Horn Island Chemical Warfare Service Quarantine Station, also known as the Horn Island Testing Station, was a U.S. biological weapons testing site during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. It was located on

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

's Horn Island and opened in 1943. When the war ended, the facility was closed.

History

Horn Island Chemical Warfare Service Quarantine Station was acquired in March 1943 by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

for use as a

biological weapon A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterroris ...

s testing site. Harris, Sheldon H. ''Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up'',
Google Books
, Routledge, 1994, pp. 155-56, (). The site was located on Horn Island, about south of

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport– Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 2 ...

, and opened on October 29, 1943. The siteWhitby, Simon M. ''Biological Warfare Against Crops'',
Google Books
, Macmillan, 2002, pp. 73-74, (). on Horn Island was managed and built by the

Chemical Warfare Service The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The Chemical Warfare Service was established on 28 June 1918, combining activities that un ...

's (CWS) Special Projects Division (SPD).Lindler, Luther E. et al. ''Biological Weapons Defense: Infectious Diseases and Counterbioterrorism'',
Google Books
, Humana Press, 2005, p. 156, (). By May 1944 the U.S. bio-weapons program employed 1,500 people between its Horn Island facility and the facilities at Camp Detrick. The work at Horn Island, like all of the work done at SPD facilities during

was highly classified and precautions were taken to ensure the work remained secret; during the Army's occupation of Horn Island the public was barred from the island. Soon after construction at the facility was complete it was found that the area was unsuitable for large-scale testing of

biological agent A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterroris ...

s. At the time, shipping traffic on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, near the island, was rising. It was determined that bio-weapons trials in close proximity to human population was undesirable and testing on the island was limited. Shortly before the end of World War II, on August 11, 1945, an order from the CWS declared that the Special Projects Division was to cease its activities. Guillemin, Jeanne. ''Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism'',
Google Books
, Columbia University Press, 2005, pp. 64-72, (). The facility at Horn Island was closed in 1946.

Mission and facilities

Horn Island was acquired for the sole purpose of becoming a

s test site for the U.S. military. The site was established as one of several designed to assist the newly formed U.S. biological weapons program at Camp Detrick. Horn Island Testing Station was initially established to focus its studies on insects as biological weapons. When conceived and constructed the testing station at Horn Island was meant to be the primary bio-weapons field testing site for the United States. Regis, Ed. ''The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project'',
Google Books
, Macmillan, 2000, pp. 63-77, (). The U.S. Army built facilities on the island for these purposes which included several buildings, roads, and a

narrow gauge railroad A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

. The Army also constructed an incinerator with a tall brick chimney on the island. After the Army abandoned the site, a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

destroyed most of the structures,Falls, Sr., Robert P. ''Exploring Gulf Islands National Seashore'',
Google Books
, Globe Pequot, 2001, p. 122, (). including the incinerator and chimney.McGinnis, Helen. ''Hiking Mississippi: A Guide to Trails and Natural Areas'',
Google Books
, University Press of Mississippi , 1995, pp. 101-02, (). The foundations of some of the military buildings are still visible on the island, which is now part of the

Gulf Islands National Seashore Gulf Islands National Seashore offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. The protected regions include mainland areas and parts of seven i ...

. Additionally, the remnants of the incinerator chimney were still visible into at least the 1980s.

Research and testing

Because of its proximity to human populations only two lethal agents, both toxins, were ever tested on the island, botulin and ricin. The

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

used the site during the war to study

mosquitoes Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small Diptera, flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish ...

and

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...

that were native to the Pacific Islands. In addition, an anthrax simulant, '' Bacillus globigii'' was used in aerosol dispersion tests at the station. Testing at Horn Island with the toxin botulin showed that the agent was not a viable aerosol biological weapon. Pike, John E. (webmaster).
Botulinum Toxins
, ''Globalsecurity.org'', accessed January 15, 2009. Tests were undertaken using four pound bombs filled with botulin. These bombs were detonated over confined

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...

s, just one of the animals died from inhaled botulin and another died after licking the toxin from its fur. America's Bio-Weapons Program
"The Living Weapon", American Experience, ''

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

'', (click on yellow icon in

to view relevant text), accessed January 15, 2009.

References

{{coord, 30.233942, -88.668758, display=title Biological warfare facilities Buildings and structures in Jackson County, Mississippi Military installations in Mississippi Closed research facilities of the United States Army 1943 establishments in Mississippi United States biological weapons program

History

Mission and facilities

Research and testing

See also

References