December 7, 2007

A small number of the 10,000 civilians employed by the Chemical Warfare Arsenal established near Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in 1941 worked on one of the many devices produced at the arsenal. The over 14,000-acre facility, which was renamed the Pine Bluff Arsenal in 1942, produced millions of incendiary munitions and chemical compounds during World War II. After the war and into the 1960s, the arsenal produced biological compounds. It later began producing smoke, incendiary, and pyrotechnic devices.