photo courtesy William Burke / DuPont
In the November issue of Memphis magazine, I tell the interesting story of the Chickasaw Ordnance Works — known to most folks around here as "the old powder plant" — a massive gunpowder factory operated by the U.S. Army during World War II. The complex sprawled over 6,000 acres north of Memphis, just outside of Millington.
Although the plant was dismantled after the war, if you know just where to look (mostly along the wonderfully named Shake Rag Road), you can still find traces of the old plant — most notably the giant smokestacks from the plant's huge electrical generating station.
William Burke, fire chief for the present-day DuPont plant near Woodstock, north of Memphis, discovered these never-seen-before (by most people, anyway) photos showing the plant under construction, in the company archives in Delaware. One image shows the miles of railroad tracks that were laid down to bring construction materials to the site, and later to transport railroad cars packed with gunpowder and TNT away from the place. Not the best place to work, I'd say, if you were the nervous type.
I'm grateful to Bill for sharing these terrific imaged with me (and you). Enjoy!
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY WILLIAM BURKE / DUPONT
