Scioto Ordnance Plant

Not only did this mean that the displaced had to find a place to live in the midst of a housing and fuel shortage, but it also meant moving and/or selling livestock and agricultural equipment.

[2] After May 1, 1942, most of the farmsteads located inside the perimeter were leveled; underground bunkers and production buildings were built in clusters throughout the SOP site.

By June 1942 SOP was employing 2,900 employees, many of whom moved north from Southern Ohio and Kentucky for the high paying wages offered.

Munitions containers served dual duty by carrying SOP products overseas and then doubling as coffins for those killed in action.

Local residents who were alive at the time can recall the prisoners being used for painting, maintenance, collecting trash, building improvements, etc.

[3] In 2000 it was revealed that students attending River Valley High School (Caledonia, Ohio), built on land formerly occupied by the Marion Engineering Depot, had higher than usual instances leukemia.

Tests performed on the site by the Ohio EPA and the United States Army Corps of Engineers proved inconclusive.

A private consultant hired by a parent organization found evidence of toxic chemical waste on the River Valley site dating back to the 1940s.

As a result, these findings, and because of Ohio EPA problems with the investigation, River Valley pursued building a new school campus and eventually abandoned the Engineering Depot Site.

Most of the physical history of this area of Marion is gone, except a few buildings, and the Marion Depot located on Rt 309, which still houses an Army station and a train loading-unloading station (the Army reserve HQ previously located at the corner of Pole Lane Rd and Rt 309 has subsequently closed also).