Sioux Army Depot

The plaque's figures leave out the people who made room for the depot and those who worked inside it. Dale Fehringer's 2012 history counts 35 farm families moved off the land; one son recalled the family gone thirty days after his father spoke with the Army. Ordville, a housing area outside the depot, opened in February 1943 and had 85 apartment buildings for 1,360 people by year's end. The Army recruited Japanese Americans from the camps where they were interned, and in spring 1944 a stockade held up to 600 prisoners of war, about half Italian, half German.

What the plaque says

Sioux Army Depot Sioux Army Depot was established on 23 March 1942 as Sioux Ordnance Depot. It was the only U.S. Army Ammunition Depot in Nebraska during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The depot was initially under the command of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department and later the U.S. Army Materiel Command. Sioux Army Depot's mission during its entire history was the receipt, storage, and issue of all types of ammunition from small arms to 10,000 pound bombs, all types of general supplies from small automobile parts to jeeps, and various strategic and critical materials. The depot occupied 19,771 acres and included 801 ammunition storage igloos, 22 general supply warehouses, 392 support buildings, 225 family living quarters, 51 miles of railroad track, and 203 miles of roads. Depot personnel assigned ranged from 625 to 2,161 civilian employees and from 4 to 57 military personnel depending on Army activity. Sioux Army Depot was deactivated on 30 June 1967. Dedicated by the Sioux Army Depot employees on 25 July 1992 Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Sidney — 8.0 mi
  Three surviving buildings of the post that guarded the Union Pacific at Sidney from 1867 to 1894, where a young army surgeon named Walter Reed found a ward full of ugly cases.

More markers nearby

• The Golden Link — 2.5 mi
• Geology — 2.6 mi
• Sidney-Black Hills Trail — 6.5 mi
• Fort Sidney — 8.1 mi