75 years later, remnants of Amboy’s Green River Ordnance Plant remain

AMBOY – Lee County residents may not have seen the rockets’ red glare or bombs bursting in air during World War II, but they could hear them being made – and many of them even had a hand in making them.

The sounds of clanking metal and heavy-duty trucks once rang out loud and proud across Lee County’s countryside as the workforces of America’s factories did their part for the war effort. Thousands of men and women – mostly women, in fact – at the Green River Ordnance Plant just outside Amboy kept our soldiers supplied with top-notch rocket-propelled bazooka ammo, grenades and bombs as they fought the Axis powers.

World War II ended a little over 75 years ago, and as time passes so too do people who served in the war – and their ranks are thinning at an accelerated rate each year, and with the them go the voices of the Greatest Generation, silencing those whose battle cries saved a world from tyranny.According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, just over 325,00 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2020.

Those who worked the assembly lines at Green River are also disappearing, too, taking with them memories of their time at the plant, an 8,340-acre swath of land in Amboy and Marion townships with factories, offices, residences and bunkers, all just a couple of miles northwest of Amboy.

When Gen. Douglas MacArthur signed the official surrender of Japan on Aug. 15, 1945, VJ-Day, the purpose of the plant had been fulfilled, and it officially closed on Aug. 31. Some of the massive buildings remain, having been repurposed in multiple ways; others disappeared and faded away in the thick of overgrown trees and weeds.

Other telltale signs of Lee County’s war service still dot the landscape: smokestacks that quit smoking decades ago, or what’s left of the plant’s main water tower off of U.S. Route 30. Even more prominent is the Lee County Landfill, which, at its apex, gives a panoramic view of the vast swath of land that was needed to support the war effort.

The Green River Ordnance Plant – GROP, to many – had a short life, but made a huge impact on how the war fared for the American soldiers.

Conceived by the U.S. Department of War, the plant was built in 1942 and completed Dec. 15. The Stewart-Warner Corp. was in charge of the plant. Over time, it became Illinois’ largest industrial and munitions contribution to the war effort, and employed as many as 4,500 men and women who kept the factories buzzing 24 hours a day throughout much of its existence.

The factory’s various plants were scattered among the more than 8,000-acre complex, with areas of farmland in between for possible future utilization; the land was purchased from locals when the plant was conceived, and some longtime property owners had the opportunity to repurchase their properties once the plant closed.

A couple of the more critical jobs being done at the plant involved melting and pouring explosives for gun shells, which meant a person’s hands had to be truly steady in order for it all to work and prevent any accidents. Those who weren’t tasked with a critical job dealt with loading, unloading and stacking boxes of ammunition for shipment, or checking 90-millimeter shells to make sure they properly fit into guns.

Elsewhere on the land, a large, two-story headquarters sat off of Route 30, as well as a hospital, telephone exchange, cafeteria and a row of housing off of Corregidor Road that employees could rent for $3 a week. The headquarters, which featured a circular driveway with flagpoles in the middle, is long gone and the grounds are overgrown with trees and weeds; only a short driveway stub from Route 30 exists today. The hospital, telephone exchange and cafeteria, too, are long gone, but some of the housing has been remodeled into a small neighborhood of sorts where people live today.

Corregidor and Bataan are the two roads most identified with the plant – and two names associated with the war a world away. The names come from sites in the Philippines where American troops fought. It was at those places where the last American forces were bottled up by the invading Japanese before they fell in 1942, right as construction of the plant was underway. Eventually, Corregidor became a place where American forces took to as they recaptured the island during a 10-day battle in February of 1945. Today, Corregidor is the main north-south road through the former plant, and where the row of housing sat near its intersection with Route 30; and Bataan is a loop around the southern part of the area.

The grounds were closer to Amboy than any other community in the county that had a post office – Eldena was closer but lacked a post office – however, the Amboy Post Office was too small to handle the vast amount of mail for the plant, so the larger post office in downtown Dixon was used to process the mail and the plant was given a Dixon mailing address. Mail was delivered from the post office in town to the Illinois Central railroad depot in Dementown, where it was carried to the plant where the track branched off south of Eldena.

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (later to be known as Burlington Northern) also served the plant: a branch track went north into the plant from a perpendicular junction with the line. Both railroads are gone now, but parts of their outlines remain in the form of tree and shrub lines.

While the work they were doing was serious, the plant’s role as a major local employer gave workers an opportunity to socialize through various means. The Green River News and the Green Riverite were publications that informed employees of happenings locally and abroad. Employees also could join the plant’s baseball team as it toured the local circuits, or perform in the plant’s band or orchestra.

With the war heating up by 1944, more men were called into military service. This left many women to take on roles in the war effort at home. Eventually, nearly three times as many women were employed at the plant than men.

Like many soldiers, munitions plants also were given decorations for outstanding production. The plant was recognized with the Army-Navy White Star Production Award and the Army-Navy Excellence Award during its final year of service.

With the end of the war came the end of the plant, and it closed on Aug. 31, 1945.

Today, several of the plant’s former buildings are being utilized by private businesses for either manufacturing or storage. This includes the many ammunition bunkers that dot the western and southern areas of the plant’s former footprint. Many of them, with tops covered in grass, can be seen from the side of Red Brick, O’Malley and Sterling roads. At least one has been repurposed into a tractor barn for a farm on Red Brick Road.

The manufacturing of weapons has been silent for 75 years now, but these visual reminders still proudly stand as a reminder of Lee County’s role in defending freedom during World War II, from the assembly lines to the front lines.

Read all about it

“Green River Ordnance Plant, 1942-1945” was written by Lee County historian Duane Paulsen 50 years after the closure of the plant. The book, published locally in 1995, includes a history of the plant and interviews with those who once worked there.

Copies are available for checkout or reference (non-checkout) at libraries in Dixon and Walnut, or can be arranged at any Lee County library through interlibrary loan programs; contact your local library for more information.