Powder Plant Igloo Explosion on April 27, 1966 at INAAP, Charlestown, Indiana

Igloo 5186 Q, sibling of the now missing Igloo 5185 Q.

 At about 9:00 on April 27, 1966, the earth near Charlestown Indiana erupted in a volcano like explosion.  In one instant, 175,000 pounds of gunpowder exploded, ending three lives and shattering windows three miles away.  This is the story of what happened that morning, and what is left today.

The missing igloo, 5185 Q, is marked with a red X.  The two neighboring igloos are still intact, and are visible as green bumps.  Period newspaper reports ID the wrong igloo as having exploded, 109 R

Located on the ground of the old Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (INAAP) in Charlestown Indiana, igloo 5185 Q was one of 180 such structures built in 1941 when the plant opened.  The units are constructed something like in-ground swimming pools, rectangular concrete boxes built into the earth.  They are covered with arched roofs, which are then covered in a layer of dirt.  The roofs are thin, and the doors face in "safe" directions, so that should one explode, all the energy is directed upwards and into a harmless direction.

The roads leading to the igloos are marked with signs such as this one.  The marking is repeated on the doors of the bunkers as well.

Igloo door.

Every igloo has a steel vault door that locks securely from the outside.  There is also a loading dock, so that trucks could pull up to them.

Close up of padlock, shielded to make removal difficult.

Ladder on igloo front.  Note the grounding wire running from the third rung over to the metal rim.

The igloos were constructed with safety in mind.  Grounding wires run from every metal surface to the building itself, so that there would be less risk of static sparks, along with the resulting explosions.  A system was also employed to ground trucks that pull up the loading docks.

Igloo 5184 Q, the other neighbor of the now missing igloo.

What happened that morning is unclear, as no one who witnessed the events survived to tell about it.  Certain facts are known, however, and that is all that we can relate here.  Three men clocked in to work that morning and checked out a 1.5 ton truck.  Dale E. Lord (aged 30), Adair Hayes (52) and William C. Zimbro (27) were tasked that day with transporting some powder from Igloo 5185 Q to another part of the plant.  

The missing igloo would be to the right of the telephone pole.

At a little after 9:00 a.m., something went tragically wrong.   It could have been static discharge, a stray lightning bolt, anything, and at least one family was simply told that it was an "act of god."  Regardless, there was a massive and earth shaking explosion.  175,000 pounds of M9 flake powder used for launching mortar shells went off all at once.  Nothing was left of the igloo, and according to somewhat insensitive newspaper reports of the time, the men were killed traumatically by the blast.  A roll call of the plant employees was used to determine who exactly was missing, and thus presumed to have been killed in the explosion.  Little remained but a crater, some truck parts and very little that could be identified otherwise amidst the piles of dirt and concrete.  

Site of 5185.  The shallow impressions in the ground are all that is left of tons of concrete and steel.  A survey of the site still shows traces of semi-volatile organic compounds, almost 50 years later.

Most people know little of gunpowder, assuming that it is all the same stuff, a fast burning black powder.  In reality, gunpowders vary in both power and burning speed, and the M9 flake involved in the blast was uniquely dangerous.  It was made to burn EXTREMELY fast, so that it could launch a heavy shell long distances from a very short tube.  M9 is also sensitive to being handled roughly, and those who worked with the stuff in the 1960s still have a healthy fear of the stuff.

M-9, the demon powder.  The stuff is really thin, allowing light through it.  This is why it looks darker in the middle, where the pile is thicker, as it allows less light through.  The little wafers are very "sticky," and have to be cleaned off of whatever they contact.

Cattle still graze in the field across from the igloo ruins, as mentioned in the paper.  At least one was killed by the blast that day.  This field was covered in debris from the explosion, and the road in front of it was blocked to traffic by dirt and concrete.

Cattle guards are scattered throughout the plant, to keep cows in place.  The land was leased out during the war to farmers who let their animals graze around the plant.  This eliminated the need for lawnmowing.

The blast shattered windows miles away, all around the plant itself and across the river in Prospect, Kentucky.  Aside from the three men who were instantly killed, dozens were injured by the blast wave or resulting broken glass.  Once the human remains were recovered, the hole in the ground was simply allowed to grow over with grass.  The igloo was not rebuilt, and nothing marks the site today.  (Summer of 2013), though I have heard that at times things have been placed on the site in remembrance of the lost.

Every igloo is bracketed by two telephone poles.  These are giant lightning rods, designed to send the power of a strike deep into the ground using thick copper cables.  More buildings can be seen down the road.

The plant was more or less closed once the Vietnam War ended.  Beginning in the 1990s, tracts of the land were sold off for redevelopment.  Today, some parts have been transferred to the Charlestown State Park, while others remain under lock and key.  The igloo field can only be accessed with special permission, which we were lucky to get.  One day these unique buildings will be torn down, and nothing will remain on the site.

The three men who were killed in the blast are today buried in surrounding cemeteries in Charlestown, Sellersburg, and Jeffersonville.  During the course of my research, I located all three graves, paying my respects at each. 

Dale E. Lord, father of five.  He and his wife Bonnie are buried side by side.  Dale was known to as "Catfish" to his friends and family.

Adair Hayes, father of four, is buried by himself, as far as I could determine.  He went by the nickname "Boots," and was the oldest of the three men.

William Zimbro, single, was buried with his parents and a sibling.  He was one of 12 children.

Like Adair Hayes, Mr. Billy Zimbro was a military veteran, and his grave features a second government stone.

What follows here are some newspaper clipping from the Louisville Courier Journal, covering the two days after the blast.  These were pulled from microfiche, and the photos didn't come out that clear as a result.

And here are three sets of reports from the Louisville Times.  One from the day of the blast, published that evening, and then two from the following days.

A final departing show of the area, the igloos showing up as weird mounds.

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This post has gotten a lot of attention lately.  Rather than copy and paste every comment into the article, it seems better to leave them as posted below.  This will keep the context intact.  Besides, any effort I make to rewrite them will fail to convey the meaning they already have.  If anyone posts anything that seems especially sensitive (phone numbers, email addresses) I will probably trim them just to prevent people from getting on spam-mail or phone call lists.

Thank you all for comments and stories.