Gopher Munitions Plant

This place is on private property. Listing for informational purposes only. Please do not visit without express permission from the land owner. During World War II, the Federal Government acquired 13,000 acres of farmland in Rosemount, displacing 90 families in 1942. Construction of the Gopher Ordnance Works (a munitions plant) on said farmland began in May of 1942 by E.I. Dupont deNemours and Company. Twenty thousand workers and 856 new buildings were part of the project at a cost of $123,855,448. Operations of the war munitions plant, which was never fully functioning, ceased in April of 1945 when the war ended. At that time 8,000 acres of the land were obtained by the University of Minnesota and a number of the buildings were used during the 1947-48 polio outbreak. Currently, the University of Minnesota’s Agricultural Research Station and the Dakota County Technical College are located on part of the site.