| Badger Army Ammunition Plant | |
|---|---|
| Sauk County, near Sauk City, Wisconsin | |
General view of Badger Army Ammunition Plant |
|
| Built | 1942 |
| In use | World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War |
| Controlled by | Department of the Army |
The Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAAP or Badger) or Badger Ordnance Works (B.O.W.) is an excess, non-BRAC, United States Army facility located near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Badger consists of 7,354 acres (30 km2) of land. It manufactured nitrocellulose-based propellants during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It is currently the site of demolition and remediation projects being conducted in preparation for property transfer. This ammunition plant was the largest in the world when it was built during World War II.[1]
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Badger consists of 7,354 acres (30 km2) of land in Sauk County. It is bounded by Devil's Lake State Park and the Baraboo Hills to the north, the Town of Merrimac and the Wisconsin River to the East, the Town of Prairie du Sac to the south, and the Town of Sumpter and the Bluffview community to the West.
Badger is located on the terminal moraine of the outwash plain of a glacier which stopped in the area during the Wisconsin Glaciation approximately 12,000 years ago. The bedrock in the area consists of quartzite, sandstone, shale, and limestone. Groundwater flow is influenced by the Baraboo Hills to the north and the Wisconsin River to the east.
This area originally consisted of oak savanna and prairie habitat. After settlers populated the area, agriculture became predominant and few prairie and oak savanna remnants remained. Currently, the open spaces at Badger consist of some prairie remnants, which are maintained each year through the use of prescribed fire and clearing.
On 29 October 1941, U.S. Representative William H. Stevenson announced the construction of a powder and acid works to be built by Hercules Powder Company. On 19 November 1941, despite protests from those living on Sauk Prairie, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the $65,000,000 necessary to build the plant. By 1 March 1942, the farmers who lived there had left their farms.
Construction of Badger Ordnance Works, as it was known in World War II, began in March 1942. Before the works were built a 75,000 foot fence was erected around approximately 7,500 acres (30 km2) of the 10,500 acres (42 km2) acquired by the U.S. Army. When the plant was finished, it was complete with smokeless powder and rocket grain production facilities as well as housing for 12,000 construction workers and their families for six months, housing for 4,000-8,000 production workers and their families for the length of World War II, a school, a recreation center, a child care facility, a hospital, cafeterias, and a transportation system. By December 1942, 24 miles (39 km) of standard gauge railroad were completed.
Within the first ten months of construction, the first production area went into operation.[5] The plans originally called for production lines to make smokeless powder, diphenylamine, and sulfuric acid. In the end, Badger included production lines to make smokeless powder, acid, sulfuric acid, rocket propellant, and ball powder.
During the 60 years it produced ammunition for World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the Badger Army Ammunition Plant employed over 23,000 workers.
During World War II, Badger was managed by Hercules Powder Company. It produced rocket propellant, smokeless powder, and E.C. powder. Smokeless powder had been patented a decade before World War II by DuPont and Hercules Powder Company had the rights to make it at Badger. E.C. Powder was used in hand grenades, tear gas canisters, and blank cartridges. Badger also produced acid and oleum which are necessary for the production of these forms of ammunition. The acid and oleum produced at Badger were used on site as well as shipped to other Army ammunition plants in the area.
On 10 May 1943, the first train load of finished product left Badger; 60,000 pounds of smokeless powder was sent to the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant in Minnesota where it was used in M-1 rifle cartridges.
After World War II, Badger was placed on stand-by and subsequently placed into excess federal property status. The Hercules Powder Company began the process of demolishing and burning contaminated buildings, scrapping equipment, and donating office furniture and supplies to area schools. This led to some difficulties when Badger was reactivated for the Korean War.
| Periods of Operation[4] | ||
| Production Area | Start Date | End Date |
| Acid | January 1943 | August 1945 |
| Oleum | January 1943 | August 1945 |
| Smokeless powder | March 1943 | July 1945 |
| Rocket propellant | March 1945 | September 1948 |
| E.C. powder | July 1943 | October 1945 |
| Production[4] | ||
| Ammunition Type | Pounds | |
| Smokeless powder | 257,968,900 | |
| Rocket grain | 13,394,700 | |
In 1951, during the Korean War, Olin Industries was awarded the contract to manage Badger; Olin continued to operate Badger until 2004. In order to get Badger into operational shape, Olin replaced machinery, office furniture and supplies, and added building production areas such as the ball powder plant. At that time, Olin Industries was the only manufacturer of ball powder in the United States. Ball powder had been introduced by Western Cartridge, a subsidiary of Olin Industries, in 1933; however, it was not accepted by the U.S. Army until 1944.
Ball powder is a fine-grained, spherical gun powder coated in graphite that is easy to store and transport in any climate and ideal for modern infantry small arms ammunition cartridges. The time it took to build the ball powder plant at Badger was too long to enable any of the ball powder produced there to be used in the Korean War. Therefore, it was put into storage and eventually used during the Vietnam War.
| Periods of Operation[4] | ||
| Production Area | Start Date | End Date |
| Acid | July 1951 | November 1957 |
| Oleum | October 1952 | October 1956 |
| Smokeless powder | October 1951 | December 1957 |
| Rocket propellant | November 1951 | October 1954 |
| Rocket propellant (2nd Run) | March 1955 | September 1955 |
| Ball powder | September 1955 | September 1956 |
| Production[4] | ||
| Ammunition Type | Pounds | |
| Ball powder | 5,758,600 | |
| Smokeless powder | 235,832,900 | |
| Rocket mortar | 35,845,200 | |
| Mortar | 17,400 | |
During the Cold War years between the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Badger was held in stand-by status. It was believed that Badger would not be reactivated unless a war was imminent because the threat of a nuclear strike existed. Badger was important to the United States because of its location far from large cities, its water source, small reactivation costs, and the fact that it had the greatest ammunition manufacturing capabilities in the United States; Badger had the capability of producing most of the ammunition necessary for a land war. These qualities of Badger also made it a very likely target of a nuclear attack if it were to be reactivated. Therefore, Olin Industries maintained Badger on stand-by status until the United States announced its intent to send troops to Vietnam.
Before the Vietnam War began, the army was testing the new M-16 rifle which used ball powder ammunition. DuPont and Olin Industries each developed ball powder that was compatible with the M-16 rifles used in the Vietnam War and were used interchangeably. Hercules Powder Company also developed a ball powder for the rifles; however, it was not selected by the rifle manufacturers or the U.S. Army.
Badger was not the only location where Olin Industries was able to make ball powder; the company had another, smaller, plant in East Alton, Illinois. It was believed that the East Alton plant would produce the ball powder necessary for the Vietnam War. However, when workers at the East Alton plant went on strike, the entire Vietnam operation was put into jeopardy. Therefore, Badger was reactivated on 3 January 1966 and Olin Industries prepared to make what would be millions of pounds of ammunition.
By September 1966, Badger was producing and shipping oleum to the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant near Chicago, Illinois.
| Periods of Operation[4] | ||
| Production Area | Start Date | End Date |
| Acid | August 1966 | June 1975 |
| Oleum | September 1966 | June 1975 |
| Smokeless powder | August 1967 | August 1973 |
| Rocket propellant | June 1967 | June 1975 |
| Ball powder | May 1966 | May 1975 |
| Production[4] | ||
| Ammunition Type | Pounds | |
| Ball powder | 99,985,600 | |
| Smokeless powder | 302,151,100 | |
| 5" Navy gun | 12,869,500 | |
| MK-43 Rocket mortar | 71,718,600 | |
Olin Industries continued to maintain Badger on stand-by status after the Vietnam War. In 1997, the U.S. Army declared Badger to be excess to its needs. Until 2004, Olin Industries led the clean-up of Badger. In 2004, SpecPro, Inc., an 8(a) Certified Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) and subsidiary of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, was awarded to the contract to operate Badger. Since that time, SpecPro, Inc. has led all maintenance, demolition, and remediation activities at Badger.[6]
In early 2000, the Sauk County Board of Supervisors acted to establish a locally driven reuse planning process with the assistance of U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and funds provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, establishing the Badger Reuse Committee (BRC). The 21-member BRC included representatives from neighboring communities, local, state, and federal governments, and the Ho-Chunk Nation. In its mission statement, the BRC charged itself with the task of developing "a common vision for the reuse of the Badger property that can be meaningfully considered and realistically implemented by the appropriate local, state, and federal agencies."
Early meetings were devoted to gathering and reviewing basic information about the Badger property and its role - past, present, and future - in Sauk County's landscape, community, and economy. The committee determined nine key values and detailed criteria for each value to guide consideration of future uses. The BRC chose one plan that best fit the parameters of the values out of 25 different proposals. The General Services Administration, the federal agency in charge of the redistribution, then took the recommendations of the committee into consideration in their allocation of the land.
The plan calls for all 7,534 acres to be managed as a whole. The land uses include conservation, prairie and savanna restoration, agriculture, education and recreation. These land uses should contribute to reconciliation and resolution of past conflicts. The conversion of the Badger lands provides remarkable opportunities for the protection, enhancement, use, restoration, and enjoyment of the property's unique natural and cultural features.
The BRC has sought to achieve a realistic, community-based, consensus vision for realizing these opportunities. In the past, the Badger lands have too often been a place of division, pain, and conflict. It is the hope of the committee that all members of our community may now contribute to a new beginning at Badger, one that honors the past while serving future generations in a spirit of reconciliation.
The Badger Reuse Plan establishes the need for a Badger Oversight and Management Board and is explicit in numerous provisions regarding the composition, responsibilities and authorities of that entity. Since the Badger Intergovernmental Group (BIG) Parties have previously agreed to work within the framework of and toward the implementation of the Reuse Plan through the INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT, it is incumbent upon the BIG Parties to respect the elements of the Plan and to establish an Oversight Board that closely reflects the will of the BRC. The use of the name “oversight and management board” reflects a decision by the BRC that this entity shall have considerably more authority than what would be implied with an “advisory board.”
The BOMC meets bi-monthly to collaboratively plan the transition for the Badger properties.
Badger will be split among six landowners:[2][3]
The USDA Dairy Forage will continue grazing cattle and growing crops on the land it receives. The estimated area to be received is approximately 2,233 acres (9 km2).
The BIA will manage land for the Ho-Chunk Nation to graze bison and hold ceremonies on the land it receives. The estimated area to be received is approximately 1,553 acres (6 km2).
The NPS will transfer the land to the WDNR through the Federal Lands to Parks Program for park and recreation use. The land will be used to expand Devil's Lake State Park and possibly make a hiking corridor connecting the park with the Wisconsin River. The estimated area to be received is approximately 3,408 acres (14 km2).
The Town of Sumpter will receive the three historic cemeteries located at Badger. These cemeteries were acquired and maintained by the U.S. Army during the initial land acquisition in 1942. The three cemeteries are the Pioneer, Thoelke, and Miller cemeteries. The estimated area to be received is approximately 3.6 acres (15,000 m2).
The Bluffview Sanitary District will receive land relating to the sewage and water treatment system it currently shares with Badger. Bluffview, located across U.S. 12 from Badger, is former Badger employee housing which is now private residences. The estimated area to be received is approximately 165 acres (0.7 km2).
The WI DOT will receive land along the existing State Highway 78. The WI DOT plans to expand and straighten State Highway 78 in 2009. The estimated area to be received is approximately 58.3 acres (236,000 m2).
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Other AAPs Associated with Badger
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All publications cited in this Wikipedia article may be found in the Badger Repositories. The Badger Repositories are located at the Sauk City Public Library, Prairie du Sac Public Library, and at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant. The Badger Repositories include all available public information; including publications (i.e. Environews), RAB meeting minutes, groundwater monitoring data, and completed remediation projects or work plans.
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