LONE STAR ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT. The Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, also known as the Lone Star Ordnance Plant, is located on a 24,300-acre tract nine miles west of Texarkana, next to the Red River Army Depot. The plant was constructed at the beginning of World War II at a cost of $45.5 million and operated for the army by the Lone Star Defense Corporation, a subsidiary of the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Corporation, as an ammunition-loading plant for artillery shells, bombs, fuses, boosters, and other auxiliary ammunitions items. The contract for the plant was let on July 23, 1941; the first small-caliber ammunition was sent out on May 27, 1942. Production of aluminum nitrate was suspended in the spring of 1943, and in April of the same year the depot was consolidated with the Red River Army Ordnance Depot to form the Texarkana Ordnance Center. The plant continued to operate after the war, and in the early 1990s the base had a small number of military personnel and some 4,300 Civil Service employees.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
