Marble Hill and Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (INAAP)

My wife and I drove from Madison, IN to Jeffersonville, IN today via Hwy. 62. It's a nice route and showcases classic rural S. Indiana. However, it also takes drivers by two very interesting, abandoned industrial sites. "Interesting" and "industrial site" don't usually go hand in hand, but let me explain.

First, on Hwy. 62 south of Hanover, near the tiny communities of Saluda and Paynesville, there's Marble Hill Rd. Head east on it and it will eventually lead you to the abandoned Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant. Construction began in 1977, but build problems, finances, and the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 - which scared the American public and led to more government regulation and oversight of all things nuclear - led to the project being killed in 1984 at a cost of billions and before the plant ever produced a single megawatt of electricity. That said, a lot of assembly was completed at the site, and even though demolition efforts have been ongoing for the last thirty years, much of it is still there and has the unmistakable look of a nuclear power facility. I'll warn you though, don't try to drive right up to the old reactors. The property's locked up pretty tight and has a security force. Here's a few good links about it, a map of its location, and photos...

http://www.abandonedonline.net/locations/industry/marble-hill-nuclear-power-plant/

http://youtu.be/Kuheu8CXiqw

This photo is fairly old. Much of it has been dismantled. I believe the concrete reactor cores are still upright though.

This view is looking north up the Ohio R. toward Hanover and Madison.

The second intriguing site on Hwy. 62 is just a few miles south of Marble Hill near Charlestown, IN: the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (INAAP). I won't get into a full history of the place - that's really a blog in itself - but basically, from WWII to 1992, INAAP produced all sorts of gunpowder, ammo, and ordnance for the military. To call the complex massive is an understatement. I've never personally seen a single industrial property this large. In it's prime, it covered 20,000 acres - due to production and storage processes - and employed tens of thousands of people. Currently, much of it is intact but deteriorating, being slowly reclaimed by trees, vegetation, Mother Earth. Parts have been demolished, new industry has come in here and there, and a portion of the site is now an Indiana state park. It really is a fascinating, almost surreal site.

http://www.abandonedonline.net/locations/industry/indiana-ammunitions-depot/

http://www.formermilitarysites.com/overview/indiana/inaap/

And for some really beautiful photography of the plant, check out this guy's work...
http://zfein.com/photography/inaap/index.html