Gopher Ordnance Works was a

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powder Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formula ...

production plant near

Coates Coates may refer to: People *Coates (surname) Places United Kingdom *Coates, Cambridgeshire *Coates, Gloucestershire * Coates, Lancashire * Coates, Nottinghamshire *Coates, West Sussex *Coates by Stow, in Lincolnshire *Coates Castle, a Grade ...

and

Rosemount Rosemount may refer to: Place names Australia * Rosemount, Queensland Canada * Rural Municipality of Rosemount No. 378, Saskatchewan Ireland * Rosemount, County Westmeath, an area in the Southwest of Westmeath United Kingdom * Rosemount, Aberde ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States. It was first opened in 1943. The plant was closed soon after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. There are some remains still at the original site which is visible from

U.S. Route 52 U.S. Route 52 (US 52) is a major U.S. Highway in the Central United States that extends from the northern to southeastern region of the United States. Contrary to most other even-numbered U.S. Highways, US 52 primarily follows a north ...

and County Road 46. Gophers munitions factory

After the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

decided it needed a place to open up another gunpowder factory, they chose Dakota County in East Central Minnesota as their prime spot to put up such a factory, specifically, the city of Rosemount. They soon

evicted Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortga ...

farmers on of

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

so that they could build Gopher Ordnance Works, which consisted of 858 buildings.

General plant information

Gopher Ordnance could hold approximately 3,000 employees, however, most of the employees were not hired off site and had already worked in the defense industry. The plant was operated by

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

. The production lines at Gopher were completed in 1943 and idled until 1944 when the government requested the plant begin production and create three additional production lines. The plant began production in January 1945, and was closed in October of the same year. The gunpowder being produced at the plant was being used for

navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

artillery shells A shell, in a modern military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell c ...

. The smokestacks were for boiling water that was used to manufacture the gunpowder. The large T-Walls were part of

solvent A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...

recovery houses. The process involved much volatile material.

Environmental impact

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency inspected the property in 1981 concluding that based on the limited investigation there was no contamination of concern. The

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

began inspections in 1985. In 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that the property was eligible for restoration funds. In 2005, the Corps revised its position and stated that only the land transferred to the state in 1947 was eligible, and a detailed investigation was completed in March 2009. In 2010, the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

launched
Remedial Investigation
to collect information on the environmental condition of the property.

Advertising

The plant was unable to get employees easily, so it ran ads in local newspapers. One such ad pictured a woman saying, "If you can run a vacuum cleaner, you can do my war job at Gopher".

References

External links

A Flickr photoset of the GOW ruins, taken in 2006

{{Authority control Companies based in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Dakota County, Minnesota United States Army arsenals United States Army arsenals during World War II 1943 establishments in Minnesota