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

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

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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

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Date

1970 - 1979
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Location

butte county
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Source

Library of Congress
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No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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