When the US joined WWII in December of 1941, Carl and Georgina (my parents) were living in southeast Iowa. Mom worked for A. Guthrie & Co., an engineering firm, as the executive secretary for the project superintendent, constructing an ordinance manufacturing plant in Middletown, IA. Dad worked for the local Ford garage as a mechanic. They were engaged to marry the following Valentine’s day.
Once the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant was complete, the team from Guthrie were next slated to go to Grand Island, NE, to build another ordinance plant. The executive Mom worked for (unfortunately nobody still alive remembers the fellow’s name) wanted Mom to come along. By this time she and Dad had married, and naturally they were concerned that Dad would have trouble finding work. The executive found Dad a job servicing the construction equipment, and the folks duly moved to Nebraska.
Once that factory was built, the next assignment was Pocatello, Idaho, to build a Naval Ordinance plant, where they built and serviced guns for battleships and cruisers. Dad got a job for the Union Pacific, working in the wheel room as a machinist, making and repairing the wheels for locomotives, including the legendary Big Boys, the largest steam locomotives ever made.
Once they were in Pocatello, they were joined by Mom’s younger sister Frances. She also worked in some sort of secretarial role.
When the war ended Mom’s job finished as well. There was no further need for new ordinance factories. Dad’s job was steady, but Mom and Fran were quite eager to move back closer to home and family, and so they began planning to head back to Iowa.
But they also saw that they had a great opportunity. Travel in those days was not as easy, nor as common as it is now, and since they were already most of the way to the West Coast, they decided to take the long way home, and look about a bit. Mom had always been a little star-struck, and the chance to see Hollywood was too good to pass up.
Fran stayed in Pocatello a little longer. She traveled to Las Vegas by train and rejoined Mom and Dad for the rest of the journey back to Iowa.
And so it was that in mid-February, 1946, Mom and Dad loaded up all their worldly goods into a single-wheel trailer hitched to their old Ford, said goodbye to their friends in Idaho, and set off. What follows is Mom’s account of that trip.
Our maps of the route are not exact. We tried to follow roads as named whenever possible, but routes have changed over the years with the interstate system.
Digging Deeper
You can find a document describing the history of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant here.
Information on the Union Pacific #4014 Big Boy locomotive restoration is here.
Sherrey
Tell me more.