Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant out in Harrison County. Now settle in, because this one starts quiet, builds to something enormous, and ends in a way nobody would've predicted back in 1941. In that year, with the United States preparing for eventual entry into World War II, the U.S.

Army Ordnance Department walked up to Monsanto Chemical Company of St. Louis and said, in so many words, we need you to run a plant. A local plant.

One that makes things that go boom. Monsanto said yes. The place started life under the name Longhorn Ordnance Works, and what it proceeded to do was produce over four hundred million pounds of trinitrotoluene.

TNT. From 1941 to 1945, this patch of East Texas ground shook with the weight of that work. Four hundred million pounds.

Let that number sit with you a moment. After the war ended, the Army placed the plant on standby status. Quiet again.

But not for long. When the Korean War came along, running from 1950 to 1953, the need for munitions rose again, and a different St. Louis outfit stepped in, the Universal Match Corporation, managing the site and producing propellant fuel this time.

Then in 1956, something shifted. Thiokol Chemical Corporation arrived and began manufacturing solid fuel rocket motors right here. Solid fuel rocket motors.

The site grew classified, heavily guarded, and it expanded, not once, not twice, but through a series of five expansions. By 1964, the name had changed to the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant, and employment climbed to a high of nearly three thousand personnel. Three thousand people, out here among the East Texas pines, doing work they couldn't talk about at the dinner table.

Then came the drawdown. The end of the Vietnam War, the easing of tensions with the Soviet Union, and by 1975, employment had dropped to less than one thousand. The big machinery of history was slowly turning the other direction.

But here's where the story takes its most remarkable turn. In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Intermediate Nuclear Forces, beginning the elimination of an entire class of missiles. An entire class.

And in 1988, the first destruction on American soil of U.S. Pershing I and II rocket motors occurred right here, at this very site. Observed by Soviet and U.S. officials together, standing on the same ground, watching the same demolition.

That project continued until 1991. A place built to produce the instruments of war became the place where some of those instruments were formally, officially, unmade. The plant was officially deactivated in 1995.

And now, after years of pollution abatement steadily making the land livable again, the site has found its way into adaptive reuse as part of the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. From TNT to rocket motors to treaty compliance, and finally to wildlife refuge. Some stories end with a bang.

This one ended with birdsong.

What the marker says

In 1941, as the United States prepared for eventual entry into World War II, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department approached Monsanto Chemical Company of St. Louis about operating a local plant for production of explosives. Initially called Longhorn Ordnance Works, the plant produced over 400 million pounds of trinitrotolulene (TNT) from 1941 to 1945. After the war, the Army placed the plant on standby status. During the Korean War (1950-1953), the need for munitions rose again, and the Universal Match Corporation, also of St. Louis, managed the site, producing propellant fuel.In 1956, Thiokol Chemical Corporation began manufacturing solid fuel rocket motors here. This highly guarded and classified site grew in a series of five expansions. In 1964, its name changed to the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant and employment rose to a high of nearly 3,000 personnel. The numbers declined with the end of the Vietnam War and the easing of tensions with the Soviet Union, and employment dropped to less than 1,000 by 1975.In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Intermediate Nuclear Forces, beginning the elimination of an entire class of missiles. In 1988, the first destruction on American soil of U.S. Pershing I and II rocket motors occurred at the site. Observed by Soviet and U.S. officials, the demolition project continued until 1991. Following official deactiviation in 1995, pollution abatement has steadily provided for adaptive reuse of the former wartime site, now part of the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. (2007)