Badger Army Ammo Plant (Madison: 2013, transfer, construction)

[gmdm]

Is anyone familiar with the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, located about 1/2 hour north of Madison, just next to Devil's Lake State Park?

Basically its a huge piece of property formerly used as a factory for making munitions (I believe rocket propellant). Its operations gradually wound down following the Vietnam war, and I believe it shut down entirely by the last 90's or early 2000's. Within the past couple years, the majority of the buildings have been torn down, and the property is gradually being turned over to other owners, with much of it becoming public land (I believe most of the land will go to the DNR, with other portions staying with the government for non-military use, and a portion going to the Hochunk tribe as well.)

(Feel free to correct my history if I got anything wrong... I'm no expert!)

Last summer the entire property was open to the public for hiking and hunting (with the exception of a few "restricted areas"... more on those later). I spent a Saturday driving and hiking around the area. If you ever have a chance to visit, I'd highly recommend it. Its really a beautiful chunk of land, with varied terrain and geography. I came across a few cemeteries on the property. There's also a few remnants of the old army operation if you look closely (old street signs, etc). This is stuff that I personally find pretty interesting. Parts of it felt like wandering through a ghost town (if you do go, consider taking both a GPS and a friend with you... I could see it being easy to get pretty lost, and potentially also run into some hairy situations if you check out any of the abandoned buildings).

At the time I visited, most of the buildings had been torn down, leaving only piles of concrete rubble (that seemed to go on for miles, it was kind of eerie.)

I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge of the remaining buildings there that have not yet been demolished. (Weird question, I know, but I find old abandonments very interesting, for some reason). From what I remember, I came across:

1) A cluster of buildings at the entrance (guard shack, former fire station, mechanics building) that I believe are being used as offices for the people in charge of overseeing the property for the time being.

2) Various small buildings towards the southern part of the property. Some appeared to clearly be unused and abandoned and in deteriorating condition (doors ajar, roofs and floors collapsing), others were apparently in use. Anyone know what the original and current uses of these buildings are?

3) Towards the center of the property, there were a couple very interesting (to me, anyway) buildings that seemed to be built into the sides of hills. These were enormous steel and concrete structures with large openings well above ground level. I didn't get too close or go inside of any, since the whole area was marked Keep Out and I was already ignoring that, but also I was alone and the place was DESERTED so I didn't want to run into any problems. This whole area had a very X-Files/Area 51/Close Encounters kind of vibe to it... I'd love to know what purpose these buildings served, and why they have not yet been removed.

4) The north end of the land is on a high hill, with a wooden observation deck built that looks out the whole property, which offers a pretty spectacular view. There's also some kind of water treatment operation (there's two huge pools of water and various utility buildings, that seemed to be in some degree of operation). Any idea what's going on here? (This area is also marked "keep out" by the way).

5) Down the hill from there there's a few barn-like buildings that seem to be still in use, storing machinery and farming implements.

6) At the north east corner there is some kind of newer construction that looked occupied and in use (I am pretty sure its still on the Badger property, but I might be wrong). Anyone know what this is?

Just curious if anyone can shed some more light on the current and former uses of this property. Like I said, I'm fascinated by the history of old, abandoned buildings - especially in a facility like this, where thousands of people used to work each day, but now sits mostly deserted.

[ccjarider]

My brother worked there in mid 90's in maintenance. He was always able to get us in there to archery hunt.
The place was crazy overrun with deer back then.

It was nothing to see 300 deer in a day.

No idea what it is like for hunting today.

[kc9ddi]

I also spent a couple hours wandering around there last summer. I think the only had it open to the public for a few or maybe a couple weeks, then closed it back down again. Though I drove past it on Hwy 12 a couple weeks ago and the gates seemed to be wide open... so maybe there still is public access, not too sure.

Anyway, I'm also not very familiar with the site's history. There doesn't seem to be a ton of information about it on the Internet either.

What I do know is that a portion of the property actually belongs to the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center. (I'm not certain what exactly the research of dairy forage entails). They've owned the land for a while now, even prior to the current developments where the army is transitioning it back to other agencies. At the time the property was open to the public last summer, the map I got said that the USDA property was still off-limits to visitors, but that you could drive through it on certain roads to reach other parts of the Badger property. I ended up getting a little turned around and I'm pretty sure I ended up wandering around some of the off-limits area controlled by the USDA. The map wasn't great, and its not like there's road signs or anything out there to help you get your bearings. While I personally didn't come across any rangers, security or other officials, it was obvious that this part of the land was in active use, and there were what appeared to be office buildings and storage facilities.

Once I determined that I was probably in an off-limits area, I quickly left to explore other parts of the property. But I wouldn't be surprised if some of the buildings you encountered are actually used by the USDA today.

Otherwise, I'm not sure of anything else on the property. It certainly seems like an interesting place, though.

[ranger17]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

My brother worked there in mid 90's in maintenance. He was always able to get us in there to archery hunt.
The place was crazy overrun with deer back then.

It was nothing to see 300 deer in a day.

No idea what it is like for hunting today.

my bro-in-law and I bowhunted in there a couple times as well years ago, if i recall it was a state drawing to get in at the time. Coolest place to be in, just walking around some of the buildings and bunkers in itself made the weekend enjoyable (some areas were off-limits of course), let alone the deer one could see.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by gmdm

Just curious if anyone can shed some more light on the current and former uses of this property. Like I said, I'm fascinated by the history of old, abandoned buildings - especially in a facility like this, where thousands of people used to work each day, but now sits mostly deserted.

There is a ton of info on it out there. It has been the topic of conversation since at least the mid 90s.

This is a good resource:
http://www.jmc.army.mil/Docs/History...20Internet.pdf

Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAP) | CSWAB

The debate as to whether to transfer it to native american groups, the DNR, or develop it (or a mix of all three) was hot in the mid/late 90s. I haven't followed the outcome.

The real issue is all the toxic waste. There were, I believe, literally thousands of identified sites that needed remediation and paying for it was not something the Feds were jumping at, if I recall correctly.

[ranger17]

Originally Posted by timberline742

There is a ton of info on it out there. It has been the topic of conversation since at least the mid 90s.

This is a good resource:
http://www.jmc.army.mil/Docs/History...20Internet.pdf

Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAP) | CSWAB

The debate as to whether to transfer it to native american groups, the DNR, or develop it (or a mix of all three) was hot in the mid/late 90s. I haven't followed the outcome.

The real issue is all the toxic waste. There were, I believe, literally thousands of identified sites that needed remediation and paying for it was not something the Feds were jumping at, if I recall correctly.

seems it was recently finalized in how it would be split up (i didnt follow it much while we were down south those 6 years) but i wouldn't be surprised if there is some tainted land and water out there. Actually come to think of it water concerns may have existed even back when i hunted out there and again that was years ago. Still was an impressive site to be out there among all that development

[gmdm]

timberline -thanks for the links. I had seen the one from CSWAB, but not the other document. There's a lot of good information in there, thanks for pointing it out.

The property seems to come up in the news every couple months or so, in terms of how it will be divided up. I believe most of the controversy has died down and there is general acceptance for the current plan. But I also believe that the soil and water contamination will continue to be an issue for quite a while. It seems to be an issue plaguing nearly all of these decommissioned military facilities...

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by gmdm

It seems to be an issue plaguing nearly all of these decommissioned military facilities...

It is. The military, like Congress, doesn't seem to have to follow the rules the rest of us have to live under.

On the other side, some of these military bases have some great examples of natural communities as they weren't paved or plowed. Ft McCoy, for example, has some of the nicer sand prairie habitats in the state and many endangered species on it.

[craptacular]

A good source of info is the Wisconsin DNR's site about the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area, the name used for the portion of BAAP that the DNR controls and will have most of the public access.:
Sauk Prairie Recreation Area - Property Master Planning - Wisconsin DNR

I took a bus tour a long time ago (in the 90s?), and then took a self-paced auto tour one weekend in 2013. The brochure from the auto tour is quite informative, may answer some of the OP's questions, and is online at:
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/lands/Master...ourMap2013.pdf

I've been following the master planning process for the SPRA, as I'm interested in seeing a portion of the property used for some other outdoor recreational activities (mountain biking, paved multi-use trail, disc golf, etc).