Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge

Little is known of the first inhabitants of the region. Indications of their presence appear in artifacts of stone, bone, and clay. Some of the Kaskaskia and Shawnee Indians may have lived in the Crab Orchard area, but it is more likely they used it as part of their hunting grounds.

The earliest frontiersmen came into the area in the late 1700’s. By the 1840’s, homesteaders had established farms throughout the area that now makes up the Refuge. Utilizing the abundances of game, homesteaders dined on buffalo, deer, quail and passenger pigeons. Continue reading

1941, Illinois Ordnance Plant Property Acquisitions

Ordnance property AcquisitionsCrab Orchard Lake was formed by bottling up Crab Orchard Creek and 22,000 acres were purchased by the U.S. Government starting in 1936 as part of a W.P.A. project. As the new lake was filling up with water in 1940, it had already been decided to establish a military reservation in the form of the Illinois Ordnance Plant or Ordill. Many of the properties were purchased in 1940 and 1941.

The following list indicates the properties that were purchased in conjunction with Ordill. Continue reading

Illinois Ordnance Plant, Ordill

The handwriting must have been on the wall for U.S. involvement in World War II prior to 1939 when war broke out in Europe. News articles from 1938 noted our vulnerability in placing our air corps bases and armament stockpiles in coastal locations. In those times, Southern Illinois had 61 percent of the population on welfare, one of the highest in the nation and more people in this end of the state were out of work than those working. Continue reading

1946, Southern Illinois Plans for Industry Told in Business Week

National attention was attracted to Southern Illinois industrial development by an article in the October 26th, 1946, issue of Business Week entitled, ”Design for Living, Illinois Style”.

Accompanied by pictures of the Illinois Ordnance Plant, the article traced the history of Southern Illinois and outlined its plans for the future as follows: Continue reading