Camera bag? Check.
Tick repellant? Check.
Light? Check.
I set out one night with another photographer to capture the early morning scenery at the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, the largest abandonment in the United States. It’s not an easy hike into the facility, with tall grasses and vegetation overtaking what used to be manicured grasses and a flurry of activity.
What surprised me, in the year since my last trip, how little much of the complex has changed. While some of the buildings have been cleaned of their contents, and more ground has been scraped of their vegetation, there has not been a wholesale demolition that I had envisioned. Most buildings remained a testament of pre-World War II construction. Hand painted signs warn the dangers of spitting. Goodyear tires supporting frictionless carts. Brick layered buildings. Slides for emergency escapes.
This is part one of a series that will cover the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant. And for this, I begin as I came into the plant, starting at the Control Circulation Dry House (Building 220), which dried the remaining solvent out of the powder before it went to the blending tower, where it would be blended with water to achieve a set burn rate. As these photographs were taken from the rear of the plant towards the front, they are not in order of production sequence – that will be detailed out in this series later.
The Control Circulation Dry House (Building 220) shrouded in fog.
The fog that morning was fairly heavy due to the nearby presence of the Ohio River. Most of my prior excursions into the plant were during the day, but I figured with the high heat of the summer and the ticks that cling onto dry vegetation, going in on a moist morning would be more beneficial – for my body.
The Water Dry Houses (Building 219), shown below, was where powder that arrived – containing 3% to 5% of the solvent, was aged and freed of any of the remaining solvent. The powder was soaked in water.
The Water Dry Houses (Building 219) were being stripped, although there was not much inside to begin with.
Rail connections to most of the buildings were severed years ago. This is a view towards the Water Dry Houses (Building 219).
The Solvent Recovery Houses (Building 214), where the solvents, ether and alcohol were extracted from the black powder, lie in endless rows. There were two architectural styles, brick and concrete, but were identical in function.
The Solvent Recovery Buildings (Building 214) were mostly stripped in 2010.
A concrete variant of the Solvent Recovery Building.
The Mixer Houses (Building 208) mixed and kneaded powder. A Baker-Perkins mixer and kneading machine had a 100-gallon capacity.
The Mixer House (Building 208-6) remains mostly intact.
The Baker-Perkinx mixer and kneading machine is to the left in Building 208-6.
A layaway tag on vertical blocking presses in Building 208-4.
Parts that would be used to repair the Mixer House, purchased in preparation of M-Day, lie dormant in crates in Building 208-4.
The Dehy Press Houses (Building 202) pressed the cake of nitrocellulose into a powder form.
Dehy Press House (Building 202-6)
The Scrap Rework House (Building 209-2) contained several dozen wooden barrels, presumably containing black powder.
The Ether-Mix House (Building 206-3) was where ether was mixed.
A 1941 Toledo scale.
One of the new features that is being worked on for later this fall, is a large scale map of the ammunition plant showcasing all of the buildings and their respective functions, along with a process diagram – how black powder was developed.
This is part one in a series on the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant.
