Gallery

In the 1930s, Howard P. Eells sent geologists to Nevada to look for a heat-resistant material to improve the quality of firebricks manufactured in his Ohio factory (Basic Refractories, Incorporated). They found and acquired for him the largest deposits of magnesite and brucite in the world, approximately 70,000,000 tons of commercial grade ore. The production of the lightweight wonder metal—magnesium—would become an important part of the U.S. war effort during World War II and would be used in material as diverse as tracer bullets and aircraft.

With the beginning of war in Europe, Eells convinced powerful Nevada Senator Patrick McCarran of the value of using federal funds to support his magnesium mining company in the Senator’s home state. In 1941, Basic Magnesium Inc. (BMI) was established near Hoover Dam in what is now known as Henderson, Nevada. The dam provided water supply and inexpensive power for the production of the metal. The code name Plancor 201 was formally applied to the project as a security measure. At the peak of employment BMI had 13,618 working on-site, dwarfing the 5,250 employed on the Boulder Dam project. The number was so large that it was estimated that at one time the equivalent of 10% of the total population of Nevada worked at BMI during the plant's construction and use. At its peak Basic's weekly payroll was greater than the monthly payroll at the dam. (Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal and Boulder City Journal, August 14, 1942.) When BMI was completed it would process 5 million pounds of magnesium every day.

In 1941, Paul R. Williams was commissioned to design a housing development of 1,000 homes for the growing work force employed by the BMI plant (Basic Townsite) and to address the acute housing shortage. At one time this lack of housing was so severe that many workers camped in the desert. While the homes in Williams’ planned development were based on his popular and affordable California designs, the project was never fully occupied. High labor turnover due to substandard working conditions created a transient workforce. The chlorine gas in the air, poor quality food, and few worker support facilities encouraged workers to find alternate housing. (November 1, 1943)

The location of the Basic Townsite homes in the empty desert along with the strict racial segregation of the area meant that many workers elected not to or were prevented from living there. Basic Townsite would be closed to the thousands of African Americans who eventually came to live in the area and work at the plant or in support industries. White workers and their families chose to live in less desolate areas, while black workers lived in segregated Carver Park or the Westside section of Las Vegas.

Image 1. "Air view, northwest, of entire project, resevoirs, demountable townsite, metal plant, construction camp and trailer camp."
Image 2. Construction sheds and mountains are landscape features in this 1943 photograph of Basic Magnesium's thousand-unit development.
Image 3. A worker's wife watering a newly planted lawn around one of the thousand demountable houses built adjacent to the BMI plant in the southern Nevada desert.
Image 4. The Basic Townsite office and part of the housing development on the grounds of BMI.
Image 5. From many watchtowers ever-vigilant guards protect Basic Magnesium's giant plant. A guard here looks out on part of the thousand-unit housing development.
Image 6. View from a watchtower, showing the Basic Magnesium plant, its 1,000 unit housing development, transmission lines and roads.
Image 7. 1942 view of the plant showing unfinished roads, power lines, telephone lines, and buildings during an early stage of construction.