The development of long range bombers by the Russians in the mid 1930’s put the U.S. government War Department on alert to its defense weaknesses and caused a scramble to relocate key bases and arsenal stockpiles from vulnerable coastal positions to more secure inland positions. This put Marion into the light of possibility for the manufacture and storage of a planned Chemical Warfare Arsenal. The project was planned to cost $21,000,000 and occupy 80,000,000 acres of land for the purposes of building, testing and storing chemical warfare agents.
The Marion Chamber of Commerce under the direction of local merchant and President C.W. Hay had pushed hard for the location of many government projects, including this one, though it’s not likely they had considered or were aware of the long term problems that might be associated with this particular project. However, it was the depression, and any jobs likely looked like good jobs.
The first announcements for the Chemical Warfare Arsenal appeared in early 1938 newspapers and by 1939 locals felt that is was going to be a sure thing. An article appearing in the Belleville Daily Advocate dated January 1939 made it sound almost certain, but also mentioned that plans were in the works for the government to build igloos for the storage of bombs and munitions somewhere yet to be determined.
At the same time this was going on, the government was already in the process of procuring 60,000 acres to be used in the development of Keller Lake, which we now know as Crab Orchard Lake. The lake was originally to be named after Congressman Kent Keller, who was instrumental in the lake projects passage.
The Lake Marion that is mentioned in the first 1938 article references our city lake south of town, off of Route 37, that couldn’t even meet our own cities demands.
We, of course, did not get the Chemical Warfare Arsenal, thank god. What we did get was what appeared to be good thinking on the part of the government. Since they already owned so much acreage acquired in the Keller Lake project it was decided in 1941 to further develop the area into the Illinois Ordinance Plant, called Ordill. The Ordinance Plant ended up hiring as many as 10,000 people in its peak times, but was closed down on Victory over Japan Day in 1945 at the end of World War II.
Two newspaper articles follow, the first is from the Marion Daily Republican dated April 25, 1938, and the second is from the Belleville Daily Advocate dated January 28, 1939:
Army Seeks New Arsenal Data, Marion Daily Republican, April 25, 1938
War Department Investigates Possible Locations for Inland Chemical Base
For several months there have been rumors of new activities on the part of the War Department to provide for any changes which may be advisable or necessary on account of changing conditions. That Marion is located in a most desirable point for any such new activities has been presented to the federal authorities by the Marion Chamber of Commerce through its President, C.W. Hay, but there is but little known about this situation by the people throughout the country at large.
In order that our citizens may know about the movement, Mr. Hay has prepared the following statement:
Egypt Being Considered for War Interior Movement
The United States War Department following the precedent set by the United States Treasury is planning to move war agencies from the hazardous borderlines on the sea coast to the interior. The wars in Spain, China and Ethiopia have demonstrated that bombing planes are the proven vehicles of death and destruction. Serious apprehension, regarding our country’s unpreparedness was caused by the unprecedented flight of two different crews of Russian flyers from Moscow’s suburbs to the mainland of the United States without stopping.
The second crew travelled considerably over 6,000 miles from the Mexican border. If the Russians can fly straight in here, during peace time, what are other nations who are supposedly far ahead of the Russians in equipment, design, and engineering able to do in the way of long distance bombing in the time of war.
General S.D. Butler, appearing before Senate Naval Committee recently advised them that airplanes and submarines could immobilize any fleet. He advocated heavy investment in bombing planes. He also contended that a handful of bombs could destroy the Panama Canal. These and many other salient features have caused the United States War Council to take note of the fact that there is no interior preparedness as in the case of an air attack on our coasts.
Our major ordinance, chemical, arms and other war supply plants are located on the hazardous border lines. Secretary of War, Harry Woodring, was advised to the danger of the situation and is now planning to relocate the heart of the air corps to Illinois from its vulnerable position on the Virginia Coast.
Following the decision to relocate the air corps inland now comes a plan by the War Department experts to establish a $21,000,000 chemical warfare arsenal at a location more easily defended, than the one at Edgewood, Maryland. This chemical warfare plant will require 80,000 acres of land for a complete new arsenal, because it would be necessary to have a large proving ground where it would be safe to make tests of the poison gases and other chemical devices.
It is estimated that it would take about nine months to construct the necessary facilities. The Marion Chamber of Commerce is now in correspondence with various government officials, the War Department experts and executive officers of the Chemical Warfare Service, calling their serious attention to the positive advantages Egypt has to offer for interior protection. Egypt is situated between the convergence of the world’s largest river system; mild, wide rivers; with eventual deep waterways to the sea, is firmly established as the cross center of the nation and presents the only interior that can be pointed to as offering to this country it’s only centralized save zone.
The Chamber of Commerce has submitted the Marion Airport for the nucleus from which can be extended sufficient and satisfactory area to take care of the relocation of the heart of the nation’s air corps.
It has also submitted an area contiguous to Lake Marion, for the $21,000,000, 80,000 acre chemical warfare arsenal. The conditions for the location of this immense and important plant in this region are ideal and made to order. This Ozark region provides ample acreage, that is, sparsely populated, because of it nonproductive dividends. Lake Marion with its tremendous supply of water lying adjacent to Egypt’s mammoth coal deposits has a practical appeal, not to be found in any like interior. Water and coal are the two necessary elements that are of great importance in producing war gases and chemicals. A communication just received, conveys the information that a very influential Egyptian had lunch with two prominent army engineers, to whom he submitted the proposed Lake area for the War Department’s serious consideration, in locating the chemical warfare arsenal.
Secretary of War, Harry Woodring, is proving to be the most efficient war secretary to occupy this position in many years. He is reorganizing the entire army set up and is procuring for the army air corps, the first honest to goodness ships that it has had since the world war. He is determined to establish an interior defense, as a precaution against the probable destruction of coast defenses and war supply plants. Secretary Woodring, as it is now widely known, hails from the interior and is in a position to get a more serious view of war preparedness. The secretary was a visitor in Marion in 1936. He was well received and expressed at the time a deep interest in Southern Illinois.
Plan $21,000,000 Arsenal Here, Belleville Daily Advocate, January 28, 1939
80,000 Acre Chemical Warfare Arsenal Being Considered for Location In Southern Illinois
Follows Moving of Nation’s Key Center Army Airport to Scott Field, Destined to Become World’s Greatest Military Aviation Base.
The 36 Southern Illinois counties between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, two mightiest river systems in the world, have finally received the recognition for the United States government as the nation’s only centralized safety zone for interior defense.
The United States war department’s recognition of Southern Illinois’ importance for military preparedness resulted in the moving of the key center of the air corps from its vulnerable position of the Virginia coast to Scott Field here, where construction of the world’s greatest military aviation base is now under way.
According to C.W. Hay of the Illinois Journal of Commerce, Southern Illinois’ Ozark range is now being considered for the building of a $21,000,000 Chemical Warfare Arsenal, requiring a tract of 80,000 acres of land. A sparsely populated, non-productive area is desired by the war department for this war plant purpose.
The Southern Illinois Ozarks are ideally suited for the location of the Chemical Warfare Arsenal; for the reason it possesses the two major elements, coal and water, necessary in the manufacture of war gases.
Egypt’s two great rivers and the proposed $3,000,000 Keller Lake for which the government is now purchasing 60,000 acres of land at Marion, will provide an unlimited supply of water. Nearby, is the world’s largest coal field from which to obtain the necessary chemical properties.
Another recent war department order affecting this immediate interior development is to build 75 igloos at a cost of $1,400,000 to be used for the storing of war explosives and munitions.
(Data extracted from the Marion Daily Republican and the Belleville Daily Advocate; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 09/17/2013)