This Is Our Town: Those Yesteryears in War Born Henderson, Nevada

By Alexandra Osborn Spotti

With World War II raging throughout Europe, the United States knew it needed to produce magnesium—the “miracle metal”—in prodigious quantities.

Thousands of souls from across the United States heeded the call and traveled to Southern Nevada to build the world’s largest magnesium production plant. Living conditions were harsh in the parched desert encampment that some called Tent City.

But the iron-willed men and women who answered the call would break all records in magnesium production. When the war ended, however, a mass exodus from the settlement left it on the brink of becoming just another ghost town.

In this book, the author offers readers a front-row seat to the development of Henderson, Nevada. In plain, straightforward language, she examines the forces that propelled the small community through the war and how it continued to thrive into the twenty-first century.

Whether you’re interested in World War II, the history of Nevada, or the history of Henderson in particular, this book reveals the powerful impact of a small desert town.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Aug 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665709842

Alexandra Osborn Spotti

Nevada became the author’s home when her parents brought their young family from the Midwest to settle in Henderson in the fifties. Growing up in what was then a small desert town, Alexandra remembers the penny candy at Julie and Bill Byrne’s grocery on Army Street, the fifteen-cent admission to the Victory Theatre, the Skyway Drive-in and its roundabout ride, and the excitement of the Industrial Days parades and the carnivals. Like so many others, she spent endless summer days swimming at the BMI pool where she would later be a swim instructor and compete on the city’s swim team. During her high school years, Alexandra served as a candy striper at Rose de Lima Hospital, was as a member of the Basic High School Desertaires, Future Teachers of America, Sun Youth Forum, Girls Athletic Association, the Lone Wolf newsletter staff, and other organizations. She also penned the “Wolves Howl” that appeared regularly in the Henderson Home News. Alexandra holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master of Science Degree from the University of Nevada and was a teacher/library media specialist with the Clark County School District for over twenty years. During her teaching career, she authored a monthly column on children’s literature published in the Henderson Home News. Spending time with family and friends, reading and getting lost in bookstores, writing, traveling, and scouring antique shops are her most favored pastimes.

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Acknowledgments

Through the course of writing this book, I have traveled on a wonderful journey back in time. Along the path to all those thousands of yesterdays, I have been blessed with much support in the furtherance of my goal to get this book finished and published. For the storied insights and reminisces of my late parents, Floyd and Pearl, two larger than life figures, I will be forever and a day grateful. To my longtime friends and Basic High School classmates Leslie Plamondon Davis, Carol Medina Montoya, Dr. John McBeath, and Pamela Phillips Hall, a heartfelt thank you for the memories. To other friends—both old and new—Cleo Wilson, Anthony Salazar, Janelle DeCorte, the late Angela Monahan, Robby Van Wagenen, the late Betty Wagner Daly, Jim Ullom, the late Winnie Prince, Mark Hall-Patton, Alice Brumage, and Richard Walter, my deep appreciation for information or experiences you shared. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Dana Bullinger, digital projects librarian for Henderson Libraries; Colleen O’Brien, Henderson city clerk; and Patricia Aaron, public affairs officer of the Bureau of Reclamation; each of whom went the extra mile to lend a hand. Many of the images in this book were photographed by me, however the majority were acquired with the assistance of Dana Bullinger and Colleen O’Brien. Dana facilitated my navigation of the library website, making it possible for me to choose from droves of pictures, after which she compiled them in a format I could easily utilize. Colleen searched through the city’s vast digital archives for pictures from the specific time periods I requested. With my choices made, the images were received. Patricia kindly provided me with helpful data on Hoover Dam.

"Thank you for being an important part

of my story." — anonymous

Introduction

While the world was being shattered by war, thousands of brave souls uprooted themselves from the comfort of their homes to journey to the unpityingly hot and bleak Southern Nevada desert. In this remote location, they would perform grueling work in the harshest of conditions to achieve the phenomenal feat of constructing the world’s largest magnesium production complex in defense of America and its Allies. During a time of grave uncertainty, a spirit of hope and, to put it plainly, the resolute gumption interwoven into the character of each of these leading lights propelled them, against all odds, to also build a community. From what has been referred to as tent city, a school system and a public library were founded, businesses were launched, churches were established, and civic activities were organized. Little did they know then that they were laying the foundation from which the second largest city in Nevada would one day spring. That same intrepid can-do attitude guiding these men and women as they made a home in the desert fostered their mastery in the production of magnesium, the mystery metal. The record-breaking output of refined magnesium manufactured by this workforce would play a critical role in safeguarding the future for people all across the globe—those who might otherwise not have had a tomorrow.

The tasks that we Americans now face will test us to the uttermost. Never before have we been called upon for such a prodigious effort. Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much…

—President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1942

The year 1943 will challenge every American--on the battlefront and on the home front. We shall be called upon to sacrifice as we have never sacrificed before. To us at BMI one major task is assigned—to make magnesium—fast and in quantity. We must not-we cannot-we will not fail.

—The Big Job 1942

1

The Road to War

I t was a race against the clock as one hundred sixty-two million cubic feet of earth was gouged, scooped, tunneled, hollowed, and bulldozed out of thousands of acres of parched ground. It happened in the distant past, or was it that long ago? The year was 1941. The setting was a barren Southern Nevada desert scorched by the unrelenting sun, but a project codenamed Plancor 201 was about to change the landscape forever.

Let me tell you the story.

World War II (WWII) had begun two years earlier when Germany’s chancellor and supreme commander of the armed forces Adolf Hitler ordered one million five hundred thousand land troops, thousands of fighter and bomber aircraft, and a great massing of armored tanks to attack Poland.

Hitler had long harbored a seething outrage over Germany’s defeat in WWI. His embitterment was fomented by the terms laid out in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, and the Locarno Pact, signed in 1925. Integral to the Treaty of Versailles was the requirement that Germany accept responsibility for WWI, pay war reparations to the Allies, limit the size of its army and navy, and maintain no air force. The treaty also restricted, in some cases banned, Germany’s manufacture and use of war armaments. It further prohibited German troops from entering the Rhineland (a strip of land that served as a buffer zone along the Rhine River in the western portion of Germany and east of Germany’s border with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), and forbade any placement there of German military munitions. One stipulation in the Locarno Pact was that the Rhineland would remain permanently demilitarized. Hitler viewed the treaty and pact as grievous humiliations meted out to Germany, and his vow to one day govern Germany and renounce both would prove prophetic.

Hitler’s rise to power began in 1921 with his ascension to the leadership role in the far- right Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei Party (NSDAP). Translation: The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (and known as the Nazi Party). The NSDAP was originally named the German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei —DAP). When President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler the chancellor in January 1933, Nazification (Gleichschaltung) swiftly took over and transformed Germany into a one-party barbaric dictatorship. President von Hindenburg passed away August 2, 1934; thereupon, the Reich Legislature (Nazi Reichstag) immediately adopted a law drafted by Hitler that mandated the dissolution of the position of president. All authority previously conferred on the office of the presidency would thenceforward be assumed by Germany’s chancellor — Adolf Hitler.

On August 19, 1934, a referendum (plebiscite), rife with reports of voter intimidation practices, was held. When the ballots were tabulated, the majority revealed a yes vote for the merging of the two positions. On August 20, only one day later, members of the German military and all public officials were required to swear an oath of obedience. It was not a vow of loyalty to Germany (referenced as the Fatherland) or to the German Constitution — it was absolute allegiance to the monocratic Adolf Hitler. Already addressed as der Fuehrer (the Leader), Hitler’s future as the dictator of Germany was now secured. This Nazi system of government, known as the Third Reich, was the embodiment of Hitler’s undisguised world view. He subscribed to ultranationalism; to Herrenvolk, a belief in a master race that aligns with the white supremacy ideology of Aryanism; to a maniacal antisemitism; to authoritarianism; and to Nazi expansionism (Lebensraum) through the forceful taking of territory (Wilde 2019).

Germany had begun procuring weapons and building up its three-branch armed forces, the Reichswehr, under a veil of secrecy after the Treaty of Versailles had been signed. When Hitler attained unrestricted power, he overtly repudiated the treaty’s military provisions and escalated the country’s rearmament on a massive scale. Once buttressed by Germany’s formidable military, renamed the Wehrmacht in 1935, Hitler was on the march. He began by brazenly sending thousands of German troops to the Rhineland March 7, 1936 (Bell 2021). While this act of aggression was met with verbal rebukes from heads of many governments, no intervention occurred. In like manner, the League of Nations, created in 1920 to maintain world peace, denounced Hitler’s actions but stopped short of taking any further measures. The archives of history would record Germany’s occupation of the Rhineland as a pivotal moment in world incidents. What different fate might history have yielded if Germany’s remilitarization of the Rhineland had been viewed as the bellwether it was and had not gone unchallenged?

Facing no resistance, Hitler continued to advance. His next move was accompanying his soldiers as they invaded Austria March 12, 1938. Austria was quickly annexed and absorbed into Germany’s Nazi Third Reich as a new province. It was named Ostmark.

Feeling emboldened, Hitler now threatened war unless the Sudetenland—a part of Czechoslovakia — was surrendered to Germany. With memories of WWI still vivid, Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), and Edouard Daladier, prime minister of France, did not want to lock horns with Hitler. In a quest to avoid armed conflict, they offered no admonishment. Chamberlain and Daladier chose to deal with this crisis by placating and appeasing Hitler. They gave him what he wanted by entering the Munich Agreement (also called the Munich Betrayal) with Germany and Italy. Submitting to Hitler’s horrifying forewarning meant sacrificing Czechoslovakia. Czech government officials were not invited to participate in the discussions and their country was powerless to resist a Nazi invasion without the military assistance of the UK and France. In addition to stipulating Hitler’s promise that no blood would be shed if the Sudetenland regions were ceded to Germany, this Munich non-aggression pact, signed September 30, 1938, included a pledge by der Fuehrer that he would make no additional demands for territory (Hickman 2022).

Upon returning to England from Munich, Prime Minister Chamberlain was roundly cheered as he held the document containing Hitler’s signature in the air while asserting, to his much-relieved fellow citizens, that peace would prevail for their time (National Archives n.d.).

This misjudgment of Hitler’s cunning deceit would continue to tip the scales in the dictator’s favor. On March 15, 1939, in violation of the accord, Hitler’s dreaded army, flexing its brute power, seized the next target — the remaining regions of Czechoslovakia. Now the entire country was under the jackboot of the autocratical German regime. Hitler’s ruthless expansionism was proceeding unchecked and his imperial scheme had been successfully put in motion.

2

The Invasion of Poland –

World War ll Begins

I n the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, the world was stunned when Germany’s land troops (the Heer), naval units (the Kriegsmarine), and the air force (the Luftwaffe) initiated a massive military bombardment of Poland. WWII had begun. On September 3, Hitler received a message from Prime Minister Chamberlain wherein he was offered two options: pull back all German forces and end hostilities against Poland immediately or face war with the UK and France. Two days earlier, on the day Poland was invaded, British and French officials had met with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. During their discussion, von Ribbentrop was assured that they had every intention of declaring war on Germany if the Nazis did not make a hasty retreat. Hitler had brushed off this advance warning. After this initial rebuff, Chamberlain drew a line in the sand in his second message. Hitler’s forces were given until 11:00 a.m. September 3 to cease all aggressive acts against Poland or face the consequences. The zero hour would pass. Once again, there was no response to Chamberlain’s ultimatum.

The die was cast. With their backs to the wall, Great Britain and France now joined the battle against Hitlerism. In a radio broadcast at 11:15 a.m. September 3, 1939, Chamberlain announced the joint declaration of war by the UK and France against the German forces (BBC 2021). Contrary to what Chamberlain had proclaimed a year earlier, there would be no peace in their time. On that same third day in September 1939, Australia, New Zealand, Morocco, Transjordan, Tonga, and Tunisia declared war on Nazi Germany. Less than nine months later, May 10, 1940, Chamberlain would resign and be replaced by Winston Churchill, the British Bulldog.

What was plain as day could no longer be dismissed. There would be no gainsaying the reality— Germany’s fanatical ruler did indeed possess a sinister design for domination that would be far-reaching. Between April and June 1940, the abiding affinity for freedom was fighting tooth and nail for its very life as the Nazi war machine crushed Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. Europe was being torn apart by Germany’s forces and the iron-fisted Hitler intended the same fate for Great Britain.

In the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain began. This military engagement between Germany and England was the first to be fought entirely in the air. By the end of October, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Flight Air Arm of the Royal Navy (FAA) would prevail in defending the UK from Germany’s fearsome air force. In September 1940, with the Luftwaffe’s defeat in the aerial battle already sewn up, Hitler initiated the blitz (short for blitzkrieg) or Lightning War. This was incessant bombing raids of UK cities, some of which were: London, Liverpool, Coventry, Belfast in North Ireland, Clydebank in Scotland, and Cardiff in Wales. Industrial centers, dockyards, ports, and radar stations also became targets. The blitz, with most of the attacks occurring during the night hours, lasted about nine months through May 1941 (Military History 2010). Each time the air raid sirens went off, bomb-battered residents sought safety in the underground subway stations (the Tube) or other public shelters. Many people took refuge in eight-by-fifteen-foot prefabricated cement structures called Anderson Shelters buried in their backyards.

Despite the continual onslaught, Great Britain’s refusal to cease resisting and give up threw a wrench in the works. Hitler had underestimated the tenacious, unflinching spirit of the British. With the expectation of an easy victory now fractured, Operation Sea Lion, the codename for Hitler’s plot to overpower the UK and force its total surrender, could not be fulfilled. After this troublous development, the despot walked back his original stratagem, changed course, and turned his fury to the east. His target June 22, 1941, was the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics–USSR). In point of fact, Adolf Hitler had long planned on overrunning the USSR. In December 1940, he had directed German forces to begin working out the details for a treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union codenamed Barbarossa (Holocaust Encyclopedia 2020). Unforeseeable to the world’s population then, Hitler’s calculated betrayal of the USSR would prove to be an egregious strategic blunder that would play a defining role in the course of the war.

After the examination of the wreckage of German airplanes, it was reported that Germany had incorporated magnesium (Mg) into the structure of their aircraft. The utilization of magnesium, which is 33 percent lighter than aluminum, 75 percent lighter than steel, and 50 percent lighter than titanium, greatly increased the maneuverability and speed of the airplanes, giving them a distinct advantage. It was revealed that Japan, Germany, and Russia had been quietly building magnesium plants in the years before World War II. The magnesium they produced was used extensively in the construction of their warplanes, lightweight twenty-five mm cannons, flares, incendiary bombs, and other armaments. In the United States (US) capital, Congress, disturbed by these revelations, listened intently as House Representative Charles H. Leavy sounded the alarm by describing to congressional members how the astounding prowess of the Axis war planes was due to the use of magnesium. In his January 1940 presentation, Leavy said, The tremendous efficiency of German dive bombers is due to the fact that their vital parts are composed largely of magnesium alloys. The famous ‘V’ Turn of these bomber aircraft, as they come out of a dive and make their getaway, simply cannot be performed without the aid of magnesium… (Sadovich 1971, 4). In his presentation, Representative Leavy emphasized the urgency of expanding America’s military aircraft and war munitions industry through the use of magnesium alloys, and he called for an expeditious increase in magnesium production.

In Nevada, Representative Leavy’s call to arms would be realized through the leadership of Howard P. Eells, president of Basic Refractories, Incorporated (BRI) of Cleveland, Ohio. Eells was in the business of manufacturing heat-resistant bricks used in furnaces. He had gotten his supply of raw materials in Ohio for many years when he decided to explore new avenues out west. By 1936, he had acquired a lease-hold interest in mineral rights to brucite deposits in Nye County, Nevada, and soon obtained mining claims to an adjacent bedded deposit of magnesite. The ore that Eells’s company mined in Nevada was shipped back to his plant in Ohio. Brucite and magnesite are the crude ores essential in the manufacturing of magnesium, and the deposits in Nye County were believed to contain in excess of seventy million tons of rich commercial grade ore. Worthy of mention: this mineral ore body (located in a mining camp known as Brucite and established as Gabbs in 1941) was first discovered in 1927 by prospector Harry Springer before magnesium’s value had been realized; thus, there was no market for magnesium at that time in history.

When magnesium’s critical potential for military use became apparent, Eells, possessing the means necessary to extract and utilize the material, wasted not a minute researching the production of magnesium. He would confer with British and American metal companies to further familiarize himself with the methods and techniques necessary for the production of magnesium, heretofore considered to be difficult, especially in large quantities. J.W. Lowman, a childhood friend of Eells, translated a German article on metal production which he shared with those in the metals and minerals division of the US Department of Commerce. In May 1940, a meeting was arranged with members of the mining department of the Federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) wherein the possibility of building a plant near Boulder Dam was discussed. In June 1940, magnesite samples originating in the Nye County orebody would be sent to the US Bureau of Mines for experimentation in the production of magnesium in (Sadovich 1971, 7).

Early in 1941, Howard Eells learned that the repeated bomb attacks by the German Luftwaffe had damaged England’s magnesium plant. The resulting shortage of magnesium prompted English officials to consider building a production plant in Canada where it would be out of harm’s way. After conversations between BRI representatives and Canadian officials, Eells met with British Major Charles J.P. Ball, president of Magnesium Elektron, Limited (MEL). During discussions with Major Ball, who possessed extensive knowledge of magnesium through nearly two decades of manufacturing the metal, Eells shared his idea of building a magnesium facility in Southern Nevada. Soon, the two men put their heads together and formed Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI) as a subsidiary of BRI. Eells would head the corporation as president, Major Ball would serve as vice president.

The Federal Office of Production Management (OPM), formed in January 1941 to oversee mobilization efforts, notified BMI officials in May 1941 that the government would finance a magnesium plant. The project, codenamed Plancor 201, would be commonly referred to as BMI. Charles Henderson, former Nevada senator and board member of the RFC and the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC), and James Scrugham, Nevada congressman, played decisive roles in securing the contract for the monumental project. Moreover, the idea of constructing a magnesium processing plant in Southern Nevada garnered strong backing from Patrick McCarran, Nevada senator; Key Pittman, former Nevada senator; and E.P. Carville, Nevada governor.

About two months after Nazi boots had stormed into Poland and started WWII, the US Congress passed, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) quickly signed, the Neutrality Act of 1939 (also referred to as the fourth Neutrality Act). Putatively, Nevada Senator Key Pittman had presented this bill to Congress in March 1939 but the fear that it would draw the US into warfare had ensured the delay of its passage. This Neutrality Act effectively did away with previous legislation that had included weaponry embargos on trade with other countries. Under a cash and carry policy, the exportation of American munitions was now authorized. America’s allies could purchase military supplies produced in the US; however, all receiving nations were required to transport the war armaments in their own ships.

Non-intervention had been the temper of American public opinion since WWI (called the Great War) ended in 1918. Along with being simply war weary, the generalized belief that North America was safe and secure with vast oceans separating the continent from any chaos happening in the rest of the world reinforced isolationist views among US citizens. Coupled with that, America’s populous was still bearing the brunt of the destitution wrought by the Great Depression when the nation’s economic footing became shaky once again with the onset of the 1937–38 recession. Save for the fact that FDR reflected the nation’s sentiment of neutrality, he remained firm in his pronouncement that America’s loyalties would be extended to countries suffering in the face of absolutism. The USA would not stand idly by. The President was emphatic that military aid—short of entering the war—would be pledged to those beleaguered countries.

Addressing hundreds at the University of Virginia’s commencement ceremony June 10, 1940, FDR articulated his vision for American Foreign Policy in an impassioned speech.

…Some indeed still hold to the now somewhat obvious delusion that we of the United States can safely permit the United States to become a lone island… in a world dominated by the philosophy of force. Such an island may be a dream of those who still talk and vote as isolationists. Such an island represents to me and to the overwhelming majority of Americans today a helpless nightmare of a people without freedom…Let us not hesitate—all of us— to proclaim certain truths…military and naval victory for the gods of force and hate would endanger the institutions of democracy in the western world, and that equally, therefore, the whole of our sympathies lay with those nations that are giving their life blood in combat against these forces…

With the ruinous conquest of North Africa in motion, France fallen by the end of June 1940, and the UK under siege by July 1940, the climate of opinion in America had shifted. Still leery of involvement in international conflicts, the public now favored aid to US allies. The DPC was formed by Congress in August 1940 to coordinate defense efforts. It was determined that this agency would be responsible for converting factories, shipyards, and mills from peacetime production to the manufacturing of military equipment. The DPC would also oversee construction of additional defense factories and countrywide rationing. Plastic, rubber, petroleum products, steel, aluminum, copper, and many food items were on the lengthy list of restricted goods. The RFC, established in 1932, would control the purse strings for all things defense related.

In September 1940, America gifted the UK with fifty destroyers. In exchange, the USA received leases on British military bases in the Western Hemisphere. With the UK in desperate straits and in need of strategic war materials, FDR (reelected in November 1940) signed into law the Lend-Lease Act (titled: An Act to Promote the Defense of the USA) March 11, 1941. In brief, this bill authorized aid to America’s allies in the form of war-related materials, food, and other necessities with monetary payment deferred, in some instances not required.

In the intervening years, countries abroad had been choosing up sides. In May 1939, the Pact of Steel formalized the military and political partnership between Italy and Germany (first formed in 1936) as the Rome-Berlin Axis. In a similar manner, the USSR and Germany agreed to commit no belligerent acts against each other by signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact) in August 1939. In coordination with Germany, the Soviet Union had entered Poland September 17, 1939, from the east; forthwith, Poland was divided between the two nations. The Empire of Japan joined forces with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and these three countries validated their alliance by signing the ten-year Tripartite Pact September 27, 1940. This pact was also referred to as the Three-Power Pact, the Three-Way Pact, and the Axis Pact (A&E Network 2019). These three countries would be referred to as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, but commonly known as the Axis. Between November 1940 and June 1941, additional Tripartite Pact signatories were Hungary, Romania, the first Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the Independent State of Croatia that had been part of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia was neutral until Prime Minister Cvetkovic capitulated and entered into an alliance with the Axis powers in March 1941. Undeterred, opposition forces inside Yugoslavia staged a coup d’ etat. In spite of the rebellion, Germany would overrun Yugoslavia by April 1941. Fascist Italy attacked Greece in October 1940, but was forced to withdraw by the Greek army. Hitler’s forces then extended their terrorization to Greece in April 1941 while intervening to assist Italy. The Republic of Finland was a non-participant in the Tripartite Pact, nonetheless, Finland’s road to confront the Axis aggression would take several detours. In November 1939, the Finns fought off a Soviet invasion (called the Winter War or Russo-Finnish War). Unable to continue resisting by March 1940, Finland signed the Treaty of Moscow, an agreement ending the conflict but also requiring the Finnish government to forfeit a great deal of land in Southeast Finland. Still at odds with the USSR over the lost territory, Finland would fight the Soviets alongside Germany. In June 1944, the Red Army would attack Finland once more, though outnumbered the Finns pushed them back. In September 1944, along with signatories USSR and the UK, Finland signed the Moscow Armistice. This agreement restored the Moscow Peace Treaty (Alchetron 2018). In March 1945, Finland would declare war on Germany.

Well before America entered WWII, ocean waters were swarming with German Wolfpacks (clusters of German submarines called U-boats) on a mission to prevent shipments of supplies from reaching those nations allied with America. To thwart the attacks, US destroyers began routinely providing cover for merchant ships. On April 11, 1941, in retaliation for the sinking of the Dutch freighter Saleier, the United States Ship (USS) Niblack fired on what was believed to be a German U-boat. The American Steam Ship (SS) Robin Moor, carrying general cargo on its way to Mozambique on the southeastern coast of Africa, was set upon by a U-boat May 21, 1941. Before bludgeoning the steamer, the U-boat’s commander allowed its crew and passengers to abandon ship via four lifeboats. After languishing in the lifeboats for about two weeks, all were rescued (Schaffer 2016). The USS Greer became the prey of a U-boat southeast of Iceland September 4, 1941. Blasted by two torpedoes tearing through it, the Greer fired back. No lives were lost. As the cataclysmal event that would unfold December 7, 1941, grew nearer, maritime attacks escalated with the USS Salinas, the USS Kearney, and the USS Reuban James all targeted. The USS Salinas was fired upon near Newfoundland September 30, 1941. No Americans were injured. The USS Kearney, torpedoed while coming to the aid of a British convoy near Reykjavik, Iceland, October 17, 1941, suffered the loss of eleven Americans, the injured numbered twenty-two. As documented in Warfare History Network (2009), one hundred fifteen Americans perished two weeks later, October 31, when a U-boat sank the USS Reuban James warship.

3

A Desert Giant

W ith not a minute to spare, the blueprints for the magnesium plant are purloined from Germany and then smuggled out of England May 12, 1941. Guarded by engineer J. R. Charles and chemist S. J. Fletcher, employees of MEL, the cases containing these drawings are loaded onboard a ship under extreme measures of secrecy for the long voyage to America. A German U-boat torpedoes the ship May 20. The blueprints are obliterated. The two men, fortunate to be traveling amongst a convoy of ships, are rescued and are back at square one. A new tactic to throw off the enemy is hatched. Charles and Fletcher board another vessel for a subsequent ocean passage to the US, but this second journey is devoid of a copy of the design plans for the plant. Instead, they are microfilmed and flown to Washington, D.C. — soon to be placed in the hands of BMI officials in Nevada’s desert.

A weighty question remained: Where exactly should Plancor 201, the largest magnesium plant in the world, be constructed? Visits to possible locales were made by Senator McCarran, and representatives from BRI, BMI, the Federal Works Agency (FWA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Colorado River Commission (CRC), the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), the Southern Nevada Power Company (Co.), and Commerce Bank.

Gabbs, Nevada, home of the minerals, was quickly ruled out as the site for the magnesium manufacturing plant because the area lacked water and power. Rather, the facility to be built near the Gabbs mine would be the magnesium oxide production plant. Once the ore was blasted out of the west side of the Paradise Mountain range, the Gabbs raw material feeder plant would be responsible for the refinement, concentration, and the calcination of the concentrates to produce the oxide of magnesite. The resulting magnesium oxide (MgO) would then be sent to BMI — the Mg production plant. The water for the Gabbs plant would be supplied by nine wells. The electricity would flow through a fifty-five-thousand-volt transmission line built by Southern California Electric Co. and strung sixty-five miles from an area near Tonopah. MacDonald Construction Co. would build the plant, breaking ground December 8, 1941.

Ultimately, the location propounded for the BMI complex was several thousand acres of parched desert terrain halfway between Boulder City and Las Vegas. The practical rationale for favoring this spot was evident — water and electricity were available in superabundant quantities. This location sat only sixteen miles from the Lake Mead Reservoir. According to the National Park Service (2020), the lake’s volume capacity was calculated at over thirty-one million acre-feet by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) in 1935. This massive amount of water coupled with its close proximity to the site favored for the BMI defense plant guaranteed a sufficient supply would be available and could be transportable. Lake Mead was named for Dr. Elwood Mead, commissioner of BOR. In 1964, the name was altered to Lake Mead National Recreation Area (BOR 2015).

The industrial complex would also be in need of tremendous power that only the mammoth Boulder Dam in the Black Canyon on the Colorado River could provide. Situated on the Nevada-Arizona border, roughly twenty-four miles from the site put forward for the complex, the dam is 726.4 feet high, 1,244 feet across its crest, 660 feet wide at its base, and weighs six million six hundred thousand tons. Completed in 1936, the power plant of this industrial genius was the world’s largest hydroelectric station until 1949. During the planning stages for the dam, and before Boulder Canyon was ruled out as a possible site, the monikers given the undertaking were Boulder Canyon, Boulder Canyon Project, and Boulder Dam. When Black Canyon was chosen as the site for the dam, legal documents continued to refer to the project as Boulder Canyon as well as Boulder Dam (Hence Boulder City– built for workers). When work on the dam began during the fall of 1930, Ray Wilbur, Interior Secretary under President Herbert Hoover, declared its name would be Hoover Dam. While the names Boulder Dam and Hoover Dam would be used interchangeably, it was referred to as Hoover Dam in federal appropriations bills and documents. In May 1933, with FDR now in the White House, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes proclaimed that the dam would be called Boulder Dam. Harry S. Truman was elected president in 1945, and two years later (April 1947), the 80th Congress changed the name Boulder Dam back to Hoover Dam (BOR 2015).

With water and electricity, the essential components, obtainable, the likelihood of the production plant being built on the site favored was all but assured. Other factors supporting the location between Boulder City and Las Vegas: Railroad connections already existed in Southern Nevada; Notwithstanding a rugged profile in some regions, the wide-open flat topography in the southernmost tip of the state would make transporting ores, by whatever means, realizable; The proposed site for BMI was near enough to Boulder Dam to harness it as the source of electricity, while still offering the all-important decentralization of vital resources. Espionage involving plots to sabotage the dam had been uncovered but no attempts were ever able to gain leverage. Though judicious measures were in place to secure the overarching area that included the dam, it appeared clear-cut that the recommended setting for BMI would offer both the dam and the Mg production plant an extra layer of protection in a worse-case scenario; Lastly, by some accounts, this preferred site offered an additional advantage — mountains. The rough calculation was that the high-reaching mountains encircling Clark County could thwart any aerial attack. While it was undeniable that this hulking magnesium plant would be wholly conspicuous from the air, the tenable judgement was that these towering landforms, all with elevations exceeding three thousand feet, could prevent enemy planes from flying low enough to stage an exact assault on the BMI defense complex or any of its supporting apparatus.

Included in what may be an incomplete accounting of the mountains within and surrounding Clark County, there is the Sunrise, Frenchman, and Spirit Mts; Red Rock Canyon and Spring Mountain Ranges (collectively, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Spring Mt. National Recreation Area include the Keystone Thrust, Rainbow Wall, and Harris Mt.); the Bridge, Mummy, and Potasi Mountains and Mount Wilson; Fletcher, Bonanza, McFarland, Griffith and Charleston Peaks (part of Mount Charleston); Rainbow Mt. and La Madre Mt. Wildernesses (bordering each other); There is also the River, Muddy, Sheep (which has Hayford Peak), Las Vegas (which has Gass Peak), and McCullough Mt. Ranges (Travel Triangle 2020).

The North-South McCullough Range, which is broken into two different sections, does include Black Mt., which has a commanding elevation. There is another mountain near Interstate 515 that locals have referred to as Black Mt. since time out of mind. However, this mountain, the site of the first B for Basic High School, has never been formally named.

The green light to proceed with the construction of the plant was given and the contract between the DPC and BMI was signed July 5, 1941. The agreement called for over thirty-three million six hundred thousand pounds of magnesium to be manufactured each year that BMI was in operation. Before the ink was dry on the document, air force officials, via the DPC, requested that this defense complex be expanded and production increased to one hundred twelve million pounds of magnesium turned out per year. Howard Eells concurred.

On September 3, 1941, McNeil Construction signed the contract to build the $150 million facility. Once completed, the gargantuan complex, the blueprints of which could cover over thirty acres, would be 1¾ miles long and ¾ of a mile wide. The land, buildings, equipment, and magnesium would be the property of the US Government. Designing, constructing, and operating the complex would be the responsibility of BMI.

The momentous day finally arrived. On September 15, 1941, ground was broken for Plancor 201, and a sunbaked desert at the back of beyond was born an instant bustling boomtown.

4

Pearl Harbor

F rom the word go, it was full steam ahead with excavation for the BMI complex beginning October 29, 1941. It would later be disclosed by The Big Job newsletter that the amount of dirt removed for the production plant would be sufficient to … make a mountain three miles high and a hundred feet square or fill a hole dug in an acre to a depth of ¾ of a mile. As work crews labored intently to get this facility erected, Howard Eells carefully chose sixteen American scientists and engineers to travel to Manchester, England, in December 1941. Fred Gibson, later the president of the Pacific Engineering and Production Co. of Nevada (PEPCON) located in Henderson, was among this first group. A second group, consisting of fifteen men, would leave for England in early January 1942. In Manchester, both groups of Americans studied magnesium plant operations and trained in the production of magnesium under the guidance of Major Ball. Up to that point in time, magnesium, often referred to as the mystery metal, had not been widely produced in the USA and Eells was cognizant of the fact that British expertise would be a valuable teacher. Both teams arrived in England safely,