U.S. Bureau of Mines, Helium Plants, Amarillo, Potter County, TX

Significance: In 1928 construction began on the Amarillo Helium Plant, which would become the national center for U.S. helium production, shipping, and scientific research. Since 1917, the government and the scientific community recognized the strategic value of helium to national defense. When early experimental operations in Washington, D.C. and Petrolia, Texas, proved either to be dangerous or too inefficient, the U.S Navy consolidated its helium activities in Amarillo, Texas, under U.S. Bureau of Mines supervision...
Survey number: HAER TX-105