UXO Site selected: NSWC Crane, IN

General Area: Crane, IN

Site Type/Program: Water Range

Location: NSWC Crane covers roughly the northern third of Martin County with a small overlap into Greene County to the north and an even smaller overlap into Lawrence County on the east. The approximately 63,000-acre base is approximately 37 miles southwest of Bloomington, Indiana, and approximately 70 miles southwest of Indianapolis, Indiana. The water ranges covered in this database entry are located at various areas within and close to the installation.

Brief History: NSWC Crane is the third largest naval installation in the world encompassing 100 square miles. The installation was originally built to prepare, load, renovate, receive, store, and issue all ammunition, including pyrotechnics and illuminating projectiles, and to act as a principal source of supply at a most critical time - the early days of World War II; however, due to its expertise in engineering and electronics, NSWC Crane today is a multi-mission, multi-service product center with both fleet support and industrial base missions.

Range / Site Description:

NSWC has several water ranges including: Conservation Dam No 2845, Lake Greenwood Pyro Test Area, Lake Oberlin, and the Dugger Lake Facility. Each are described in more detail below.

Conservation Dam No. 2845 is made up of 150-meter long earthen dam and occupies approximately 4.1 acres at the southern of NSWC Crane. The site is also refered to as Captain’s Pond. The area was used for pyrotechnics testing including the testing floating type pyrotechnics. The exact dates the range was active are unknown.

Lake Greenwood was used for pyrotechnic testing from approximately 1954 to 1958. Testing occurred at two locations on Lake Greenwood: an offshore point in front of the dam on the west side and an offshore point directly in front of the Officer’s Club on the southeastern side of the lake. Marine location markers and underwater illuminating flares tested include the Mark (MK) 25, MK 72, MK 5 Mod 4, MK 7 Mod 2, and MK 6 Mod 3. The Lake Greenwood Officer’s Club Test Area was also used during the mid 1950s for developing markers. Green flares were fired into the water from the shore to test the burning time.

The sites above are included in the NSWC Crane MMRP inventory covered under separate database entires under the MMRP Navy category.

Two other water sites with a history of munitions use associated with NSWC Crane are highlighted below.

Lake Oberlin is located along the H-449 road on the northwest section of NSWC Crane and was used for the testing of surface illumination flares. The flares were fired from a signaling pistol and fluorescene dye was released onto the water to identify the person’s location.

The Dugger Lake Facility located at the northwest quarter of section 26, township 8 north, range 8 west, in Sullivan County, Indiana. The Navy reportedly leased a 8.5 acre parcel of the 48 acre area for underwater testing including the testing of sonobouys, marine markers, cable cutters, swimmer recall devices, and hydro acoustic testing.



Associated Munitions: Pyrotechnic related munitions incluing marine flares and signalling devices.

Activities Completed:

Issues:

Other Information:

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