
The Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant was a smokeless powder and propellant manufacturing facility in De Soto within Johnson County, Kansas. Constructed after the attack on Pearl Harbor pushed the United States into World War II, it was the largest ammunition plant in the world during operation. At the time of operations, the plant was located in northwest unincorporated Johnson County, Kansas, owned by the United States Government, and operated under contract, primarily by Hercules Aerospace Company.
The Alabama Army Ammunition Plant (ALAAP), was a United States munitions plant built and operated during World War II. The facility is located four miles (6 km) north of Childersburg, Alabama in Talladega County, Alabama.
The Picatinny Arsenal is an American military research and manufacturing facility located on 6,400 acres (26 km2) of land in Jefferson and Rockaway Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, encompassing Picatinny Lake and Lake Denmark. The Arsenal is the headquarters of the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center. It is known for developing the ubiquitous Picatinny rail, as well as being the Army's center of expertise for small arms cartridge ammunition.
The Jefferson Proving Ground, located near Madison, Indiana, is a former munitions testing facility of Test and Evaluation Command of the United States Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command. The grounds of JPG serve as a wildlife refuge, as well as a gunnery range. Department of Defense organizations and private contractors are assigned to the area.
James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center is an Ohio Army National Guard military base in the U.S. state of Ohio located between Ravenna and Newton Falls and adjacent to the village of Windham. It was previously known as Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center, the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site, and the Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant (RVAAP) and commonly known as the Ravenna Arsenal. Before its present status as a training facility for the Ohio National Guard, Camp James A. Garfield was a military ammunition production facility for the United States Army. As an arsenal, the facility was at peak operation during World War II and would serve as an ammunitions plant in various roles until 1992. Camp James A. Garfield remains an important part of the history and geography of Portage County. The facility occupies portions of Freedom, Windham, Charlestown, and Paris townships in Portage County, along with part of Braceville Township in Trumbull County.
Weldon Spring Ordnance Works (WSOW) was a 17,323-acre (70.10 km2) U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facility in St. Charles County, Missouri, 55 km west of St. Louis. The site was originally operated by the Atlas Powder Company during World War II from 1941 to 1945 to produce explosives. The Atomic Energy Commission acquired part of the property in 1955, and Mallinckrodt, Inc. processed uranium ore from 1957 to 1966 under contract. The site has been divided into several parcels, and ownership has transferred over the years. Two portions of the original WSOW property are now Superfund sites that require substantial cleanup efforts. The environmental remediation of the WSOW site is currently designated as a major project of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program of the United States Department of Defense. Part of the original property is still used by the Army Reserve as the Weldon Spring Training Area.
Joliet Army Ammunition Plant (JOAAP, formerly known as the Joliet Arsenal) was a United States Army arsenal located in Will County, Illinois, near Elwood, Illinois, south of Joliet, Illinois. Opened in 1940 during World War II, the facility consisted of the Elwood Ordnance Plant (EOP) and the Kankakee Ordnance Works (KNK). In 1945, the two were deactivated and combined forming the Joliet Arsenal. The plant was reactivated for the Korean War and renamed Joliet Army Ammunition Plant during the Vietnam War. Production of TNT ended in 1976, and the major plant operations closed shortly after in the late 1970s. The facility briefly revived an automated load-assemble-pack (LAP) artillery shell operation that was managed by the Honeywell Corporation during the Reagan administration in the 1980s before it was finally closed.
The Badger Army Ammunition Plant or Badger Ordnance Works (B.O.W.) is an excess, non-BRAC, United States Army facility located near Sauk City, Wisconsin. It manufactured nitrocellulose-based propellants during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It was a large munitions factory during World War II. As of 2013, the facility was in the end stages of demolition and remediation in preparation for property transfer.
Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RFAAP) is an ammunition manufacturing complex for the U.S. military with facilities located in Pulaski and Montgomery Counties, Virginia. The primary mission of the RFAAP is to manufacture propellants and explosives in support of field artillery, air defense, tank, missile, aircraft, and naval weapons systems. As of 2011 RFAAP is operated by BAE Systems under contract to the US Army Joint Munitions Command. The current Commander for the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP) is LTC Russell A. Jones.
Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA) in Crane, Indiana produces and provides conventional munitions requirements in support of United States Army and Joint Force readiness. It is one of 17 installations of the Joint Munitions Command and one of 23 organic industrial bases under the U.S. Army Materiel Command, which include arsenals, depots, activities and ammunition plants. Established in October 1977, it is located on Naval Support Activity Crane.
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) is a weapons manufacturing facility for the United States Department of Defense in McAlester, Oklahoma, US. The facility is part of the US Army Joint Munitions Command. Its mission is to produce and renovate conventional ammunition and ammunition related components. The plant stores war reserve and training ammunition. McAlester performs manufacturing, industrial engineering, and production product assurance. The plant also receives, demilitarizes, and disposes of conventional ammunition components. The plant is the largest, in terms of storage, housing close to one-third of the Department of Defense's munitions stockpile.
Improved military rifle propellants are tubular nitrocellulose propellants evolved from World War I through World War II for loading military and commercial ammunition and sold to civilians for reloading rifle ammunition for hunting and target shooting. These propellants were DuPont modifications of United States artillery propellants. DuPont miniaturized the large artillery grains to form military rifle propellants suitable for use in small arms. These were improved during the first world war to be more efficient in rimless military cartridges replacing earlier rimmed rifle cartridges. Four-digit numbers identified experimental propellants, and a few successful varieties warranted extensive production by several manufacturers. Some were used almost exclusively for military contracts, or commercial ammunition production, but a few have been distributed for civilian use in handloading. Improved military rifle propellants are coated with dinitrotoluene (DNT) to slow initial burning and graphite to minimize static electricity during blending and loading. They contain 0.6% diphenylamine as a stabilizer and 1% potassium sulfate to reduce muzzle flash.
California Powder Works was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For 50 years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz.
The Oklahoma Ordnance Works (OOW) was a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facility that was built in Mayes County, Oklahoma to produce smokeless powder and other military explosives that were to be used during World War II. The facility was closed from 1946 until 1954, when production resumed until 1956, then closed again. In 1960, it was sold to the Oklahoma Ordnance Works Authority (OOWA), which converted most of the facility to become the mid America Industrial Park.
St. Marks Powder is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems manufacturing ball propellant in Crawfordville, Florida. The company is a member of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI).
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(May 2009) |
