The Badger Ordnance Works
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- čas přidán 29. 12. 2022
- Moving the US to a war footing before and during the Second World War was probably the largest industrial shift in American history. In rural Wisconsin, the largest munition factory in the world sprung up as if out of nowhere, just one of many military facilities the size of cities built to help meet the needs of a global war.
Special thank you to Badger History Group Inc. www.badgerordnancehistory.org...
The Museum of Badger Army Ammunition would not exist without the stories of the Badger Ordnance Works/Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BOW/BAAP). Those of you watching this on CZcams would not be, because without the BOW/BAAP this story would not exist. We have been told that the Badger History Group, Museum of Badger Army Ammunition is the only museum dedicated to telling the story of one of these Ammo Plants. -Verlyn Mueller
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Script by JCG
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Lifelong Baraboo resident here. My dad worked at Badger Army Ammunition Plant (Olin Corporation at the time) until his retirement there in the mid 1990s. As an employee, he had permission by the guards to have his family tour the 16 square mile facility, which we did because of all the fruit tree orchards left in place by the farmers who had been bought out by the government during WWII. Every fall, we picked bushels of apples and plums, while watching the deer also take advantage of the sweet treats! Demolition continued at a brisk pace after the facility was declared surplus, if you drive Hwy 12 through the Baraboo Bluffs now it looks very different than it used to.
Greetings, fellow Wisconsinites. So many folks think Wisconsin is farms, cows and forest. It also was (and is) an industrial powerhouse.
I bid on scrap iron from Badger ordinance. Had I won the bid, I would have been removing metal from the grounds, just down the road from Baraboo.
We are not a democracy, we are Constitutional Republic!
Yes, that's right, in fact President Franklin D. Roosevelt use to refer to the United States as "The Arsenal of a Constitutional Republic."
A big reason for the location was the nearby former mainline of the CNW railroad. This stretch of trackage was underutilized after the CNW built a newer more direct mainline (the ‘Adams’ line.) The old mainline line that crossed the River at Merrimac WI near this plant was double tracked and could still handle additional traffic.
I am very proud of my husband, Joel Green and my sons for bringing this story to you. Thank you for sharing some of our local history.
Ahh, your biased. 😆
Fun Fact: @11:50 that appears to be propellant (gunpowder) for large bore naval guns (as in "sixteen-inch-guns"). Each grain is about 2" long by about 3/4" diameter.
Now THAT is a seriously LARGE grain of powder!
I had a relative who told stories of working there as a machinist during WWII. Because of his engineering skills he stayed behind and trained women on how to run metal lathes. He told some stories about being one of the few men around...
nice! and well paid no doubt.
I toured it once before they finally shut everything down. The sheer size of the facility was just mind-boggling. A significant spot of local history in Wisconsin, and nestled in one of the prettiest parts of the State, though some of the environmental fallout in the form of carbon tetrachloride in the groundwater is still being dealt with as it seeps toward Wisconsin River.
My dad was raised near Spring Green and worked at the Ordnance plant, probably just after WWII. One time somebody slipped some matches in his pocket. He found them before he hit the inspection point. He thought he knew who did it, but never found out for sure. He wasn't even sure why the guy would do it, but he (Dad) didn't smoke, so it wasn't a mistake on his part. Somebody put the matches in his pocket to get hm fired.
By the way 'Government Owned, Contractor Operated' is alive and well today. In the modern parlance we call it GoCo.
What if the contractor wants to sell off an arm of the manufacturing to another country though?
@@Batters56 There are strict laws and regulations against that. My last job in the Army was with Acquisitions, so learned a few things about intellectual property (IP) and such. Basically, if the US contracts for something to be designed or made, the IP is strictly regulated. Commercial off-the-shelf products are much less restricted.
From firsthand experience, I'll provide a few examples:
Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) is being refined by Microsoft and other contractors. Until the government approves, its software and hardware will not be shared with other companies or foreign interests. Though prototypes and earlier versions were based on the Hololens, that product without military revisions can still be sold.
The M17 and M18 pistols are essentially SIG P320s with military specifications. Since there is no software or other government owned IP, SIG can sell the P320 M17 and M18 on the commercial market.
@@anonymousm9113 Not very capitalist though is it? In the UK there are many companies that started off as government run, but then the government realised they could turn a profit, so they were privatised and the government now pays those companies for the services they provide.
@@Batters56 So what? Technological superiority trumps capitalism and everything else these days. It's the basis of all future wars and conflicts. Why do you think militaries all around the world put so much money into "Cyber/keyboard warriors"? The grunt infantryman on the ground isn't necessarily the first line of attack or defense these days.
@@Batters56 Companies that do business with Uncle Sam have all sorts of limitations. Who they can sell to and who can they sell parts of their business too are included.
My brother in law worked there in the VietNam era. They had many safety rules. Among them was a total ban on anyone carrying matches, lighters or even a pack of cigarettes. The punishment if caught was 2 weeks off work without pay. There was always a spike in those violations in late November right before Wisconsin's 10 day deer hunting season.
a little less dough yet hopefully a few more bucks
My first day in Grain Silos in Australia I was told "any source of ignition found on you and you won't be fired on the spot OR talk to a Judge about it, you will do both".
Nine day. Starts on the 3rd Saturday in November, ends a week later on Sunday evening.
I worked in an iron foundry... they had a rule that anyone caught throwing an aluminum can in the scrap metal pile would be fired immediately, no matter what or who.
One tiny piece of aluminum the iron furnace would cause an explosion that would level two city blocks.
@@MrFlathead45 OUCH. Bet they had sorters regardless, just to be safe.
I lived in Baraboo for about 9 years and heard so many stories about the people who worked at Badger Ordnance. I was even a driver for some bow hunters in the late 80s. Of course no gun season was allowed in that area. Driving on hwy 12 over the bluffs going to Madison, it was quite a sight. Massive and ominous looking like you stepped into a time warp to the 40s. Thank you! It was nice to see a local site memorialized.
what an interesting name. where did it originate?
@@nneichan9353 If you were inquiring about the name, Baraboo, it was the name of a French fur trader. Many place names in Wisconsin originate from either French or Native American names or terms.
@@radon360 Thank you
I've driven past that plant many times back in the 80s and 90s and yes, it was quite the sight! It is very cool to finally hear the story of the place.
I tried to open my own Badger Ordnance but realized too late that honey badgers didn't give a f-ck.
My brother and nephew are a couple of the volunteers who keep the museum going. They live nearby.
Hi Matt! -Karen
Just watched your piece on Badger Ordnance Works. I worked for Honeywell Defense Systems Division on Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Illinois in the 1980's. JAAP was created out of Kankakee Ordnance Works and the Elwood Ordnance Works of WWII fame. Kankakee was a TNT plant of about 9,000 acres west of highway US66 (now Illinois 53). They produced TNT, DNT, tetryl and other explosive components for ammunition. Elwood Ordnance was about 14,000 acres east of the highway and was a LAP (industry term for load, assemble and pack) facility which loaded explosives into metal parts to create ammunition end-items. In the case of Elwood Ordnance this was generally aircraft bombs and artillery ammunition. After WWII both plants were combined in administration as JAAP. JAAP was reactivated for the Korean War and again for the Vietnam War. It was fascinating to talk to the old timers in the area, especially those that dated back to WWII. Both plants began construction in 1940 and were in production by the beginning of 1942. One thing people always wanted to talk about was an explosion that occurred about 2:30 am in June of 1942. As I remember it occurred at the east end of building Group 2 while they were loading cases of land mines into railroad box cars. It seems that some 60,000 pounds of explosives detonated simultaneously after an incident with a forklift. Killed a bunch of people and leveled the adjacent building. Story goes that the explosion was heard in Kankakee 30 miles to the south and in the southern suburbs of Chicago to the NE. It was amazing that they rebuilt the building in about 30 days and you could still see evidence of wartime shortages of steel where previous steel roof trusses were replaced with laminated wood structures. They also added what were known as "T" barricades consisting of wooden timber boxlike construction filled with sand to isolate one railroad car from another on adjacent tracks and from the building out of which they were loading material. I always found it fascinating how FDR convinced the Congress to build the "Arsenal of Democracy" and how that morphed into a system of some 28 Army ammunition plants many of which have now disappeared. The LAP side of JAAP was turned over to the Department of the Interior in the 2000's to create a grassland park. I would find it fascinating if you did more on the AAP's particularly the variety of specialty manufacturing they did. For example, in addition to the explosive and LAP plants like Kankakee and Elwood, there's Lake City AAP in Missouri that loaded small arms and medium caliber ammunition and Riverbank in California which made metal parts. And of course there are still some AAP's still operating such as Sunflower in Kansas and Iowa AAP. Radford AAP in Virginia which produces small arms propellants (gunpowder) and is where the Honeywell medium caliber LAP operation moved when JAAP was closed down. I have always felt that there were a lot of stories to tell about how these plants came about, how they survived and were reactivated for various wars and in what has become of them in the 21st century! Barry Lowry, Ridgecrest, CA
Nice read, thanks Barry.
Hi Barry, we at the Badger History Group hope for more episodes on this topic. We worked with the gracious folks at The History Guy to produce this episode. Did you know that all the small arms ammo powder during the Vietnam war was produced at Badger? This is such a huge story and from what we can tell, BHG museum is the only museum in the country showcasing this history.
My cousin worked there for many years. He was a carpenter and maintained the buildings even after they quit production. He was a lot older than me and I don't remember when he retired. He passed away a few years ago.
Proof once more of what can be done when there is the common awareness that "This is important!"
My ancestors lost a farm to the construction of Badger Ordinance Plant. Most farmers were paid only a fraction of their farms worth. My grandparents rented out rooms to people who worked at the plant.
My Grandfather, too young for World War I & too old for World War II, worked at "the powder plant" in Childersburg, Alabama, during World War II. When I was a kid in the early 1970's, I'd hear Grandmother & Grandad reference, "the powder plant". For all I knew, it was a baby powder plant. I had no idea, that it is was a DuPont gunpowder & TNT plant until decades later. Interestingly, after some records were declassified in the 1990's, I found out, that there was also a small section of the plant, which made heavy water for The Manhattan Project.
Mom told me, that Grandad could read & write, so was given an office job, but he hated working indoors so was happy, when he was able to change jobs to being an engineer on the switch engine in the rail yard of the plant.
Thanks for sharing.
Watched from Jamaica, very interesting and I wonder if any of us watching have families that use to work their.
My mom grampa, I worked there. I used to live right next to it in staff village. It was stinky on the Merrimac side. I'm really glad they cleaned it up. I loved in a rooming house in Sauk city and the landlady told me her mom rented out to workers who sleep then their bed would be filled right away
Ah, like in the submarines. Hot-racking. You shared a mattress with two others, 8 hours each. With luck, your bed-mates dinna have BO or fart much. Nothing like climbing into a smelly bed - but when you're so tired, sometimes you don't even notice.
Plumbrook Ordinance Works in Sandusky, Ohio was abandoned and later became NASA’s Plumbrook Station. It’s now called NASA Armstrong Test Facility. They still have most of the storage magazines intact.
Having driven past the old site for the Ordinance Works probably a few hundred times in my life and even had went there as part of a school community service project to cut down overgrowth, I never had understood the real significance of the land!
It also explains the existence of the adjacent little village of Bluffview, which the placement of always threw me off, but now it makes sense why it’s there!
This is awesome 👌 badger ammo is close to where I grew up in pardeeville and I've hiked in and around the facility multiple times
I went there with my brothers several years ago. There is a small cemetery on the grounds where pioneers from the early 1800's are buried. Some of our ancestors are buried there. We contacted the docent of the museum and he was kind enough to take us to the location and then give us a tour of the facility. The year on the grave marker was from 1803. I can't recall his name but thank you again for your kindness.
You should do a video on the Naval Ordnance Station Indian Head Md. It is one of the oldest powder/propellent production facilities in the US.
The rapid industrialization for WWII is an amazing story of expansion. One key factor in this was the willingness of workers to relocate to pretty marginal living conditions in order to work. Today that wouldn’t happen. As for settling with land owners, the embarrassing reality is that it went on for decades at some locations. I went to work for NAVFAC in 1977 (responsible for management of Navy land/facilities), at which time I was assigned to manage the finalization of compensation for land seized by the Government in 1942. While the land was necessary for the war effort, the Government’s seizure literally ruined many families, leaving them destitute for years after losing their family’s land…..and the compensation paid was a joke compared to the cost of reestablishing a family farm.
I live in wisconsin and I had no idea about this, this is why I love THG. I’m definitely going to pay a visit to the museum
Cool. I live outside of Baraboo and help with some of the land restoration at the former plant.
The Ordil Munitions Plant near Marion, Illinois where I grew up was built during WW2 and closed after the Korean War still had many bunkers of bombs and ammunition that were still exploding off and on thoughout my years there. Rattling our windows in town 10 miles or more away.
In Germany, it's still common for construction projects all over the country to dig up unexploded ordinances. Sometimes the time-delay fuses malfunctioned, or the bombs were duds. Small building had been constructed on top of the 'surprise' immediately after the war. If the construction workers don't accidentally set off the fuses, special bomb-disposal teams come in to do the dangerous work of removal. I witnessed this once when a section of downtown Munich had to be evacuated, and other parts of the town were put on alert. The year was 2012, some 68 years after that bomb had likely been dropped from a B-17.
@@fltof2 This also happened the same year or very close to it at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, Japan. IIRC, a 220 lb bomb was found during excavation for a new building foundation. Called a UXB for Unexploded Bomb, rather than defuse the thing it was decided to detonate it on site. After appropriate evacuations were conducted both on and off base, and a protective wall was erected around the bomb, it was detonated under the guidance of UXB disposal teams from both Japanese and US forces. As Yokota was a Japanese air field during the war the bomb could have been dropped by either country's forces and simply forgotten.
I rehabbed post office in Marion
Thats quite an.. Ordil... >_>
@@fltof2 There are still places in France that are off limits because of unexploded ordnance, & chemicals impregnating the soil from WW1.
Omg, as a child in the late 60s my parents drove right past that factory heading "up north", where we were from. The place was huge.
Badger Ordnance had numerous tall water towers around the complex. They existed to quickly flood the bomb making facilities in the event of a fire or explosion.
They also have lage resevors up on the bluff that still exist
My grandfather worked there during WW II. He was born in Bromberg, Prussia. He also worked there during the early part of the Korean War, but took his Social Security at 65, before the war was over. He was a carpenter working in maintenance.
My mother worked in what she called 'green powder'. It was used for bazooka and recoilless rifle propellant.
Thanks for the history of the site.
My brother archery hunted when Sauk County opened part of the property for hunting. He described an armed guard watching him through binoculars from the still secured portion of the land when he was tracking an injured deer.
WOW. Thanks for pointing out that Women Ordinance Workers were an indispensable factor in the operation of these plants. While many of the men were serving in the military, seniors and women were assembling the war machine.
Simp
& they got to wear "pants" without getting "dressed down"...
I have a mounted deer head from a 12 pt buck on my wall that my Grandfather shot in 1940 on that land. The 1940 deer tag is still attached to it. He was not eligible medically to join the military but went to work at the plant in the early 40's until the war ended. BTW, that deer mount fell off of the wall over my bed when I was five years old and hit me in the forehead. The scar brings back memories. ;-)
I grew up in North Freedom and went to high school in Baraboo. As a kid in the '40s and '50s, almost every adult I knew had a BOW story to tell. Thanks, THG, for adding to my knowledge about the place where I grew up.
This story brings back memories. After she was mustered out of the army nursing corps at the end of WW2, mom went to work at the Pueblo Ordinance Depot where she worked until retirement in the mid-1970s.
My dad joined the California national guard in 1939 in college. they drilled once a month with wooden rifles. before his unit was activated in the spring of 1941 and up until that time, he had only fired a military rifle (the old 30-06 Springfield from WW1) a total of 12 rounds, as they only allowed three rounds per man in target practice. He told me that all the rifles were kept in an army truck, and were trucked around the state to the different units for practice. Things changed very rapidly in the summer of 1941, but they still didn't get modern rifles before he transferred out of the 40th division to army aviation right after pearl harbor.
My grandfather grew up on a farm just across the Wisconsin River from Badger. Many in his family worked at this massive complex. I've bowhunted there in the 1980's when there was no production. So proud of my state in doing our part in the war effort! The area is very rich in natural beauty.
I worked at another one of these munitions plants that opened in 1942. I worked for Day & Zimmerman, which was the last Contract Operater of Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, during Operation Desert Storm. The plant was officially closed in 2009 after 7 years of EPA supervised Superfund clean-up. The plant was named as a Superfund site in 1987. Containments included mercury.
I remember riding in the car, along side this facility as a child. Even flew over it once. It was breathtaking. I live in Baraboo now, and I can still somewhat visualize what it had looked like when driving by it. I try to explain to my children just how large it was. I can't wait to have them watch this video. Well done. Thanks so much!
I remember when I was young our family would drive past this facility and see the buildings. Dad would stop so we could gander at it from the road and he would give us a little history lesson. Later in life I had the wonderful opportunity to fly over and into the grounds for aircraft training. Seeing the roads, rail lines, bunkers and outlines of demolished structures is AMAZING. I love the Badger Ammunition site and will never forget the places I’ve been able to see there.
A very similar history to the Sunflower Army Ammunition plant near Desoto Kansas.
I grew up in Wisconsin but never heard of the Badger Ordnance Works. I' ll have to visit it.
There was a plant outside of Jeffersonville, IN also. Largely the same story, they were working on demolition, removal and clean up for years.
Great story THG. If you want to get up close and personal with the site take your bike. The Great Sauk Trail goes right through the site. It's a bit eerie, empty roads and a few buildings still stand. Nice signage on the trail with the history of the plant.
Most settlers in that area were of German descent. Many of my relatives lost their farms to the construction. My GG Grandmother is buried in the Thielke Cemetery on plant grounds. Remains of 3 of the workers killed are buried in my family's cemetery near Merrimac. (Kingston Cemetery) They have quite a beautiful monument.
They used to pay pretty penny for removing asbestos and other haz mat from there. The work was going on for years. I heard it's a great place for deer hunting if you can get in. Great video.brings back memories.
Thanks so much to THG team for being willing to cover our site here on the Sauk Prairie. They spent so much time working with us and helping us share the history. We are in the process of raising money for a new museum so please go to our website and donate if you can. The link is in the description. There is a lot more history here including producing powder for all small arms during the Vietnam War and an antiwar protested dropping bombs on the plant. There's also stories ranging from the Ho Chunk people who first occupied this land to the legless salamanders that developed in the water storage ponds. If you are in the neighborhood please stop by and visit.
The Ho Chunk were not the first people living there, sorry.
@@repetemyname842 my apologies. Who were the first nations occupying the land there? The Ho Chunk currently seem to claim it as I understand it.
@@jg2072 Well, going way back it was the Woodland indians. Before that Im not sure if they even had a name but Man has been tromping around the Driftless Area for thousands and thousands of years. Most indian tribes in North America live nowhere close to where their ancestors did even 300 years ago.
@@repetemyname842 well if you go back far enough it is Cro-magnon man or Neanderthal man. I'm not sure how useful that is to interpreting the current conditions of the area.
@@jg2072 "Cro magnon" isnt a term any longer. My point is the overwhelming majority of Indians in North America live nowhere close to where their ancestors did even 300 years ago.
You should have covered the Sunflower Ordnance Works in Kansas which was even larger than the Badger Works. In fact, it was the largest ammunition plant in the world during operations. In the 1970s, I supplied block ice for the water coolers because electric coolers could emit sparks, not something one wants around a powder plant.
Amazing piece of history. I was born in January of 1943. It’s difficult to imagine how my parents felt of this rapid industrialization of the American economy .
I remember going by the plant very well. My grandparents lived North of the area and we , at the time lived near the southern border of Wisconsin.
I have driven by this site several times in my life. My grandfather actually worked here for about 2 years. Thank you for revealing all of this to me!
As a Wisconsin resident I love it when you do anything about my home state. I always want to know more! Thank you!
Always learning new history from the History Guy. I don’t think “now” we could ever gather the amount of Industries under one mission like we did during WWII.
There is an old army depot outside of Umatilla OR, that has 1000 concrete and earthen bunkers around it. I always loved driving by it as a kid, it seemed like those bunkers went on for miles!
That's where they store the nerve gas. Had to drive thru the area a couple of times and was always creeped out.
all the chem weps were incinerated and are now long gone and the highway signs now direct you to the "national guard training center "
@@DM-rock-n-roller yeah they were burned in the "co-gen" plant after dismantling I think?
@cade83642 this and all the other similar depots de-mil'ed those munitions. they were subject to unannounced Russian verification inspections ... and we did the same inspections at their facilities.
Yup i went past Umatilla a few times as a kid. Also remember the news stories on tv about leaks of chemical weapons carried in wind drift. I think it happened twice. Not sure if there was actual leaks but definitely a couple scares
If you enjoyed this topic, you may want to cover the Higgin's Boat Works of New Orleans, which operated on a similar scale and capacity during those years.
I live near Joliet,Illinois and this story is very like what happened here. Over 20,000 acres made up the site, some complexs still exist. A National Cemetery and National Park have come from some of the old site.
An excellent episode . The mighty USA did indeed bury it's opposition in sheer volume and quality of production in all areas, setting the stage for US dominance post WW2. From your many friends and fans in Australia
A wonderful video, sir! I suspect the Mr. Knudsen quoted later went on to be the top guy at General Motors.....
But this presentation hopefully will remind folks that the war was won, not only due to the courage and determination of the soldiers, airmen, and sailors who fought, but to the astonishing ability of the US manufacturing systems to adapt to wartime needs of the services, and to bury the Axis powers in an avalanche of munitions.
Perhaps in a future video you might discuss how wildly diverse companies took on the task of switching to manufacturing items needed by the military?
Many of our guys went into combat with rifles produced by companies who, just a few years earlier, had manufactured sewing machines, cash registers, and plumbing fixtures.
Growing up in Madison, we drove past the ordnance works quite often. I found it fascinating as a child, though I never set foot on it.
I've lived in Madison for 40 years and have been to the Baraboo site many times. Years ago, I was heading through the area for the first time and actually thought the Baraboo Ammunition site was the city of Baraboo.
Thank You. For the things people SHOULD know, what it took so they could live the life their living now.
the era of the real America with real Americans.
Amen!
Have to watch this one. My grandfather lived on a farm that was destroyed to build that place. Some friends helped tear it down.
Gave me chills when I stumbled across this video. My grandfather was in the FBI before and during WWII. He ended up working undercover at this plant during the war. He spoke fluent german and the government had a concern that possible german sympathizers may sabotage the facility. So, he was placed there to work alongside the large german portion of the workforce and keep an ear to the ground for trouble. As it turned out all was good and apparently no concerns arose. He died in '63 before I got to hear his stories personally, but I'm proud of his work to keep the country safe. Have to say, he would be heartbroken to see what the Bureau has become these days.
Thank you for talking about the Badger plant. Loved listening to my grandpa's stories about the place
BOW wow! I never heard of the Badger Ordinance Works, or it’s critical part in the conflicts of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Thanks for a very interesting video. Backstories to the success of the Allies such as this are important to remember not all wars are won on the battlefield.
My uncle,born in Liverpool jumped ship in 33 in Texas became U.S citizen by becoming a G.I, came home in 43 and burst into tears when he saw how hungry my grandparents were. My Dad had leave ,eighth army, and Harry, my uncle took him to the Yankee P.X, NAAFI for the Brits. It was a concrete bunker next to the the British American Tobacco Warehouse and the Kings Pipe on the Dock rd. They took kit bags and filled them with coffee, tobacco, orange juice concentrate,corned beef ,sugar,tea,jam(jelly),,tinned fruit and brandy. My Dad said the Yanks ,all black men, listened to his brothers distress and calmly said "help yourself. " The irony was Harry was a racist and my Dad wasn't. My Dad ,like many British combatants,never understood segregation in the US forces. Churchill didn't accept segregation in British facilities,so in Alexandria in 43 a Black GI Seargent and known boxer was chatting to some British lads in a canteen. A South African sergeant approached and said "your in my seat boy" excuse me,?!! He repeated in and the man was felled with a left hook . Around of applause followed and a fight. The Military Police arrived and not a Brit broke rank that he slipped on a tray and banged his head..bit by of history to remember and t by ak you USA for bailing in aainst the Nazis
I live about 35 minutes from Umatilla, Oregon Army Depot built before U. S. entered WWII. Built inland up the Columbia River to make it hard for an enemy to attack it. Stored everything there from small arms ammo to big bombs, and other supplies. Interesting to me is that being there it preserved some of the ruts on the Oregon Trail while ground around it has been plowed and used for farming.
Wow. It’s astonishing how much work got done in such a short period of time during WW2. I think only since the Apollo program have humans worked so hard to get a job done.
"The Badger Ordnance" sounds like a straight-to-paperback Cold War novel. Remember those paperback Tom Clancy knockoffs with 3-word names like "The Delphi Protocol"?
An idea for a show would be the transition from riveted submarine hulls to welded hulls during WWII. I'd read of a lot of initial hesitation about welding at the time, but that it proved to be a far superior method of construction.
I remember scenes from the German movie Das Boot where rivets were popping out of the metal and flying around in the sub when they dove too deep! I would imagine at the time there was scepticism about making the switch to welding, the welded joint having to prove itself superior in the eyes of engineers accustomed to rolled steel and rivets. Luckily the weld won out, and I can still remember boxes of rivets sitting on the floor at the old hardware store in town; hardly anyone even knew what they were for!
I grew up in the area. It warms my heart to have the stories told
One of the side effects was extensive water pollution, which has the sight listed as a super fund site.
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My greatgrandfather was MG Charles Macon Wesson, who was Chief of Ordnance at this time! He went on to work with the Lend Lease program.
You should do one on Lake City Ammunition Plant which is still open and making all of our ammo here in Missouri in Independence/Blue Springs not sure which
At least they left a museum. So many facilities like this simply disappeared. Thank you for sharing. Have a great New Year and stay safe.🙂🙂
I used to live right up the road from it!
My dad worked at Trojan Powder Company in Allentown, PA. He was a field manager at the quarry. It seems like this video was about a similar business. I remember the magazines occasionally exploding. It eventually became International Mineral Company.
A wonderful story about “The Greatest Generation.
History needs to be remembered.
I would like to see a story about the Ravenna Arsenal. It also needs to be remembered.
The property outside of the museum has been allowed to go back to nature, and is now a State Fish and Wildlife area, ( just as most of the Joliet Illinois Arsenal is now the Nachusa National Grasslands, and the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery
I've been up to the Baraboo Ammo plant three or four times. They used to start bike races in the facility before going up and over the Baraboo mountains. Almost all of the buildings were gone, but underground storage sheds were still there, for the completed ammo. They were spread all over the place, so that one "accident" would only put a 20 foot hole in the ground.
William Denny of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin is one of those who perished in the explosion in the early 1940's.
I'm impressed that you are so well versed in smokeless powder production. Kind of an arcane subject nowadays.
Another wonderful tribute to the Greatest Generation. Their industrial might came through to support the Allied Nations to defeat the Axis Powers...
There is an WWII bomber plant still in use in Marietta, GA at Dobbins AFB run by Lockheed-Martin now. That might an interesting story for the History Guy. In WWII it was run by Bell Aircraft and was used to build B-29 bombers.
I moved to Prairie du Sac just off of Highway 12 almost 18yrs ago. For the first few years I was regularly bombarded by the sound of explosions that literally rattled our home. I was nonchalantly told "That's just the demolition on the Badger Plant." And I would frequently here stories about the plant but quite frankly I just couldn't wrap my head around what they were talking about. So I was so happy to see you cover this today. I am glad to have a better understanding of the plant which still today plays a part in our local community. There have been many efforts to reclaim and restore the land that was highly polluted by the plant. I certainly can see why the plant was important and necessary but the after effects of it will be felt in our area for several generations.
Hercules operated a similar operation known as the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in De Soto Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City in rural Johnson County. Long abandoned, the site was repurposed for a lithium-ion battery plant in summer 2022. Several existing towns were displaced in 1942 for its construction. Unlike the Wisconsin site, the Johnson County, Kansas facility operated on and off until 1993, and the site was gradually decommissioned after that date.
Probably the most astonishing part of WWII. This was one of hundreds of facilities created or converted to win the war. Second, would probably be the delivery of all these supplies to the troops.
It wasn't a surprise coming from you...but thankyou anyway for emphasising the efforts of the volunteers who keep that (and by extension many, many other) small museums going.... As usual, a fascinating episode. With the current shortage of many smokeless propellants Down Under just now (although admittedly pistol propellants ) I was green with envy looking at all those 150 pound boxes of powder... LOL. 150 pounds is just over 1 MILLION grains. Or...for my 9mm...about 300,000 reloads...
1,000,000 grains! With ammo prices like they are now, those boxes would be a WAY better investment than "bitcoin"!
Thank you for appreciating the work of volunteers. I reached out to THG about our group and museum and they graciously agreed to do an episode about our site. We provided some photos from our archives. Please spread the word and support your local museums. BTW I just watched a video from the Australian Armour Museum just now. I wish there was a facility like that near me. I'd spend way to much time volunteering there.
Powder supply is getting better here in the US, but primers (if you can find them) are around $90 a 1000.
@@ozarkjackberlin1340 We are waiting on 2 new small scale importers who have done the work to get Import permits... European powders... Fingers crossed because our only local manufacturer has ceased PISTOL powder production completely. Primers are available here too.... Ouch AUD $175-180 per thousand for Federals. (USD$ 120-122) Fiocchi somewhat better.
Your math differs a bit from what I found online. For 1,050,000 grains to supply 300,000 reloads, that implies you're using 3.5 grains per reload
That looks light. Google asserts it is typically 4 to 5.5 grains
Fascinating as usual, interesting to compare this plant with ROF Bridgend with 40,000 workers during WWII and modern Germany which apparently needs 5 years to restart production of some types of 155mm shells... not really comparable but amusing non the less!
Wow, that was a very interesting video! I worked for 30 years at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Purchasing and Subcontracts. I was hired by Hercules. One of my assignments was to move equipment from Badger to Radford. Radford closed briefly between WWII and Korea, but has been in continuous operation since Korea. As of 2023 Radford continues to make single, double and triple based propellants and gun powders and support many weapons systems. Radford makes Oleum, Nitric Acid, Nitrocellulose, Nitroglycerin and TNT. Today Radford is operated by BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman has facilities there to make complete Medium Caliber Ammunition. New River Energetics also has Commercial Gun Powder facilities. Radford Army Ammunition Plant is indeed and interesting place to work with lots of good people.
My Grandmother worked there!
Hi History Guy, I lived within about 1.5 miles of the former Barksdale plant in Bayfield County, WI. In 2014ish, the area was declared a Super Fund site. Much of the Chequamegon Bay and Fish Creek area was contaminated and cancer rates in the area are very high. The Barksdale area even has water pumped from the near by town of Washburn due to the toxicity in the Barksdale town well.
Close to Anoka, Minnesota which is "Federal Cartridge Company" is.
Can you imagine doing that Today? The Environmental Impact Study would take 15 years alone.
I think Metallica made a song about that. "Sad but True"
@@desperado8605
They did. Just looked it up. It's Fine if you like Heavy Metal...which I really don't.
Great segment! It reminds me of the Sunflower Munitions plant southwest of Kansas City. It looks like a little city that has been abandoned.
We had a TNT plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The plant employed hundreds if not thousands of people in the area. The crazy thing is now it is a Volkswagen plant. Sigh.
I worked in a paint factory in the 80s and one of the components was the nitrocellouse, if you pushed the alum barrel about 3 or 4 feet it would create its own oxegen and blow up. The manager of that area was blown across the room, no amount of money increase would get him back into the plant;) David
I live in Charlestown Indiana. There was a huge arsenal built here at the same time.
INAAP!