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| The uncanny landscape of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in central Oklahoma. |
These apparitions in the landscape are more formally known as
Earth Covered Magazines, or less formally as Igloos. (Igloo referring to their
dome like shape, and an old obsolete style of magazine). The content of these magazines are
ammunition, explosives and chemicals being stored for the US Military. The brightly colored Easter Eggs, often complete
with red strips, are artillery rounds.
Sea foam green is the coded color for white phosphorus, or "Willie Pete", a compound that burns at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit when
exposed to air. This Ordnance Landscape
is one of many located across the country, usually outside of mid-size rural
communities that supply civilian workforces.
More specifically this landscape is McCalister Army Ammunition Plant, a
joint production and storage facility in central Oklahoma.
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| Seemingly organically organized, roads and rail connect dispersed magazines at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. |
The construction and planning of
ordnance depots is not one of design as much as it is the result of a
bureaucratic process that navigates hundreds of pages of Army Regulations (AR),Field Manuals (FM), and Department of the Army Pamphlets (DA Pam). Removed from the world of building codes or
zoning, these spaces formalize under the influence of Blast Radii, Explosive
Clear Zones, Hazard Zones. All measured
in Emergency Withdrawal Distances, Explosive Safety Quantity Distances, and Net
Explosive Weight.
These unique constraints produce a
graphic and formal language familiar yet enigmatic. The sensitivity of these landscapes and
their high security means they are rarely experienced from the ground by anyone
outside of the military or those civilians that work in them. Their locations are rarely Secret, and if one
knows what they are looking for, they can be found on Google Maps. It is from this privileged aerial view and,
perhaps the more privileged view from the ground, that these landscapes can be
understood for their graphic and formal qualities.
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| Earth Covered Igloo. |
Graphic Landscapes
A defining characteristic the
ordnance landscape is its immense scale.
The amount of space needed is related to the distances required between
storage areas. Far surpassing the scale
of normal warehouse storage, explosive storage often stretches over hundreds or
thousands of acres of land. In the case
of the Blue Grass Army Ammunition Depot, the land used exceeds the area of the
town of Richmond KY, population 31,000, which houses most of the workforce of
the depot. Like the towns they often
dwarf, these depots expand with time, adding new areas of storage, creating a
grain or patchwork reminiscent of agricultural landscapes or even some urban
conditions. This grain is produced by the
soft shadows of the sloped magazines and the interweaving road and rail systems
that service them. The grains character
is defined by the organizing constraints used to insure safety of workers and
reducing the risk of explosive propagation, the chain reaction of explosives
setting off other explosives. Not always
as simple as an evenly spaced grid, the patterning of an ordnance landscape is
as unique is finger print (which they sometimes resemble).
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| Regularly spaced magazines are given their own cul-de-sacs producing a suburban form, or perhaps a line of cartoon characters |
Other patterns resemble suburban
neighborhoods. Perhaps an analogue can
be found between explosive distances and suburban vanity. Perhaps not.
Much like evenly spaced McMansions, the magazines are often serviced by
branching roads ending in neat cul-de-sacs.
Others our found in long street-like rows. Still more seem to be organically grown patterns
resembling coral. On closer inspection,
one finds this is caused by the restrictive turning ability of trains, that
roll directly up to individual magazines.
Others may recognize the patterning as that of ostrich leather, with its
distinct bumps. One cannot deny that the
cartoonish figures that seem to be in certain configurations. In all cases, these sometimes-fantastic
patterns are the simple manifestation of regulatory planning, dictated by attempts
of ultimate efficiency and safety.
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| Igloo Spacing |
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| Spacing Pattern |
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| Minimum Explosive Distance |
The story on the surface of the
Ordnance Landscape is the same as from above, but told in a very different
way. No longer can one sense the grain
of the vast tracts of land. Yet, at the
same time the patterning, or perhaps more appropriately the cadence, of the
landscape is often more pronounced.
Long, quite, roads are strung with man-made “earthworks”, each with
their own suburban style driveway. The
landscape is nearly unbroken, save for slits where heavy steel doors lead into
the earth and the occasional bald magazine is crowned with concrete instead of
grass.
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| DA PAM 385-64 Diagram of different Earth Covered Magazines |
Safely storing explosives presents
a paradox, which is solved in a unique way.
The safest place to store explosives is in the earth, underground. This presents a problem though. Outside of the simple cost of digging storage
space, moving explosives, which are often extremely heavy and sometimes
volatile, vertically can be extremely dangerous (Depot landscapes are usually
extremely flat partially for this reason).
In a compromise, the explosives are kept at grade, and the earth, with
the help of steel and concrete, is blanketed over. The result are free standing caves, or
blisters in the land. Once again, the
functional safety concerns produce an effect perhaps found nowhere else. A surreal landscape, seemingly endless when
experienced. Other aspects add to the
effect of this thickened surface. Though
much of the unused land between the neighborhoods of magazines is often
forested, the areas directly around them is always manicured. This procedure is a fire precaution,
producing something of a grassy savanna.
Each magazine is distinctly read emerging from the ground. When workers draw explosives, the heavy wide
doors of the magazines are pulled open reveling the (sub)terranean pocket. Not unlike ants, forklifts move from the
shade-less surface into the cool earth carrying precious cargo. In the case of older storage areas this
effect is even more pronounced. The
older Igloos, only having smaller vault-like doors, force workers to carry
their loads in and out by hand.
An explosive will spend the
majority of its existence in one of these ordnance landscapes. This seems appropriate, as these places are
built for the sole purpose of providing a home for such unwanted neighbors. Unfortunately, these are not the only
landscapes that are defined by their relation to explosives, but they may be
the most unique. They have the
sensibility of a State Park, with lush green forests, and fields filled with
animals, safe from highway traffic. Yet,
they can be experienced as a limbo between earth and surface. Their function is clear and simple. Yet, they present geometries that are
anything but bland.