The Jefferson Proving Ground (or JPG), located near

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

, is a former munitions testing facility of Test and Evaluation Command of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Materiel Development and Readiness Command. The grounds of JPG serve as a wildlife refuge, as well as a gunnery range.

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organizations and private contractors are assigned to the area.

History

On October 8, 1940, the Chief of Ordnance acknowledged a need for the construction of an additional

proving ground A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. ...

to carry out simultaneously and without interruption the many activities relative to proof work of the ordnance manufacturing program. In December 1940, the site acquisition committee decided on a tract of land in

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, Jefferson, and Jennings counties in southern

. The site was selected for its proximity to a powder manufacturing plant at

Charlestown, Indiana Charlestown is a city located within Charlestown Township, in Clark County, Indiana, United States. The population was 7,775 at the 2020 census. History Charlestown was established in 1808, named after one of its surveyors, Charles Beggs, upon ...

, an ordinance plant at

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, and an ammunition storage depot in Martin County, Indiana, as well as military installations at

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in Indianapolis, Fort Hayes in

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, and Forts

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and

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. Residents living within the area of planned site were given 30 to 120 days to vacate the land. Construction began immediately, and the first round was fired at U.S. Army JPG on May 10, 1941. In April 1953, JPG reached a pinnacle of employment and activity, with 1,774 employees and a production of 175,000 rounds fired monthly. Collin's Ford Bridge, Marble Creek Bridge, Oakdale School, also known as Building 401, and Old Timbers are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

Base closure and further use

In 1989, JPG was identified for base closure under the

base realignment and closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the en ...

(BRAC) and closed on September 30, 1995. Since that time, the U.S. Army has maintained a small on-site oversight staff and an off-site environmental coordinator. JPG is currently administered by the BRAC Division within the U.S. Army's Installation Management Agency which is responsible for managing JPG's closure, cleanup, and property transfer. Approximately of the grounds north of the historic firing line was leased to the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

in 2000 to be operated as Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge. In 1998, a parcel of land north of the firing line within the former range is operated as an air-to-surface gunnery/bombing range by the Indiana Air National Guard. As of 2014, Jefferson Range is used for UAV training, including tests of air-to-ground strikes.

Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tracks on the site are used for car storage by the Madison Railroad.

Environmental concerns

The base contains a substantial amount of

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope than natural uranium.: "Depleted uranium possesses only 60% of the radioactivity of natural uranium, ...

and the NRC has posed questions to the Army regarding environmental concerns as a result."Sites Undergoing Decommissioning: Jefferson Proving Ground"
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References

External links

Jefferson Proving Ground - Installation Support Management Agency
*
Jefferson Proving Ground - Tactical Training School
{{Coord, 39, 0, N, 85, 24, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Indiana Historic American Engineering Record in Indiana Proving grounds Military installations in Indiana 1941 establishments in Indiana 1995 disestablishments in Indiana