History Moments Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot

June 10, 1942, the navy authorizes forty-five million dollars to build a naval ammunition depot. Land east of Hastings is chosen as the location because of its abundance of electrical power, its location of equal distance between the two coasts, the availability of railroads, and German and Japanese aircraft can’t reach it because they don’t have the range. Construction lasts eighteen months. When completed two thousand buildings are spread over 48,000 acres. At its peak during World War II, forty percent of the U.S. Navy’s weapons and ammunition came from this depot. It employed almost eleven thousand people... a large percent were women, and several hundred workers and sailors were African American. Today, the area is home to many things including: Central Community College-Hastings campus, US Department of AG Meat Animal Research Center, industrial park, and the Nebraska National Guard.