Badger Army Ammunition Plant

Construction On 29 October 1941, U.S. Representative William H. Stevenson announced the construction of a powder and acid works to be built by Hercules Powder Company. On 19 November 1941, despite protests from those living on Sauk Prairie, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized $65,000,000 to build the plant. By 1 March 1942, the farmers who lived there had left their farms. Construction of Badger Ordnance Works, as it was known in World War II, began in March 1942. Before the works were built, a 75,000 foot fence was erected around approximately 7,500 acres (30 km2) of the 10,500 acres (42 km2) acquired by the U.S. Army. When the plant was finished, it contained smokeless powder and rocket grain production facilities, housing for 12,000 construction workers and their families for six months, housing for 4,000-8,000 production workers and their families for the length of World War II, a school, a recreation center, a child care facility, a hospital, cafeterias, and a transportation system. By December 1942, of standard gauge railroad were completed. Within the first ten months of construction, the first production area went into operation. The plans originally called for production lines to make smokeless powder, diphenylamine, and sulfuric acid. In the end, the facility's production lines included smokeless powder, acid, sulfuric acid, rocket propellant, and Ball Powder. During the 33 years it produced ammunition for World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the Badger Army Ammunition Plant employed over 23,000 workers. World War II During World War II, Badger was managed by Hercules Powder Company. It produced rocket propellant, smokeless powder, and E.C. powder. Smokeless powder had been patented a decade before World War II by DuPont and Hercules Powder Company had the rights to make it at Badger. E.C. Powder was used in hand grenades, tear gas canisters, and blank cartridges. Badger also produced acid and oleum which are necessary for the production of these forms of ammunition. The acid and oleum produced at Badger were used both on site and at other Army ammunition plants in the area. an 8(a) Certified Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) and subsidiary of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, was awarded the contract to operate Badger, including all maintenance, demolition, and remediation activities. which meets bi-monthly to facilitate collaboration around the future uses of the Badger properties. Future use Once the installation was declared excess to the Army's needs, the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal government's real estate manager, received applications from other federal agencies interested in acquiring the land. Six applicants with federal sponsorship were approved but only five have agreed to accept property. • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Dairy ForageThe USDA Dairy Forage Research Center was established on a portion of the Badger installation in the 1970s. USDA accepted in 2004 and in 2005. Another will transfer in 2014. The research toward "greener horizons for cows, crops, and communities" continues at the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center on the land received. • Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)/Ho-Chunk NationThe BIA declined to accept any land (1553 acres) for the Ho-Chunk Nation, citing no authority to incur excessive cost for performing their own environmental assessment in addition to the work completed by the Army and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Ho-Chunk Nation has been unsuccessful in changing the BIA's position. • National Park Service (NPS)/Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR)The NPS agreed to land use by the WDNR through the Federal Lands to Parks Program for park and recreation use. The transferred property will become the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area adjacent to and managed by Devil's Lake State Park. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is drafting the master plan for the future Sauk Prairie Recreation Area, and now manages hunting on the property. The NPS and DNR will accept all land not transferred to other owners, including the acreage originally planned for the BIA/Ho-Chunk Nation. • Town of Sumpter, WisconsinThe Town of Sumpter will receive the three historic cemeteries located at Badger and the water and wastewater systems. The Army acquired the cemeteries (Pioneer, Thoelke, and Miller) during the initial land acquisition in 1942 and has maintained them since. The cemetery acreage totals . • Bluffview Sanitary DistrictThe Town of Sumpter's Bluffview Sanitary District has received land relating to the sewage and water treatment system previously managed by the Army. The estimated area to be received is approximately . Bluffview, located across US 12 from Badger, is former Badger employee housing which has been further developed and is now private residences. • Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT)WisDOT received land along the existing State Highway 78 to expand and straighten it. In 2011, were transferred for the highway right-of-way. The department also controls the rail line that crosses the installation, by a permanent easement that has been rail banked for a trail under a long-term lease agreement with the WDNR (2011). The Badger Army Information Repositories are located at the Sauk City Public Library, Ruth Culver Public Library, and at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant. The Badger Repositories include Army publications, RAB meeting minutes, groundwater monitoring data, and reports on remediation projects. The mailing address is: Badger Army Ammunition Plant, S7560 Highway 12, North Freedom, Wisconsin 53951. == Geography ==

Originally over 10,000 acres in size, in 2004 Badger consisted of 7,275 acres of land in Sauk County. It is bounded by Devil's Lake State Park and the Baraboo Hills to the north, the Town of Merrimac and the Wisconsin River to the east, the Town of Prairie du Sac to the south, and the Town of Sumpter and the Bluffview community to the west. == Geology ==

Badger is located on the terminal moraine of the outwash plain of a glacier that stopped in the area during the Wisconsin Glaciation approximately 12,000 years ago. The bedrock in the area consists of quartzite, sandstone, shale, and limestone. Groundwater flow is influenced by the Baraboo Hills to the north and the Wisconsin River to the east. == Vegetation ==

This area originally consisted of oak savanna and prairie habitat. After settlers populated the area, agriculture became predominant and few prairie and oak savanna remnants remained. Under Army management, the open spaces at Badger consisted of a few prairie remnants, some agricultural lands, and open grassy spaces around buildings maintained by grazing. Prairie restoration began in the 1970s and these areas were maintained by fire. Grazing ended in 2003 when demolition started, and the open areas are now growing up into shrubs such as autumn olive and honeysuckle. ==Environmental contamination==

32 areas within the plant are polluted with solvents, toxic metals and explosive wastes. Groundwater beneath the plant is contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, including carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene and dinitrotoluenes. An area known as the Propellant Burning Grounds is the source of a three-mile long plume of contaminated groundwater that has migrated offsite, polluting private drinking water wells in its path and flowing into the Wisconsin River. Since December 2003, dinitrotoluene (DNT) has been found in a number of private wells near the Badger Army Ammunition Plant. DNT was found above the Wisconsin Enforcement Standard in three private wells and three other private wells had nitrates above the Wisconsin ES. As of 2021, regular groundwater monitoring found hazardous levels of contaminants located halfway between Baraboo and Prairie du Sac. Restoration Advisory Board members and the Town Administrator were displeased with the Army s inaction and attempted to lobby Congress for direct funding to create a public water system. == See also ==