Naval Ammunition Depot
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 40° 34.855 W 098° 19.603
14T E 556981 N 4492454
Historic marker located on former Naval Ammunition Depot now Central Community College campus 1 1/2 miles east of Hastings, Nebraska.
Waymark Code: WMNPA
Location: Nebraska, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2006
Views: 27
"The U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot, known locally as "the NAD," was the largest
of the navy's World War II inland munitions depots, occupying almost 49,000
acres of Adams and Clay County farmland. Construction began in July 1942;
loading, assembly, and storage of ordnance continued until final closing in June
1966. By V-J Day in 1945, the NAD employed 10,000 military and civilian workers.
At one point during the war the NAD was producing nearly forty percent of the
navy's ordnance, including sixteen-inch shells.
Costing $71 million, the NAD had 207 miles of railroad track, 274 miles of
roads, and 2200 buildings, including hundreds of igloo-shaped explosives storage
magazines. The depot embittered farmers whose land was taken by the government,
but it produced an economic boom as Hastings's population jumped from 15,200 in
1942 to 23,000 in 1943. A September 1944 explosion killed 9 workers, injured
fifty-three, and left a 550-foot-long crater. The blast was felt 100 miles away
and shattered windows for miles around." ~ marker text
Adams County Historical Society
Clay County Historical Society
Naval Ammunition Depot
Central Community College
1-1/2 Miles east of Hastings on Hwy 6
Adams County
Marker 366