On March 2, 1942, four months after the U.S. entered World War II, farm families living between Marion-Williamsport and Marseilles-Galion Roads and between State Route 98 and the Norfolk and Western Railroad were told to leave their farms by the first of May so a munitions factory could be built. About 126 families were displaced from more than 12,600 acres. The site included an administration area, cafeteria, fire and police stations, a hospital, widely dispersed powder houses, and production lines. Manufacturing began in the fall of 1942, and operators included U.S. Rubber, Atlas Powder, the Permanente Metals Division of the Kaiser Corporation, Kilgore Manufacturing, and Ferro Enamel, which made bombs until August 14, 1945, VJ Day. Women worked there as secretaries, chauffeurs, cafeteria workers, journalists, and buyers of materials, and with wartime manpower shortages they also took on dangerous work filling M-74 cluster bombs and 500 pound M-76 goop bombs. After the war, DeKalb Hatcheries bought 2,200 acres of the site, the powder storage area became the Grandview Estates subdivision, new houses were built there by returning servicemen, and the Marion Municipal Airport was established. By 2008, the former plant buildings had deteriorated beyond use, and Charles H. McCarthy bought 1,100 acres, razed the remaining buildings, reused their concrete to build new roads, and cleared the land for farmland, returning it to its original use after sixty years.