The Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant or as we know it from Sex in the Heartland, the Sunflower Ordnance Works was built in 1941. The plant is spread over nearly 11,000 acres. It is actually not within the Lawrence city limits, but is considered to be in De Soto. City commissioners at the onset of World War II brought the idea of bringing this plant to Northeast Kansas. The smokeless and propellant manufacturing facility is owned by the United States Government and is operated by the Hercules Aerospace Company.
As World War II was happening in the European and Asian theaters, the Sunflower Ordnance Works produced more than 200 million pounds of propellants. At the conclusion of the war, the plant was put on a limited standby. The plant went from limited standby to a complete standby in June of 1948 and government officials took over the security and maintenance of the plant.
When the United States went to war in Korea in 1951, the plant was brought out of standby. During this period, the Kansas Ordnance Plant produced more than 166 million pounds of propellant and employed 5,000 people. Production ended in 1960, when the plant went standby again.
In August of 1963, the plant officially changed its name to the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant and was reactivated in 1965 to support to the Vietnam War. A major facility reconstruction initiative started in 1967. This initiative included construction to the plant, so it would be able to house the production of nitroguandine, which is an explosive propellant. This plant was a one of kind plant in North America. The production of nitroguandine started in 1984 and ended in 1992, when the plant was put on standby again. The plant was for the most part, dormant until 1998, when the U.S. Army began selling the site.
It is obvious the ammunition plant played vital roles for two reasons. The plant brought jobs to Kansas for almost 40 years. The plant also gave Americans in edge in the wars in Europe and Asia. From our reading of Sex in the Heartland, we learned that a lot of resident of Northeast Kansas were skeptical of the people that were going to come to their cities because of this plant. Their ignorance didn’t last because of the plants success to the state’s economy. I can see some harm from this plant, though. Sustainability was not a virtue of this plant. With all of the standbys that resulted from the ends of wars, employees of the plant could not plan on personal job security. Another factor that could harm the individual and their personal emotions is that just because they were earning a decent wage at the plant, they knew they were helping produce a product that was killing lives over seas. Granted the death that comes from the institution of war and helps to protect our freedom, this idea is not something that is easy to succumb to.
In 2005, Kansas’ political leaders have planned to create the land that previously housed the ammunitions plant into thousands of homes, offices, retail space and research parks. http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2005/oct/14/former_sunflower_army_ammunition_plant/
-Sammy Greenberg
Sources:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/sunflowerarmy/sun_p1.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/aap-sunflower.htm
picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sunflower_Army_Ammunition_Plant.jpg
Thats pretty interesting about the plant, I had no idea. I know there is a munitions plant near KC but don’t know how long it has been around, but i believe it is still operating. The sunflower plant made a huge contribution to the war effort and brought work and money to the state. I know there were other factories for aircraft, tanks, etc. in the area. My grandfather built B-25 Mitchell bombers right after the war started in KC. At that time he was too young to enlist, but eventually joined up in 1943. I wonder how many plants were in the area and how many remnants are still around of the major production force during WWII???
Kyle Brown
I thought this blog was very interesting and I never really knew that there was an ammunition plant near here. It sounds like the Sunflower Plant made huge contributions to many different war efforts. It reminds me our ammunition plant in Parsons, KS. Over the years it produced many different bombs and even parts for the cruise missiles. Just within the last few years the plant fell the same fate as Sunflower Plant did. They have been talking about selling parts of the land off to locals. I still think the plant is in operation secretly since I always see tons of cars outside and it still is highly guarded. It is sad to hear how many people these plants employed in these tough times. Thanks for the blog. I thought it was very interesting to hear about another plant that has similar history to mine.
Eric Mosier
I liked this post especially after reading the book sex in the heartland. I never did consider the toll that producing arms for the war must have done to the workers. It would be interesting to find out if any surveys have ever been done to see if workers from such plant had a post tramautic stress syndrome like many veterans did, or if the depression or suicide rate was higher for these such people. It is wild to think that millions of pounds were produced in such a short time. The space alone that this would have occupied is mind blowing.