Powder Plant: Farmland to National Defense

For thirty years, Carolyn Dallmann held down various positions at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, in Sauk County, Wisconsin. A major manufacturer of gunpowder and other nitrocellulose-based propellants, Badger played a vital and controversial role in the life of central Wisconsin throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. Follow Dallmann as she recounts her time there, from water testing, chemistry, and auditing, to explosions, the Vietnam War, bombings, and environmental decline. Told with immediacy and tenderness, Powder Plant is not only a rich personal history but also a remarkable catalogue of a world in chaos. Read more