Scioto Ordnance Plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Scioto Ordnance Plant (SOP) was an ammunitions and bomb making facility built in Marion County, Ohio by the United States Army in 1942. The plant operated until 1945 when production wound down. Also built adjacent was the Marion Engineering Depot which was authorized in the summer of 1942. Land for the plant was taken in Grand Prairie, Scott, Clairdon and Marion Townships in an area covering 12,500 acres.
Families who owned property within the zone identified for the facility were notified March 2, 1942 that they had to vacate their land by May 1, 1942. Not only did this mean that the displaced had to find a place to live in the midst of a housing and fuel shortage, but it also meant moving and/or selling livestock and agricultural equipment. Federal contractors began removing field fencing in April, 1942. While land owners received a "fair" valuation for their property, relocation expenses were not paid. Several property owners claimed that they never received any compensation from the government.
After May 1, 1942, most of the farmsteads located inside the perimeter were leveled; underground bunkers and production buildings were built in clusters throughout the SOP site. By June 1942 SOP was employing 2,900 employees, many of who moved north from Southern Ohio and Kentucky for the high paying wages offered.
Once in operation, the plant (under the operation of U.S. Rubber) produced fuses and boosters, 20 mm bullets, 50 caliber bullets, 50 caliber artillery shells, 65 mm shells and 75 mm shells. Incendiary bombs and napalm barrel bombs, similar to those used on Dresden by Allied forces were also produced at the site. Munitions containers served duel duty by carrying SOP products overseas, and then doubling as coffins for those killed in action.
German Prisoners of War were housed on the site (in an area referred to as “Camp Marion”) beginning in December 1944.
[edit] Post War Problems
Following the end of the war, land taken for SOP was resold to civilians. Some local farmers who had lost their land returned to the area. A housing development - Grandview - was built over the magazine area of the former plant.
In 1949, Uranium handling was planned for the site, with the contract going to Monsanto. However production at the facility never began in earnest.
In 2000 it was revealed that students attending River Valley High School (Caledonia, Ohio), built on land formerly occupied by the Marion Engineering Depot, had higher than usual instances leukemia. Tests performed on the site by the Ohio EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers proved inconclusive. A private consultant hired by a parents organization found evidence of toxic chemical waste on the River Valley site dating back to the 1940s. As a result these findings, and because of Ohio EPA problems with investigation, River Valley pursued building a new school campus and eventually abandoned the Engineering Depot Site.
[edit] External links
- Ohio EPA, Scioto Ordnance Plant
- Ohio Citizen, Columbus Dispatch Article
- Cincinnati Enquirer, River Valley Study Inconclusive
- Marion Industrial Depot (Former Marion Engineering Depot) Web Site
[edit] Sources
Mosher, Charles D., Mosher, Delpha Ruth. The Scioto Ordnance Plant and the marion Engineering Depot of Marion, Ohio, A Profile After Forty years. Published by Authors with Assistance from the Marion County Historical Society. 1987.
