Black Hills Ordnance Depot facts for kids
The Black Hills Ordnance Depot (BHOD) was a special place where the United States Army used to store and take care of its weapons and ammunition. It was located in Fall River County, in the southwestern part of South Dakota, near a town called Edgemont.
BHOD was built in 1942, during World War II. The Army needed more places to handle all the military supplies for the war. Because the location was quite far from cities, most of the people who worked there lived right at the depot. This community was called Igloo. It got its name because the buildings used to store ammunition looked a bit like igloos.
The Igloo community was like a small town. It had schools, a hospital, a post office, a church, and places for shopping and fun. There was even a movie theater, a swimming pool, and a recreation center. A famous TV journalist, Tom Brokaw, lived there as a boy for a few years.
Life and Work at the Depot
The number of people working at BHOD changed over the years. It increased a lot during wartime. In the 1950s, during times of peace, about 650 to 750 people worked there. The whole community, including families, had about 1,800 people.
In 1962, the Black Hills Ordnance Depot got a new name: the Black Hills Army Depot (BHAD).
Closing Down and New Beginnings
The depot officially closed on June 30, 1967. After it closed, the Igloo community became empty. Many of the homes were moved to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A lot of the old depot buildings were still standing in 2007.
Since 2016, a company called Vivos group has bought most of the old base. They now own 575 of the round storage buildings, which are each about 2,200 square feet inside. This new project is called Vivos xPoint. It has become famous around the world and is even being filmed for a TV show. Vivos plans for it to become the world's largest survival community. They expect over 5,000 people to live there, with about 10 people in each fully set up private bunker.
