A little history lesson...
The year was 1941. There was a war raging in Europe; but in this quaint farming community, all was well. Then residents began noticing strange black cars driving slowly up and down the country roads. Sometimes the cars would stop, and men would get out to take soil samples from their fields. What happened next would impact the people and the landscape until this very day.
At a public meeting held in Farmington on March 31, 1942, government officials announced that 11,500 acres were being siezed by the War Department under right of imminent domain in the Rosemount and Empire townships, to make way for a massive ordnance production facility. The nearly ninety families affected by the siezure were given until mid-May to pack up and head out, just six weeks away.
A company called E.I. DuPont Denemours from Wilmington, Delaware was awarded the construction contract, and ground breaking began later the same year. The plant was to be the second in the state of government owned, contractor operated (GOCO) facilities; its sister site being the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills, which focused more on small arms and assembly of cartridges. Gopher Ordnance Works was to focus on nitrocellulose, a single base powder used as a high explosive and propellant for large naval guns. Sixty miles of roads and 33 strategically placed guard towers were constructed within weeks; and a security force of 500 was hired and eqipped with cars and radios so that they could remain in constant contact with nearby Fort Snelling.
The three nitrocellulose lines, A, B, and C, were nearing completion until on October 18, 1943, the order came to stop all major construction. On January 24, 1944, all work at Gopher was ordered to cease indefinitely. A Minneapolis based construction firm named Fegles Construction Co. was given the contract to dismantle the 250 nearly completed buildings and salvage the material. 175 rail cars of material were shipped out to government facilities elsewhere. However, on June 6, the infamous "D-Day" invasion was launched, and on July 7, DuPont accepted the orders to reactivate the plant.
Production began on the "B" line on February 9th, and "C" line began producing powder on March 2nd. By the end of March, Gopher peaked with 3,102 production employees; many of whom traveled from around the area to take advantage of the plant's high wages. Rosemount Township had become a booming metropolis seemingly overnight, and as a result, extra police were hired and liquor licenses were limited. County Road 42 ran only eastward in the mornings and westward in the evenings.
When Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, all production at Gopher was again ordered to cease; and the now 3,166 employees were out of work. Lines D, E, and F were still in the construction phase. In October, nine months after production began, the last of the powder was packed and readied for shipping. Roughly 400,000 pounds of contaminated powder that had been recovered and sent stateside to Gopher to be reworked was ordered destroyed. Long rows of it were spread out on the ground and torched, the smoke and flashes from which could be seen for miles. The plant was labeled surplus and dismantled, but only 3,500 acres were sold back to their original owners after the closure.
The University of Minnesota began leasing some of the land in 1947; and today consists of two parts: the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Agricultural Research Center, covering 2,860 acres and 4,670 acres, respectively. Here, the University initiated all kinds of agricultural research; and during the horrendus polio outbreak of 1946, the year the State Fair was cancelled for fear of spreading the disease, some of the buildings were used as infirmaries for local residents.
Today, what remains is roughly 8,000 acres of ruins and relatively unused property. Some sections are cordoned off with razor wire, and signs warning of 24 hour surveillance and the negative consequences of tresspassing are placed here and there to discourage curious intruders. One will often see a patrolling University security officer or a Rosemount Police car keeping track of things on the property. Numerous tunnels run underfoot, many of the ruins are supposedly haunted, and the abandoned buildings are either in danger of collapsing or were recently used to store toxic chemicals.
Please obey all posted park rules.
Please enter at 160th Street and Angus Avenue.
Although the maps don't show it, 160th Street is continuous.
Exploring the site ...
Exploring the site ... underground
Gopher Munitions Plant ... the future>
Disclaimer:
GPS Cache/Geocache hunting, like any outdoor sport, carries the risk of unforeseen hazards.
I support a policy of not knowingly placing caches in areas that will create undue risk to the cache hunter. However, as conditions and cache locations may vary, it is the responsibility of the searcher to become thoroughly familiar with the conditions in the area to be searched, to adequately prepare for those conditions, and to conduct oneself safely and responsibly with respect to those conditions and with respect to his or her personal abilities and limitations. Individual Geocachers, property owners and GPS cache sponsors assume no liability for events which may occur related directly or indirectly to one's searching for a cache.
By reading and utilizing the GPS clues and coordinates posted on this Guide Sheet, you acknowledge the above conditions, and accept responsibility for your own actions, and agree to hold non-liable the GPS cache sponsors, property owners, and further, agree to provide this disclaimer to any person with whom you share these GPS cache locations.
Cache seekers assume all risks involved in seeking a cache.