Vigo Ordnance Plant The Vigo Ordnance Plant , also known as the Vigo Chemical Plant or simply Vigo Plant , was a U . S . Army facility built in 1942 to produce conventional weapons . In 1944 it was converted to produced biological agents for the U . S . bio - weapons program . The plant never produced any bio - weapons before the end of World War II but did produce 8000 pounds of an anthrax simulant . The plant was transferred to Pfizer after the war , the company operated it until announcing its closure in 2008 . Location . The Vigo Ordnance Plant was located on of a more than government - owned tract and cost $ 21 million to build . The facility was constructed in the Honey Creek Township in Vigo County , Indiana . The plant was located near the small community of Vigo , Indiana , about six miles ( 10 km ) south of Terre Haute . The area surrounding the plant was flat , covered with cornfields and dotted by hog farms . The site of the former Vigo Plant is south of Interstate 70 near Highway 41 and Indiana State Highways 150 and 63 . History . Construction and conversion . The U . S . Army Ordnance Corps constructed the Vigo Plant in 1942 , prior to the official start of the U . S . biological weapons program . The Vigo Ordnance Plant began producing conventional explosives and munitions on February 18 , 1942 . The Army decommissioned the factory less than year later , and on June 30 , 1943 the plant was transferred to the U . S . Army Corps of Engineers . Portions of the Vigo Plant were then leased to the Delco Radio Corporation for the manufacture of military electronics equipment . The plant served in this capacity until May 1944 . On May 8 , 1944 the Army Special Projects Division ( SPD ) directed the Vigo Plant to convert its facilities for full - scale biological agent production . The plant was converted for biological warfare ( BW ) use by the H . K . Ferguson Construction Company ; they added fermenter tanks , slurry heaters , laboratories and the other necessities of a biological warfare facility . The plant was to be the first U . S . anthrax factory and would be utilized filling a British order for anthrax bombs . In March 1944 the British had placed an order for 500 , 000 of these bombs which Winston Churchill , remarked , should only be considered a " first installment " . Bio - weapons production . When it was conceived , the initial plan was for the Vigo Plant to be a production facility for anthrax and botulinum toxin . The 1944 order converting the plant to a BW facility directed that it become a factory capable of producing 275 , 000 boutlin bombs or one million anthrax bombs per month . The core of the Vigo Plant ' s BW operation was the anthrax fermenter s installed during the renovations in 1944 . There were 12 20 , 000 gallon fermenter tanks at Vigo , the total of 240 , 000 gallons which made it the largest bacterial mass - production line anywhere in the world at the time . After U . S . BW scientists worked through the problems presented by trying to mass - produce bombs that were to be filled with a deadly biological agent , the production line was essentially ready to operate . The line would fill the British four pound anthrax bombs with an anthrax slurry and then cluster them into the M26 cluster adapter , to form the M33 cluster bomb . Before production could begin , however , safety testing commenced . The scientific director of the U . S . BW program , Ira Baldwin , selected Walter Nevius , a specialist in pathogen containment , to lead the safety inspections which began when he arrived at Vigo in the summer 1944 . Nevius was considered conscientious , so much so that at one point the Army wanted to replace him ; this resulted in Baldwin resigning his position and becoming an " advisor " to the U . S . BW program . The testing regimen that followed extended well into 1945 . The first tests ran water through the system , to ensure there were no leaks . A second round of tests were run with an anthrax simulant , " Bacillus globigii " . The plant was pronounced water - tight by Nevius in April 1945 and trial runs with the simulant began in June . By the time the plant was ready to produce the simulant the end of World War II was on the horizon . The plant was able to produce about 8 , 000 pounds of " B . globgii " before production was halted in October 1945 , but was never able to produce any BW agents , including anthrax , before the war ended . As October 1945 ended , approximately $ 800 , 000 worth of equipment at Vigo was declared surplus . Eighteen boxcars were loaded with caustic s , sulfuric acid , bleach , tributyl phosphate and 765 , 000 explosive detonators and shipped elsewhere for storage . Vigo Ordnance plant was placed on " stand - by " in December 1945 , in reality , the demilitarization process had already begun . Demilitarization . The plant remained on standby to produce " highly classified material " and in February 1947 four areas of the plant were declared restricted . On April 30 , 1947 demilitarization of the Vigo Plant began ; this allowed prospective buyers to inspect the site . Even with the earlier equipment removal , the fermenters remained behind . On December 15 , 1947 the Pfizer company executed a 20 year lease agreement with the government to take over the Vigo site . The company would begin antibiotic manufacture at Vigo in 1948 but the military continued to liquidate the surrounding land into 1949 . That year a tract was acquired by the Bureau of Prisons to be used as agricultural land , other portions of the Vigo property were acquired by various private entities . The BW production facilities at Vigo were eventually replaced by a more modern factory at Pine Bluff Arsenal in 1954 . Pfizer ' s ownership . After the lease agreement , and later the sale of the plant , was finalized the company transferred John E . McKeen to the Vigo site in 1948 in preparation for the production of streptomycin . The main objective of Pfizer ' s Vigo operation in the years after the war was the production of veterinary antibiotics . The large fermenters were used during the period after the war to produce penicillin but afterwards sat dormant for decades . Of the areas at Vigo not utilized by Pfizer , most were left undisturbed . Adjacent to the old BW buildings the company constructed their own facilities for drug manufacturing . After operating the Vigo plant since 1948 Pfizer announced in October 2007 that 600 of the plant ' s 750 employees would be placed on paid leave . The announcement followed disappointing sales for the plant ' s flagship product , an inhaled insulin known as Exubera . Beginning in 1999 , Pfizer had invested $ 300 million in the plant and hired 400 additional employees , Pfizer ' s Vigo location was declared the sole producer of Exubera . In January 2008 those employees on paid leave were permanently eliminated . The company announced in May 2008 the remaining 140 jobs , occupied making antibiotics Cefobid and Unasyn , at the plant would be eliminated and the plant closed . In November 2008 the company announced the site and its buildings were for sale . Russian tour . Per a 1994 arms - control agreement between the United States and Russia each nation was permitted to inspect three sites in the other country that it suspected were biological warfare facilities . The Russians chose to tour Pfizer ' s main research center in Groton , Connecticut , the Plum Island facilities , including Building 101 , and the Vigo Ordnance Plant . The Russians were shown the decrepit military facilities at Vigo , many of which were shuttered , padlocked and in an obvious state of disrepair . When the Russians observed the fermenters , they asserted that it was evidence of a secret , illegal U . S . BW program . Russian reaction to the tours , in general , was not good , and a negative report of their visit followed when they returned to Russia . The report maintained that the facilities could potentially be used for BW .