Swannanoa Chemical Munitions Site, North Carolina

A secretive munitions plant operated here from the 1950s to the 1990s, over which time it produced explosives, chemicals, propellants, flares, tear gas, and chemical agents including BZ gas. It was operated by a succession of companies including Oerlikon, Celanese, Northrop, and, finally Chemtronics, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Remediation of portions of the 1,000 acre site started in the 1980s. And due to concerns about persistent contamination and an obscure historical record, it became a “superfund” program site soon after. Clean up continued for decades, with permanent disposal areas off limits indefinitely. The site is mostly a few dozen slabs where buildings once stood, scattered around a few looping roads in the woods, behind a locked gate.