Ruins of the Sangamon Ordnance Plant

Today I drove up old route 36 to Illiopolis, the site of the Sangamon Ordnance Plant. I got off the interstate at Buffalo and took the two-lane highway flanked by cornfields through Lanesville to Illiopolis. As I neared Illiopolis I began to see chimneys dotting the fields on both sides of the road. Some were quite close and some were far away, a mile or more. The chimneys were part of the ruins of the munitions plants that operated here during World War II.

When I reached Illiopolis, I turned around in the parking lot of a bar/diner. The sign on the building said "Now Open -The Bunkers."

I had been to Illiopolis before, last summer with my mom. At that time we discovered some overground underground bunkers in a cornfield north of the road and it was my thought that I would try to find them again. So I turned the car north, but I did not see them, so I followed the narrow paved road between cornfields, gazing at the chimneys that rose from the fields to the right and left. Eventually I reached a "t" in the road, and I took it, figuring it would meet up with a south-leading road. It was high noon and hideously hot - probably close to 100 degrees. The landscape was deserted.

As I proceeded slowly along the road, I was amazed to see what looked like ruins of a munitions plant in the middle of a field off to the right. I hadn't realized the plants covered so much area - they must have been enormous. I slowed the the car to take a picture of the ruins then noticed that to the south of the road, a gravel road lead toward some cavernous cement buildings that looked like bunkers. They looked creepy enough for me to pull the car into the enclosure, which had a silo at its entrance.

I pulled in as close to the bunkers as possible. They were overgrown with weeds, but I could still easily look through the gaping window and door holes into the dark interiors. The farmer was using the buildings for storage, and sacks of grain and cleaning supplies were stacked inside. A combine was stored off to the right next to the second bunker. As I drove south, I saw underground bunkers in a field off to the right, used to store bales of hay.

I wondered why so many abandoned structures from the plants dotted throughout the area 50 years after the plants had employed thousands of area women to support the war. Maybe because they were so well constructed -- after all they have been used to store munitions.

As I headed back to Springfield I followed the route of the train that had taken women to work at the plant. One woman, my friend Twila, might be able to remember those days. I hope so.