Sangamon Ordnance Plant
Encyclopedia
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
manufacturing facility constructed and operated during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It was located west of Illiopolis
Illiopolis, Illinois
Illiopolis is a village in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States. The population was 916 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Illiopolis is located at ....
in Sangamon County
Sangamon County, Illinois
Sangamon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 197,465, which is an increase of 4.5% from 188,951 in 2000...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
encompassing 20,000 acres (80 km²). It began as two separate plants, the Sangamon and the Oak Ordnance Plants, separated by Illinois Route 36 and operated by Remington Rand
Remington Rand
Remington Rand was an early American business machines manufacturer, best known originally as a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation as the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers but with antecedents in Remington Arms in the early nineteenth century. For a time, the...
and Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
respectively. Prior to the end of World War II, the facility was consolidated into the Sangamon Ordnance Plant, operated by Remington Rand.
History
Construction began in early 1942 following the acquisition of local farms through eminent domainEminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
with the ground breaking occurring in April 1942. Around 15,000 workers were employed and construction was largely completed by September 1942 at a cost of $35 million. It employed thousands during the war including many Woman Ordnance Workers (WOW) and produced 20, 57, 75, 90 millimeter as well as 3 inch (76 mm) armor-piercing
Armor-piercing shot and shell
An armor-piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armor-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armor carried on many warships. From the 1920s onwards, armor-piercing weapons were required for anti-tank missions...
and high-explosive artillery shell
Shell (projectile)
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...
s. It also produced bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
fuse
Fuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
s and the core of fire bombs known as "bursters."
Incidents
In October 1942, $20,000 cash intended for the payroll of the two ordnance plants was stolen from a courier en route to the Farmers State Bank of Illiopolis from the Post Office.In August 1943, an artillery shell exploded at the Oak ordnance plant, killing Maurice
Pryor age 22 of Springfield and injuring ten others.
Disposition
Federal Works Agency
The Federal Works Agency was an independent agency of the Federal government of the United States which administered a number of public construction, building maintenance, and public works relief functions and laws from 1939 to 1949...
received 359 buildings which were dismantled and removed many for use at schools and colleges.
Six warehouses were dismantled and reassembled at the Springfield, Illinois airport. Numerous wood frame buildings were dismantled so that surplus lumber could be used for the veterans emergency housing program.
In January 1948, it was announced that 553 acres (2.2 km²) of the site and eight buildings were sold to the DeKalb Hybrid Seed Company for $98,000 to be used in a poultry breeding operation.
The last surplus property was sold by April 15, 1948.