Indiana Army Ammunition Plant igloo explosion debris photograph 5, April 1966, Charlestown, Indiana

Description:	A proof sheet of 2 photographs taken after an igloo explosion at Indiana Army Ammunition Plant in Charlestown, Indiana. Pictures taken in April 1966. One photograph shows men looking at debris in the area near the crater. The other one shows road in front of the crater and igloo #5186.About 9 am on April 27, 1966, the 175,000 pounds of mortar propellant stored in igloo #5185 exploded. Three men were killed. They were Dale E. Lord, Adair Hayes and William C. Zimbro. They were either loading or unloading mortar propellant at the igloo at the time of the explosion. A 1 1/2 ton van-type truck was destroyed. 47 people were injured by the blast. The igloo was 26’x80’ by 13’ high and had 12” thick concrete walls that were banked with dirt. The explosion broke the concrete into fist size pieces. The crater left behind measured 40’ deep and 150’ in diameter. There was widespread damage to buildings and utilities in the area. The blast blew out windows as far as 10 miles away. The igloo area was located on the south end of the 11,000 acre plant.The United States federal government began acquiring land in Charlestown, Indiana in 1940 to build a smokeless powder ordnance plant to supply the US military during World War II. Indiana Ordnance Works (IOW) Plant 1 and Hoosier Ordnance Plant (HOP) began production in 1941. In 1944, IOW Plant 2 construction began. On 30 Nov 1945 at the end of WWII, the three plants were combined and renamed Indiana Arsenal. Between 1 Nov 1961 and 1 Aug 1963, the plant was designated Indiana Ordnance Plant. After this time, it became Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (INAAP). Production of ordnance continued at the plant until 1992. After that time, the land and facilities were leased to private industry. A large portion of the land became Charlestown State Park. In October 2016, all the land and facilities were officially sold by the government. This item is part of a larger collection of items from INAAP that are kept at Charlestown Library.
Origin:	1966-04
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15078coll17/id/15498
Collection:	Clark County Collections
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Copyright:	Charlestown-Clark County Public Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes and makes no warranty with regard to their use for other purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights such as publicity and/or privacy rights is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may be content that is protected as works for hire copyright held by the party that commissioned the original work and/or under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.
Geography:	Charlestown, Clark County, Indiana 38.436824, -85.658816
Subjects:	Explosions Indiana Ordnance Works (U.S.) Hoosier Ordnance Plant Indiana Arsenal Indiana Army Ammunition Plant Explosives Industry--Indiana Gunpowder, Smokeless Ordnance manufacture Black powder manufacture Facility One ICI Americas Inc Clark County (Ind.) Charlestown (Ind.) United States. Army Ordnance and Ordnance Stores

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