Baraboo, WI: Badger Army Ammunition Plant was the World's Largest in 1942

(Satellite, I had to keep zooming out because I kept seeing more remnants. It covered a lot of land.)

I knew that Baraboo, WI, had the Circus World Museum, but I was unaware that a little south of town there is the Museum of Badger Army Ammunition.

BadgerOrdanceHistory
Telling the story of the World's Largest Ammunition Plant in 1942.
[The photo is of just the north half of the plant.]
It cost $65m ($1.24b in 2021). The farmers were cleared off the land and construction began by Mar 1, 1942.

Bob Koch posted
Badger Army Ammunition Plant Powerhouse, Baraboo, Wisconsin. Served during WWII, Korea, Vietnam. US of A's biggest ammo plant in the 40's. Maintained in ready status until 1997. Fuel oil powered boilers. Toured in middle school in 1990. Would drive by as a kid and one stack would be belching. Majority of the plant including this building demolished in 2012 and remains public land today. Photo copyright Skillet Creek Media.
Dennis DeBruler: http://www.badgerordnancehistory.org/

 

Bob Koch posted
Badger Ordinance Works, Army Ammunition Plant, 1940s to 1997. Baraboo, Wisconsin. Fuel oil powered, power plant below.

As I expected with an ammunition plant, a lot of the buildings are small and uniformly spaced from each other to avoid a chain reaction of exploding ammunition storage buildings. The buildings are small to reduce the amount of ammo lost and reduce the size of an explosion if a building were to explode. We already saw rows of ammo storage bunkers in the Joliet Arsenal.

USGS: May 22, 1956 @ 23,600, AR1VKG000010025

1958 North Freedom and 1959 Baraboo Quads @ 24,000

C&NW had a short spur from the east and Milwaukee had a longer spur from the south at Mazomanie.

1957 Madison Quad @ 250,000