By Rick Steelhammer, Charleston Gazette-Mail
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with correct information about a future movie star who worked at Explosives Plant C in Nitro.
A museum in a city that owes its existence to World War I is doing its best to honor those who served in the Great War, as well as in the major American-involved conflicts that broke out before and since.
The Nitro History Wars Museum also tells the story of its host city’s explosive beginning — rising from a pastoral, 1,772-acre stretch of Kanawha River bottomland to a city of nearly 24,000 in 11 months. The city was built to house workers at Explosives Plant C, constructed simultaneously at the site by the U.S. War Department to produce smokeless gunpowder for American armed forces destined for combat in World War I.
Ground was broken for the giant munitions plant and the city that served it on Dec. 23, 1917. By the time the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918, Explosives Plant C was producing 350,000 pounds of smokeless gunpowder a day and the town was providing housing and basic services for 23,951 people, including a young bachelor from Cadiz, Ohio, named Clark Gable, who worked at the plant before launching a career as an actor.
Photo by Laura Bilson, Charleston Gazette-Mail