A suitable site

Seclusion, labor market attract plant to area
Web posted Thursday, November 2, 2000

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By Charmain Z. Brackett
Correspondent

250,000 acres, located 15 miles south of Aiken and 20 miles southeast of Augusta, were chosen as a suitable site for the plant. The construction of the Clarks Hill Dam was a major reason the area was chosen. SPECIAL

November 1950 was an unusually cold month for Augusta, with temperatures dipping into the low teens.

The weather and the Korean War took the daily headlines of Augusta's newspapers - until Nov. 28.

On that day, the Cold War hit home as reflected in the headlines of the afternoon paper, the Augusta Herald, which read ``H-Bomb Plant Located in S.C.''

An Associated Press story and several other stories informed residents that 250,000 acres, located 15 miles south of Aiken and 20 miles southeast of Augusta would be needed to build a plant that would manufacture the materials needed to make atom bombs.

According to the paper, the news was a shock to most people in the area.

``While it had been rumored for some time that a huge industrial plant was to be located near Augusta, there were only a few in the entire city who even had a hint of what was happening,'' the Herald reported.

The Atomic Energy Commission had asked E.I. DuPont officials to scout an area suitable for the plant's site, in June 1950, according to a report by J. Walter Joseph and Cy J. Banick, presented at a May 17, 2000, symposium as part of Savannah River Site's 50th anniversary.

The AEC had several criteria the area needed to meet.

The area needed to be isolated and ``least susceptible to missile or sabotage attack from the Soviet Union.''

The Savannah River provided adequate water and the electrical power the Atomic Energy Commission was looking for when E.I. DuPont officials searched for a site to build a plant that would manufacture the materials needed to make atom bombs. SPECIAL

There had to be adequate water and electrical power available.

The Herald confirmed this, saying the construction of the Clarks Hill Dam was a major reason the area was chosen. The newspaper also hailed Lester S. Moody, secretary of the chamber of commerce, who was instrumental in securing the dam project.

After World War II, Mr. Moody, friend of U.S. Sens. Walter George and Richard Russell and U.S. Rep. Mendell Rivers, lobbied in Washington for money for a dam to be built on the Savannah River. He returned with $86 million to build the dam, reservoir and its hydroelectric plant.

Authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, the dam and reservoir, now known as Lake Thurmond and Thurmond Dam, is the largest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project east of the Mississippi River, according the Corps' Web site. It was built between 1946 and 1954.

The site also needed to be accessible by railways and highways, and the site had to be in an area with low probability of earthquakes, according to the Joseph and Banick report.

Eighty-four possible sites were identified in the Southeastern United States alone.

The list was first narrowed to four - the Aiken area site, a site on the Red River in Oklahoma and Texas, a site in Illinois and Indiana and a site in Indiana and Minnesota.

The main reasons for choosing the South Carolina site were its ``seclusion and an adjoining labor market, the dissolved mineral content of the Red River in Texas and construction difficulties in the northern part of the country.''

The reaction to the Nov. 28, 1950, announcement was mixed.

Business leaders foresaw an economic boom.

CLARK HILL DAM CONSTRUCTION 5/2/49

In Augusta, Mr. Moody was described by the Herald as ``jubilant,'' while the residents of Dunbarton, Ellenton and Snelling, S.C., who would be relocated from their farms and homes, were ``dismayed.''

A story on Nov. 29, 1950, quoted Mrs. Mike Cassel, who along with her husband was saving 10,000 acres of land to give to her children, as saying ``They say the government will pay for everything, but how do you put a dollars and cents figure on that!''

The families in the area would have about 18 months to move.

Politicians played on the residents' sense of patriotism.

Secretary of State O. Frank Thornton said in a Dec. 1, 1950, article that he was pleased with the attitude of those who would be displaced.

``It shows to the world that South Carolinians are the best people in the country; they stand ready at all times to cooperate with their government when this cooperation is necessary, and this is one case that it is necessary.

``I realize that giving up one's home is a great sacrifice, but if it will help maintain liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness, I feel certain that the residents of Aiken and Barnwell counties will be well repaid.''

Reach Charmain Z. Brackett at (803) 441-6927.

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