Editing Weldon Spring, Missouri (section)

==History==
Weldon Spring was [[plat]]ted in 1864.<ref name="History">{{cite web | url=http://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_saint_charles.html | title=St. Charles County Place Names, 1928–1945 | publisher=The State Historical Society of Missouri | access-date=November 27, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624072019/http://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_saint_charles.html | archive-date=June 24, 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The community took its name from a spring [[Weldon Springs (Missouri)|of the same name]] near the original town site.<ref name="History" /> A post office called Weldon Spring was established in 1875, and remained in operation until 1957.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=MO&county=Saint+Charles | title=Post Offices| publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=27 November 2016}}</ref>

In 1941, the United States Army purchased 17,000 acres of land in the surrounding area. [[Weldon Spring Ordnance Works|The Weldon Spring Ordnance Works]] built the largest explosives factory in the United States on the site.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/14614|title=Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail, Weldon Spring, Missouri|website=RoadsideAmerica.com|language=en|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref> It was built to produce [[TNT]] and [[2,4-Dinitrotoluene|DNT]] for Allied forces during [[World War II]]. It closed on August 15, 1945, days after the end of the war.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/05/a-pile-of-nuclear-waste-now-tourist.html|title=A Pile of Nuclear Waste Now a Tourist Attraction in Weldon Springs, Missouri|work=Amusing Planet|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref> Most of the land was then sold.

A proposal appeared in 1945 suggesting the placement of [[United Nations Headquarters]] in the area.<ref>{{cite web |title=Saint Louis Invites the United Nations {{!}} University of Missouri-St. Louis Digital Library |url=https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/umsl/islandora/object/umsl%3A28652 |website=dl.mospace.umsystem.edu |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref>

In 1955, the United States Atomic Energy Commission built a uranium ore processing plant on the 2,000 remaining acres.<ref name=":1" /> Weldon Spring Uranium Feed Mill Plant produced yellow cake uranium ore. In 1966, the plant closed and remained abandoned for 20 years. The site was contaminated with over 1.5 million cubic yards of asbestos, radioactive uranium and contaminated rubble.<ref name=":0" /> The [[U.S. Department of Energy]] began a decontamination of the site in the late 1980s and completed it in 2001, with a 45-acre rubble mountain over the site.