page_title: Lake Ontario Ordnance Works
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Ontario Ordnance Works / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Dormitories - Lake Ontario Ordnance Works
context_page_description: The former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works was a 7,500-acre military installation located in Niagara County, New York, United States, approximately 9.6 mi north of Niagara Falls.
  The property was purchased by the War Department during World War II as a location for the production of TNT. Most of the LOOW property was sold after the war.
  The United States Department of Energy currently owns 191 acres of the original LOOW property, on which the Niagara Falls Storage Site is located. The NFSS is used for the storage of radioactive materials produced during the development of America's first atom bombs.
  Approximately 93 percent of the original LOOW site—currently occupied by homes, a school, a campground, the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, farms, local and federal government operations, and a toxic waste facility—meets the criteria of a Formerly Used Defense Site, and one portion of the property is listed as a Superfund cleanup site.
context_section_description: The War Department purchased 7,500-acre (3,000 ha) of farmland east of Youngstown, New York, in 1941 as a location to manufacture TNT.  The location was selected because of its proximity to chemical manufacturing plants, to Fort Niagara, to the New York Central Railroad, and to water and electrical power.
  The LOOW headquarters were at first located in a vegetable canning factory at the site.
  The 149 private landowners living there—mostly farmers and orchard growers—were given 30 days to move out, and most of their 125 farmhouses and 538 barns were torn down or burned.  Some homes located on the periphery of the LOOW boundary were kept.
  Construction of the TNT plant began in January 1941, and employed over 7,500 workers.  The production and storage areas occupied approximately 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) near the center of property, and the remaining 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) was undeveloped and used as a "buffer zone".  A hospital, dormitories, fire department, power plant, USO hall, water supply system, and waste treatment facility were located at the LOOW, and TNT was manufactured for about 9 months, until the plant was decommissioned in 1943.
  Uranium used to produce the first atom bombs from 1942 to 1948 was processed by Linde Air Products in nearby Tonawanda, and in 1944, the Manhattan Engineer District began using the LOOW site for the storage and transshipment of radioactive residues and wastes created through the processing of uranium ore at Linde.
  The War Assets Administration had by 1948 sold or transferred 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of the original property, and the remaining 1,500 acres (610 ha) were given to the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission.
  More than 1,300 acres (530 ha) were sold or transferred between 1955 and 1975, although the area on which the Niagara Falls Storage Site is located remained in the possession of the U.S. government.
caption: Dormitories at the LOOW, 1943
exif: {}