(stately music) - [Narrator] 60 miles from Chicago, near Joliet, Illinois, the first national tallgrass prairie, the largest inland port in North America, and one of the nation's largest veterans cemeteries harmoniously coexist on 23,000 acres of land that during World War II was the largest producer of munitions in the world, the Joliet Arsenal.

- The arsenal really kept our troops safe and won wars, and it was part of a defense effort, military effort we can be proud of.

We can take similar pride in what's happened to that arsenal land ever since.

- [Narrator] This is the story of the "Joliet Arsenal Redevelopment, From Swords to Plowshares."

- The Joliet Arsenal, as it's commonly referred to, began as a concept with the Ordnance Department back in the late 1930s.

Hostilities were rising in Europe, and America was producing munitions and explosives and supplying to other nations around the world.

- We must increase production facilities for everything needed for the Army and Navy for national defense.

- [Narrator] The growing threat of fascism in Europe and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led the United States to declare war on December 8th, 1941.

77 military installations were built to support the war effort.

The location for ammunition production facilities like the Joliet Arsenal had to meet the Army's criteria.

- It had to be at least 200 miles inland from any border to protect it from aerial bombing.

It needed to be near a large available labor pool.

There was a demand for large volumes of water for the TNT production process.

That site had access to the Kankakee and the Des Plaines Rivers.

Three significant railroads served that property.

Major state highways were the avenues to transport in and out.

- [Narrator] And wide expanses of relatively flat land would allow for ease of construction.

- [Art Holz] Prior to the arsenal, it was all privately held land, predominantly farms.

The Army mapped out 36,000 acres that they wanted to purchase.

That involved 450 different properties and owners.

- [Narrator] Farms were acquired, and construction moved quickly, beginning in the fall of 1940 with lines going into production even before building was completed.

- [Art Holz] The employment numbers at the Joliet Arsenal during World War II reached a high of over 21,000 people.

Now that included people not only doing the production of munitions and explosives, but also construction people that were still working.

- [Narrator] Women, initially hired only in administrative positions, soon took their place on the production lines as more and more men went off to fight.

The Joliet Arsenal was actually two plants located adjacent to one another.

- [Art Holz] The west side unit, called the Kankakee Ordnance Works, its mission was to produce high explosives and the constituent chemicals that went into it.

Those explosives would include primarily TNT.

- After the TNT primarily was manufactured on the west side, put on rail cars and then moved across the Iron Bridge to the east side so it could be incorporated into the assembly of munitions.

- The east side plant, very different.

It was a big production line, where you'd start at one end with components, and at the other end, you'd have a finished product.

Primarily aerial bombs and artillery shells.

- [Narrator] Output was high.

- Over a billion pounds of explosives and over 700 million pounds of bombs and shells in World War II alone.

- [Narrator] The Joliet Arsenal was the largest TNT production facility in the world at the time.

After the war, manufacturing ceased.

Portions of the plant were leased, and the remaining production facilities were placed in standby status.

(helicopter rumbling) The plant was reactivated during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, but soon after the Vietnam War ended, it was decommissioned and maintained in caretaker status.

In 1993, the Army declared the 23,500-acre plant property "Excess."

- When it finally shut down, there was questions of, what are we gonna do with this?

- We faced base closures before in our state.

Most of them were small.

This was a big piece of real estate.

- It's the size of Walt Disney World, including all of their parks.

- And big questions were being asked.

- Our congressman at the time, Congressman George Sangmeister, organized a commission, and they worked out their concept of what the arsenal should be.

- [Narrator] And Congressman Jerry Weller, who succeeded Sangmeister, helped get the legislation passed.

- The Illinois Land Conservation Act of 1995 created the division of property that was ultimately going to be transferred to different entities from the former Joliet Arsenal.

So it set forth in law on how that would happen.

- [Narrator] The largest portion of land, 19,100 acres, would go to the US Forest Service to create the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

The Department of Veterans Affairs would receive close to 1,000 acres for use as a national cemetery.

455 acres would go to Will County for a landfill.

And a final portion of land, close to 3,000 acres, would be given to the State of Illinois for economic redevelopment.

- The Army had a lot of things that they needed to do to prepare the property for transfer.

- [Narrator] First and foremost, the Army was required to address the environmental contamination in two main areas.

- One would be in the soils of the arsenal, and second would be the impacted groundwater.

- [Narrator] The Army began studying the environmental condition of the Joliet Arsenal in 1978, soon after it was decommissioned.

- [Art Holz] The early studies looked broadly at where the possibilities that contamination from production activities may have occurred.

Subsequent studies went more and more into detail.

- [Narrator] By 1989, both the manufacturing and load assemble package areas had been added to the National Priority List for cleanup.

In 1998, cleanup finally began with the signing of a record of decision, a three-way formal agreement between the Army, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Illinois EPA.

- That was the guidance for all of the cleanup.

The biggest contaminant group we had was explosives in soil.

That mostly occurred during TNT production process.

In the earlier days, if a batch of TNT was getting out of control for some reason, it would be dumped outside the building for a safety concern.

- [Narrator] Bioremediation was used to clean up the soils.

- [Art Holz] The contaminated soils were excavated.

They were hauled to the treatment facility.

- [Narrator] Organic material was added to the contaminated soil, causing the high concentration of nitrogen from the TNT to break down.

- It's a process that accelerated what might have been a natural process anyway.

But something that would have taken decades to achieve, we could do in 21 days on average.

That was very innovative and got a lot of attention.

It was copied many times following us.

- [Narrator] Another environmental concern of TNT production, red water.

- [Art Holz] In the early operational days of the Joliet Arsenal, people in the community could easily see a stream that was running with a reddish or pinkish color to it.

- [Narrator] To address this problem, the Army stopped discharging that red water into the stream and instead put it through an incineration process.

- That solved one problem but it created another because after incinerating red water, you were left with a white powdery product that was sodium sulfate.

- [Narrator] The Prairie View Landfill was created in part to provide safe disposal of this sodium sulfate, and it had other benefits.

- The addition of the landfill into the concept plan became a win-win for everyone.

Certainly for the Army because we had a landfill to go to at no cost to us.

Also, for the community, it gave an outlet for their household refuse, and it also produced a revenue stream for the county.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] Protecting the water is still a priority at the landfill.

- Landfills are built in segments or cells.

And as we do that, we have to install additional bottom liner systems.

This liner system is utilized to protect the environment and the groundwater beneath it.

- [Narrator] Groundwater wells are regularly monitored.

So is methane gas.

- [Dave Hartke] As waste is placed into the landfill, it begins to decay, and methane is generated by that decomposing waste.

- [Narrator] Monitoring ensures that methane gas doesn't escape into the atmosphere.

(machinery buzzing) The gas travels through a network of pipes to a single location, where it's typically burned on a flare.

- [Dave Hartke] However, in this landfill, we're developing a renewable natural gas facility that will actually utilize that gas instead of burning it off.

- One, two, three.

(people cheering) This plant will help fuel the clean energy revolution in Illinois.

We are turning our garbage into natural gas, which is good for our environment, as well as good for our communities because it is revenue-generating without a burden on our taxpayers.

- [Dave Hartke] This is a higher use of the gas that will be then taking the impurities out of that gas, pressurizing it, so that it can then be put into a pipeline for use as a transportation fuel.

- Will County is one of two in Illinois that will have a renewable energy plant.

This is a wonderful green initiative for Will County.

- [Narrator] The most significant economic benefit of the redevelopment came out of the work of the Joliet Arsenal Development Authority, or JADA.

Its mission was to facilitate the reuse of 3,000 acres with diversified projects.

- Our primary purpose was to create jobs and economic development that were lost when the Joliet Arsenal shut down.

- [Narrator] JADA received the first transfer of land in 2000.

(people applauding) - I'm so proud of what has become a national model for a conversion of former military facilities to peacetime uses.

- This development is going to generate a lot of jobs, thousands of construction jobs, union jobs to help people in the area feed their families and enjoy the American Dream.

- [Narrator] The plan was to build an intermodal.

- The question at that point was, "You're gonna build an intermodal.

What's an intermodal?"

- [Narrator] An intermodal moves freight from one mode of transportation to another, from rail to truck.

- [Michael Murphy] The arsenal location, that access to freeways, rail connections, and a sizeable piece of land was really why that location became such a great spot.

- From the beginning, union construction jobs started, thousands over the first couple of years just to actually build the intermodal rail facilities.

- [Narrator] The BNSF Logistics Park opened in 2002, bringing containers from West Coast ports into the Midwest.

- [Michael Murphy] That was product that was gonna show up in your stores, landing here for the first time in a very dedicated route.

The idea was the intermodal would be a huge draw for the warehousing and logistics industry.

- [Narrator] Walmart occupied one of the first warehouses.

- It was a 3.4 million square foot campus, which is basically 60 football fields under roof, and created over a thousand jobs.

- That was really when people began to understand the economic benefits of locating there near the intermodal.

- You could move your product more efficiently, have your distribution center co-located next to the ramp, reducing the truck miles, and so it was a cheaper transportation.

- That really created a synergy of bringing additional tenants into the park.

- [Narrator] By 2010, demand had increased to support a second intermodal terminal operated by the Union Pacific Railroad, expanding beyond the arsenal property.

- The old cliche, "If you build it, they will come," has been proven on CenterPoint.

- [Narrator] And it's providing greater economic opportunities for local farmers.

- [Brian McKiernan] All the empty containers have been largely filled with grain going back.

- Now we have containers heading back to West Coast to destinations in Southeast Asia.

- CenterPoint, the greater area around the arsenal have proven that they are an important engine to the local economy and the national economy.

- The CenterPoint Intermodal facilities is the fourth largest port in the country and the nation's largest inland port.

- [Doug Pryor] Will County has been the number one job creator in Illinois.

- [Rick Kwasneski] We've created three times the amount of jobs that were lost at the arsenal.

- And we have been the number one industrial development county in the State of Illinois in large part because of the CenterPoint Intermodal within the Joliet Arsenal.

- [Narrator] But with this growth came challenges.

- [Michael Murphy] With 20,000 trucks coming in and out of the intermodal every day roughly, we were creating issues for roads outside of the park.

- [Narrator] The Houbolt Road Extension and surrounding road improvements grew out of this challenge.

- The whole idea there is move trucks in and out of the intermodals more efficiently, less emissions into the air, simpler, safer movements of trucks.

- [Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant] We saw a need.

Government came together with labor and private businesses to alleviate some of the issues that our local residents had.

- [Narrator] Rebuild Illinois, the $45 billion infrastructure plan passed in 2019, provided funding for road improvements in the area.

- Rebuild Illinois is also a vehicle for prosperity for workers and our families.

- Rebuilding this infrastructure, that's thousands of jobs.

- [Narrator] Jobs for members of Local 150, the International Union of Operating Engineers, a union representing approximately 23,000 men and women.

- We are the people that you will see out on your roads and bridges, running the cranes and the bulldozers, the backhoes.

- [Narrator] Local 150 acquired 1,000 acres of the former arsenal, of which 300 acres was used to build a training center.

- [James Sweeney] What makes it really unique, especially for this part of the country, is its size.

- Not just the sheer size of this building, but the property and all the diversity of equipment that we have as well.

Everything should be set up for the different modes for the different equipment.

We have simulators.

It allows someone new to our industry to hop in the seat, where we're not wasting fuel, sending those emissions into the environment, or damage to equipment because we are new to it.

Oh, heavens.

- You couldn't really duplicate building a portion of a highway at most training facilities.

We can do that right now in our facility.

- We would hope that it empowers the worker to confidently and competently pursue their career.

- Part of what we do is not just construction.

It's also the removing of old facilities.

That needed to all be removed before you could even start to build, you know, whatever was going to be built out there.

Local 150 has been involved in every aspect of this development.

This intermodal yard and then all of the logistics warehousing development to go along with that.

- [Narrator] Local 150 members are also trained to work within the warehouses.

- [James Sweeney] The skilled labor can only stay skilled as long as it continues to learn, and that's what that facility does.

- [Narrator] On the north end of the former arsenal, the Army is honing their skills on 3,500 acres at the Joliet Training Area.

- It's a training area for the Army Reserve, and because we're located in the center of the largest inland port, we get the benefit of all those roads.

- [Narrator] Roads within the training area are also an asset.

- [Steve Benjamin] Training for the soldiers, they're required to do off-road training, on-road training in all types of conditions, all kinds of weathers.

We have low river crossing.

We have land navigation and map reading.

- [Narrator] It's a one-day trip from 60% of the Continental United States.

- [Steve Benjamin] This land is an asset to the Army mainly 'cause units don't have to travel far.

They have a weekend, they have two days to fit a lot of training in.

(vehicle rumbling) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Part of the Army's history is still visible at Midewin a quarter-century after the land was transferred.

- [Art Holz] There are many buildings still standing out on the property.

Things like asbestos, lead, PCBs were all removed, but the structures remain.

- Each of the bunkers throughout Midewin, all 392 that we originally had from the arsenal era, were serviced by railroad, and now it's part of our trail system.

- [Narrator] Trails like the Henslow Trail that once carried explosives across the property now offer an opportunity for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

- We have a lot of open ground.

The very nature of explosives and manufacturing and assembly of munitions meant that there was a lot of standoff space between all of those buildings.

So that land was largely untouched.

- [Narrator] And on that untouched land, (gentle music) prairie restoration is well underway.

- At the time of the Illinois Land Conservation Act, less than 1% of land in Illinois was prairie.

- Illinois once had tens of millions of acres of prairie.

- [Christina Henderson] One of the first basic steps of reestablishing prairie is getting seed, and so it was really important for us to establish this native seedbed right here on Midewin.

- [Narrator] Volunteers help harvest the seeds.

- [Christina Henderson] Generally, we can have up to a hundred volunteers that will come out at a time and really help us get this work done.

- [Narrator] Midewin has four purposes.

- [Christina Henderson] Restoration, recreation, research and education, and agriculture.

- [Narrator] The agricultural mission is met by leasing plots of land to local farmers for row crops.

- Soybeans put nitrogen back into the soil and make it fertile enough and rich enough for things to grow.

And so the rotation would be corn, to soybean, and then time for restoration and prairie planting.

It restores the prairie in a natural way.

One of the missions is for us to interact with institutions and universities for research purposes.

- Recently, we partnered with University of Notre Dame, which looked at a circa-1600 Native American archeological site.

And it gave us tremendous insight into the land itself as we try to restore it to some point in the past before plows and arsenals and roads and things like that.

- [Worker] Oh, yeah!

- [Narrator] Water quality is being monitored at Midewin by looking at the biodiversity in the rivers and streams that once flowed red with TNT.

- This is a male rusty.

It's a form one.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Recreation is big, and bison are one of the biggest draws.

- Bison were reintroduced to Midewin in 2015, an experiment to help us understand how or if their grazing patterns aid in restoration efforts.

- Livestock grazing have a particular ability to leave grasslands in an uneven condition that's desirable to grassland birds for nesting.

- [Janet Schleeter] Midewin is such a special place because there's just so many birds that you can see out here that you don't see other places in the Chicago area.

- Oh.

(laughs) - We'll enlarge that bluejay there.

- Is that something.

- [Narrator] Visitors also have a chance to glimpse the arsenal's history.

(solemn music) A bunker is open for viewing, and a statue honors 48 arsenal workers who lost their lives in an explosion at the plant.

And the sacrifices of those who served to protect our country will also be long remembered at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

- The key component, I believe, that was the big selling point in this whole redevelopment was the idea of the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

- Congressman George Sangmeister was a big part of getting Abraham Lincoln going.

He took it to Illinois, took it to Washington, DC, made his voice known.

- When he described to me his vision of having a national cemetery on these grounds, there was a sparkle in his eye.

And I told George if he got it built, I'd be there.

- [Narrator] He did get it built, and on October 3rd, 1999, the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery was dedicated as the 117th national cemetery.

- [Christine Gutzeit] Abraham Lincoln established the National Cemetery Administration back during the Civil War, so they thought what a great honor it would be to name the cemetery after him.

- [Narrator] When fully developed, the cemetery will provide 400,000 burial spaces.

Veterans and their spouses can be interred together free of charge, but the heart of the cemetery is the care taken to honor the veterans.

- [Christine Gutzeit] We have a Memorial Day ceremony.

We have a thousand volunteers that show up that morning to help us put out flags.

- [Narrator] The 2010 Memorial Day ceremony welcomed a special guest.

- President Barack Obama came to the national cemetery to do the Memorial Day service.

We had the President of the United States in Elwood, Illinois.

- Please rise for military honors.

- [Narrator] In recognition of their service and sacrifice, each veteran receives full military honors provided by the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Squad.

- [Leader] Ready, aim, fire.

(gunfire banging) - [Christine Gutzeit] Out of all the national cemeteries nationwide, we're only one of two cemeteries that has an onsite honor guard.

We have over 170 volunteers that make that group that are very dedicated.

- [Narrator] The Memorial Squad performs on average 15 services a day.

(somber trumpet music) - We provided a service for a Navy veteran.

And in the front row was an eight-year-old child, a little boy, dressed in a Navy uniform, and we were laying his grandfather to rest.

And during the service, he stood up in that little Navy uniform, and he saluted his grandfather.

And I remember his words.

He said, "Grandpa, thank you for making this country safe for me."

That moved all of us, and those are the kinds of things that happen here.

- [Narrator] Congressman George Sangmeister, who died in 2007, is among the veterans buried here, along with his beloved wife Doris.

- [Art Holz] It certainly seems appropriate to me that part of the arsenal that was used to support the war fighter in their mission on the ground is now being used as their final resting place.

(stately music) - [Narrator] The Joliet Arsenal met the needs of a country at war.

Now the former Joliet Arsenal is meeting the needs of a country at peace, honoring veterans, developing a skilled workforce, creating an infrastructure for commerce, generating renewable energy, and restoring the prairie to the Prairie State.

- [Rick Kwasneski] Our project at the Joliet Arsenal really became a model for military base redevelopment in the entire country because of our collaboration with all of our different partners.

- It has brought jobs, it has brought innovation, and most importantly, it has brought Will County to the forefront.

- When the arsenal was there, there was no tax base.

So when it went private, school districts and library districts and villages and municipalities, they're going to see these new tax dollars.

- We're here to celebrate the people that made it possible, from the farm families to the construction teams to the current employees that work throughout this area.

- I hope that other communities that face this kind of challenge, closure of a plant, the closure of a military facility, will take a look at how we took this adverse challenge and turned it into a real positive opportunity.

We're better today that the arsenal is turned into what it is.

It's gonna serve generations to come through this entire century and beyond.

(stately music) (stately music)