Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

 arsenal / weapon and ammunition storage, park, nature conservation park / area

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado. The site was operated by the United States Army throughout the later 20th century and was controversial among local residents until its closure in 1992. A fair bit of the fuss was caused by the operation of a toxic waste disposal well on the site. Pumping down the well was causing a series of little earthquakes that were working their way back towards the surface. People feared a literally volcanic eruption of hazardous wastes.

In 1942, the U.S. Army acquired 19,915 acres (80.59 km²) of land on which to manufacture weapons in support of World War II military activities. Additionally, some of this land was used for a prisoner of war camp (for German combatants) and later transferred to the city of Denver as Stapleton Airport expanded.
Contents

Once a weapons manufacturing base, this contaminated land has now been set aside as a wildlife preserve.