New River Ordnance Plant

K-284

Just south of here stood the New River Ordnance Plant, or Dublin Bagging Plant, a World War II facility established primarily for the bagging of propellant powder used for firing artillery shells. Construction of the plant, designed and operated by the Hercules Powder Company, began in Feb. 1941 on nearly 4,000 acres of former farmland. Thousands of employees, many of them women, manufactured bags, loaded them with powder, waterproofed artillery propellants, and made cannon flash reducers. The plant shipped nearly 144,000 tons of powder before being declared surplus in 1945. Portions of the property were sold, while about 2,800 acres later became part of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Ashley M. Neville and Debra A. McClane, “The World War II Ordnance Department’s Government-Owned Contractor-Operated (GOCO) Industrial Facilities: Radford Ordnance Works Historic Investigation,” (Fort Worth: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1996). Robert C. Mack and Jeffrey A. Hess, “Radford Army Ammunition Plant: Written Historical and Descriptive Data,” (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior, 1985). “Archives Search Report: New River Ordnance Plant (St. Louis: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1993). H. Jackson Darst, Dublin and the Darsts: A Portrait of a Virginia Country Town and One of Its Families (Newbern, VA: Wilderness Road Regional Museum, 1992). R. Lloyd Mathews, Pulaski County, Virginia: An Historic & Descriptive Sketch, 1907-2007 (Pulaski: Pulaski County Jamestown 2007 Planning Committee, 2007). Southwest Times, 14 July 1944. Washington Post, 25 Aug. 1945.