Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
Every other summer, the population of Sidney, Neb., swells a bit for a few days in a mini-replay of the community’s military boomtown years during and after World War II.
It happens again July 24-26, when more than 150 people from across the country are expected to return for the 19th reunion of the Sioux Army Depot Association.
The ammunition base was erected quickly following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The construction period transformed Sidney from a quiet farming community into a 24-hour boomtown. Ten thousand workers crowded into the town of 3,000. Restaurants were open around the clock. Beds were rented by the hour to accommodate workers on different shifts.
Several thousand civilian workers led by a small contingent of Army officers stored and shipped everything from small-arms ammunition to hand grenades and howitzer shells to 10,000-pound bombs used in WWII and the Korean War. More than 800 earth-covered igloos used to store munitions dotted the 30-square-mile depot northwest of Sidney.
“Friendships bring people back,’’ said Lila Jean Dearing of Lincoln, a reunion organizer.
Activities include a July 24 reception at the Elks Lodge, a July 25 lunch at the former depot cafeteria and a dinner and dance at the Elks Lodge. A covered-dish picnic at the Legion Park Shelter House wraps up the weekend at noon July 26.
Dearing said depot artifacts will be displayed in the Sioux Army Depot Room at the Cheyenne County Museum. For more information, contact Dearing at 402-805-4915.
Like other Nebraska ammunition factories and depots at Grand Island, Hastings and Mead, the Sioux Army Depot provided thousands of jobs and put millions of dollars into the local economy. When plants closed a generation later, workers scattered to other assignments around the world or found local jobs and blended into the community.
Sioux Army Depot was slowly phased out of existence and closed in 1967. Workers kept in touch; reunions started in 1971.
Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
