Indiana Army Ammunition Plant

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: Indiana Ordnance Works Plant 1 (IOW#1): (3,564.71 acres) made smokeless powder Indiana Ordnance Works Plant 2 (IOW#2): (2,757.49 acres) made rocket propellant Hoosier Ordnance Plant (HOP): (4,326.8 acres) manufactured (and loaded) propellant charge bagsCreationIn 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.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 1546.62acre were submitted to GSA as excess. The remaining 2757.49acre were utilized as woodland, crop land, and the site of a new automated black powder manufacturing facility.