Horn Island Chemical Warfare Service Quarantine Station

Horn Island Chemical Warfare Service Quarantine Station The site was located on Horn Island, about south of Pascagoula, Mississippi, on Horn Island was managed and built by the Chemical Warfare Service's (CWS) Special Projects Division (SPD). By May 1944 the U.S. bio-weapons program employed 1,500 people between its Horn Island facility and the facilities at Camp Detrick. The facility at Horn Island was closed in 1946. ==Mission and facilities==

Horn Island was acquired for the sole purpose of becoming a biological weapons test site for the U.S. military. The site was established as one of several designed to assist the newly formed U.S. biological weapons program at Camp Detrick. The U.S. Army built facilities on the island for these purposes which included several buildings, roads, and a narrow gauge railroad. including the incinerator and chimney. The foundations of some of the military buildings are still visible on the island, which is now part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Additionally, the remnants of the incinerator chimney were still visible into at least the 1980s. ==Research and testing==

Because of its proximity to human populations only two lethal agents, both toxins, were ever tested on the island, botulin and ricin. Tests were undertaken using four pound bombs filled with botulin. These bombs were detonated over confined guinea pigs, just one of the animals died from inhaled botulin and another died after licking the toxin from its fur. ==See also==