Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Arco Naval Proving Ground, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Significance: The Arco Naval Proving Ground (NPG) was one of five specialized ordnance facilities established in the United States during World War II to support ordnance testing and research and experiments related to safe storage and transportation of live ordnance. The Arco NPG was the only proving ground of its kind west of the Mississippi River and is one of very few sites in Idaho that contributed to American victory during World War II.

The Arco NPG was the terminus of an elaborate logistical system that began with the guns on ships like USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin. After repeated combat firing wore down the rifling, the guns were taken to coastal ports, unloaded, and sent by rail overland to Pocatello, Idaho, where they were refurbished and relined. Finally, the guns were sent to the Arco NPG to be test-fired and scored for accuracy. The guns then returned to action the way they had come and entered battle once more. In addition to naval ordnance testing, the U.S. Navy allowed the U.S. Army to use lands adjacent to the Arco NPG for two aerial bombing ranges. During World War II, over 40,000 pilots were trained at the Pocatello Army Air Base and many flew day and night training missions over the Arco High Altitude Bombing Range (AHABR) and the Twin Buttes Bombing Range (TBBR). The Arco NPG provided the core setting for the establishment of the National Reactor Testing Station in the late 1940s and the evolution of present-day Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Postwar testing in the Arco NPG was also instrumental in revising national standards for the safe storage and transport of conventional ordnance.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N121, N122, N123, N124, N125, N126, N127, N128, N129, N130, N131, N132, N133, N134, N135, N136, N137

Survey number: HALS ID-1

Building/structure dates: 1942-1943 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: after 1949 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1944-1946 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1968-1970 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: after 2015 Demolished

military organizations ordnance testing war world war ii military training ranges magazines military buildings landscapes railroad tracks pump houses officers quarters domestic life barracks brick buildings wood structural frames clapboard siding concrete foundations hip roofs nuclear power nuclear reactors hazardous wastes proving grounds flagpoles gantry cranes children explosives bombs torpedoes volcanic rock wood shingles garages stoops reinforced concrete construction markers monuments shelters traffic signs and signals screen doors bunkers butte county army safety and security division atomic energy commission board of survey and public assistance brennan and cahoon bureau of yards and docks us navy civil engineering corps darren clark david taylor model basin dravco corporation hollie k gilbert historic american landscapes survey marie p holmer ja terteling and sons inc morrison knudsen construction company national reactor test station naval ordnance test facility northwest construction co office of scientific research and development christina l olson j v otter brenda r pace pocatello naval ordnance plant ross moss company john a scoville us army us army air force us bureau of reclamation us coast and geodetic survey us department of defense us department of energy idaho operations office us department of energy us department of homeland security us department of the navy us geological survey us navy us weather bureau underwater explosives research laboratory union pacific railroad wellman engineering co julie b williams idaho national arco naval navy idaho power plants uss missouri library of congress

1970 - 1979

Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/

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