turtle mountain ordnance plant haer no. nd-10 213...

Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant 213 First Street NW Rolla Rolette County North Dakota

PHOTOGRAPHS HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD National Park Service

Great Plains Systems Support Office 1709 Jackson Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68102

HAER No. ND-10

)

Location:

Date of Construction:

Present Owner:

Present Use:

Significance:

Historians:

)

HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD

TURTLE MOUNTAIN ORDNANCE PLANT (William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant)

HAER No. ND-10

213 First Street NW, Rolla, Rolette County, North Dakota.

USGS Rolla Quadrangle, Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 14.5411930.454480.

1953 (Modified in 1954, 1957, 1966, and 1988).

Microlap Technologies, Inc. 213 First Street NW Rolla, North Dakota 58367

Manufacturing facility for jewel bearings and related precision components.

The Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant is significant as the only large-scale, diversified manufacturing facility for the production of jewel bearings in the United States. Jewel bearings were considered a product critical to American military needs during the early and middle years of the Cold War, and the Turtle Mountain plant was established through a federalprivate partnership specifically to address this defense concern. Thus, the plant is also a significant reflection of American logistical responses to perceived Cold War security threats.

Dale Martin, Mitzi Rossillon, and Mark Hufstetler, Renewable Technologies, Inc., February 1997.

I. HISTORY

TURTLE MOUNTAIN ORDNANCE PLANT HAER No. ND-10

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A. JEWEL BEARINGS: DESCRIPTION, MATERIALS, USES

Jewel bearings are very small discs fixed in positions where they support and guide moving pivots

of sensitive, light-load, low-torque instruments and control devices (see figure #1). The important qualities

of jewel bearings are low coefficient of friction, nonmagnetic properties, and great hardness. The hardness

is essential for resistance to wear under constant use and an ability to bear loads heavy for their small size.1

Jewel bearings are usually made from corundum, a mineral (aluminum oxide) with a hardness of 9

on the Moh' s Hardness Scale (the diamond is the hardest mineral in the scale with a rank of 10). Rubies

and sapphires are precious natural forms of corundum, colored red and blue respectively, by metallic

impurities in the aluminum oxide.2 Until the beginning of the twentieth century, all jewels were made from

stones found in nature.

Synthetic gems are industrially-made stones with the same chemical composition (aluminum oxide)

as those created in nature. Manufactured gems quickly and completely replaced their natural predecessors

in bearings, since they cost less and had better grain and fewer flaws. Over ninety years ago, the

Frenchman Auguste Vemeuil invented a process for manufacturing synthetic corundum. In a Vemeuil

furnace, finely powdered aluminum oxide fell through a very hot hydrogen-oxygen flame, melted and then

solidified on a pipe-clay stem below. The resulting product was a "boule," a tapered cylinder of ruby or

sapphire. 3 Boules were the beginning point for making industrial jewels.

The creation of synthetic corundum and its manufacture into bearings served first the watch

making business and then the defense industry. Switzerland, center of the world's watch industry by the

mid-nineteenth century, also became the location of virtually all synthetic jewel manufacture before 1940. 4

By the mid-twentieth century, bearings from synthetic jewels also came to be essential components of

modem military equipment such as airplanes, missiles, ships, and tanks. In the mid-l 950s, a typical

American fighter airplane had 1,500 to 2,500 jewel bearings, while a battleship had about 5,000. In these

vessels, jewel bearings were required for instruments as diverse as clocks, compasses, gyroscopes,

altimeters, range finders, bombsights, electrical controls, and a wide variety of gauges. A bombsight alone

required 250 to 350 jewel bearings.5

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TURTLE MOUNTAIN ORDNANCE PLANT HAER No. ND-IO

(Page 3)

Jewel Shapes sections, no scale

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RING BEARING ASSEMBLY

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Figure# I. Common Jewel Bearing Forms.


(Page 4)

B. WAR THE UNITED STATES, AND JEWEL BEARINGS

For all its economic wealth and diversity, the United States has relied historically on other nations

for nearly all of certain commodities and manufactured goods. This reliance on imports has caused anxiety

and dangerous shortages during wars and disruptions of international trade. During the two world wars,

the United States found it necessary to rush to develop its own supplies and processing of a variety of

materials whose foreign sources were threatened, for instance, potash in Nebraska and chromium in

Montana. Such operations typically could not exist financially outside of the special circumstance of

national emergency. Most were uneconomical in terms of quality of resources, scale of operations,

location, or labor costs, and relied on temporarily high prices or government economic intervention. When

the wars ended, these industries, like a large standing army, were typically abandoned or dismantled. 6

Producers and consumers found this sequence of events undesirable for several reasons: it was expensive,

did not allow immediate product availability, and created a boom/bust economic cycle in the producers'

communities. One perceived solution to these difficulties was the implementation of strategic stockpiles.

The United States established stockpiles beginning in 1940 to accumulate and store essential commodities,

from which to draw when war stopped trade.7

The experience of the United States with jewel bearings in the first half of the twentieth century is

illustrative of war-time shortages. During both world wars, warring nations encircled neutral Switzerland

and the export of Swiss bearings to the United States stopped. American manufacturers pursued several

alternatives. They used Montana sapphires and glass substitutes, tried but failed to create and work

synthetic jewels, and smuggled Swiss jewels in diplomatic pouches. Immediately following World War II,

the Cold War brought fears of another possible halt to Swiss supplies. 8

The Second World War ended with the two greatest powers, temporary allies, quickly resuming

former confrontational attitudes. The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),

both with great resources ofland, population, and industry, embraced conflicting ideologies that led them

into geopolitical strategies involving many nations around the world. 9 In the late 1940s, a series of events

prompted and then escalated Cold War tensions. The USSR took over almost all the nations of central

Europe from which its armies had driven the Germans during World War II, controlling a buffer region on

its historically vulnerable western edge. Meanwhile, the U.S. President enunciated the "Truman Doctrine"

of support for anti-communist forces around the world, initially in Greece and Turkey. 10 The Soviets tested


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an atomic bomb, ending the U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy

began his short, brutal campaign of seeking communists in the U.S. government. Some government leaders

came to believe that the world faced a long-term, widespread struggle between two implacable powers.11

America's responses to the perceived Soviet threat included :fielding worldwide armed forces and

greatly increased military spending.12 Reactions also ranged over a wide variety of smaller subjects. A few

planners thought about creating a source of jewel bearings safe from the Russian tanks that might sweep

from Germany to the Atlantic Coast of France. This thinking eventually led to the small town of Rolla,

North Dakota.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the U.S. government determined to set up its own plant to make

jewel bearings. A variety of reasons were behind this decision. Domestic manufacturers of jewels

maintained only small, limited operations that provided only a tiny percentage of the demand of the nation's

watch and instrument makers. Rapid technological change in the previous decade made most of the

stockpiled supply obsolete. Earlier unsuccessful attempts to quickly create a temporary skilled work force

emphasized the need for a permanent, trained labor pool. The Soviet Union made the same decision; by the

end of the 1950s, it had achieved self-sufficiency in jewel bearings. 13

The U.S. military started with two jewel manufacturing schemes. Work with the Elgin National

Watch Company explored materials, machines, and possible use ofElgin's production facilities in Illinois.

Policy and tactical changes ended this work in 1955-56. Another, more successful effort was arranged

between Army Ordnance and the Bulova Watch Company. 14 It was this partnership that soon found its

way to North Dakota.

C. ROLLA, NORTH DAKOTA, AND JEWEL BEARINGS

Rolla is a small farm town in north-central North Dakota, just ten miles from the Canadian border

(see figure #2). It is the seat of Rolette County, with a 1950 population of 1,176. The county's economy

is based largely on its rich grain farms; Rolla serves as the county's commercial and civic center.

Rolla also became the site of a government-backed jewel bearing plant through initiatives and

decisions in North Dakota and the nation's capital. Government planners in Washington, D.C. wanted a

location consistent with the policy of strategic industrial site dispersal. This required a place far from


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(Page 7)

urban and other industrial concentrations. In case of a massive aerial attack on the United States, such a

plant might survive. Rolla clearly met these conditions. It is situated at the center of the North American

landmass, far from potential offshore threats. The plant in Rolla would create a new pool of skilled

workers rather than draw them from an already existing industrial labor force. Rolla's location off the

main routes of the national transportation network was not a problem, for the very small quantities of

incoming materials and outgoing products were easily carried by a few trucks on local roads .15

Coupled with Rolla's ideal geographical position was a contemporary effort to improve the

economic condition of the Indians living near the town through greater employment. Just two miles west of

Rolla is the main portion of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, with its headquarters at Belcourt. In

1950 over 2,800 Chippewas lived on this seventy-two square mile reserve; another 1,600 lived elsewhere in

Rolette County. Although containing a reservation just two townships in area, Rolette County had over 40

percent of North Dakota's Indian population, nearly three times that of any other county in the state.16 Like

Indian populations around the nation, many on the Turtle Mountain reserve experienced high

unemployment, poor living conditions, and failure to share in much of the contemporary national

prosperity.

Two North Dakotans were instrumental in bringing jewel bearing manufacture to Rolla. William

Langer had represented North Dakota in the U.S. Senate since 1941. As a young lawyer entering county

and state politics, he built a reputation as an effective opponent of powerful out-of-state corporations and,

during prohibition, the liquor interests. He developed a flamboyant populist style that excited his

supporters and motivated his opponents to try to literally drive him from elected office, once successfully.

In the U.S. Senate, he continued his populism through support of federal social programs and antipathy

toward foreign entanglements that he felt took resources from domestic programs. Langer owed much of

his great popularity "to his hard work for constituents-'Write to Bill Langer' was a campaign

theme-and to his effective advocacy of agrarian and North Dakota interests in Washington. "17

The other person responsible for the jewel bearing plant being located in North Dakota was John

B. Hart. He was a lawyer in Rolla and the executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs

Commission. In the latter role, he was "seeking permanent employment" for the state's Native Americans.


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Langer's staff led Hart, in 1950, to A. Hulen Stuart, chief of the scientific and technical

instruments section of the National Production Authority. They discussed the concerns about the United

States' total dependence on Swiss jewel bearing manufacture, and the lack of a domestic permanent labor

force skilled in making jewel bearings. As initial talks seemed promising, investigators traveled to the

Rolla area for closer examination. Using procedures developed by the Hamilton Watch Company,

examiners tested the Turtle Mountain Indians on their manual dexterity, depth perception, motor

coordination, and other aptitudes required for precision work. They also evaluated their potential for high

productivity, patience with intricate tasks, supervisory capability, and low absenteeism. Once again, the

results were promising.18

In 1952, Hart, Langer, and supporters in Rolla achieved success. In March, Hart presented to a

Domestic Jeweled Watch Movement Industry advisory committee meeting in Washington, D.C. a proposal

for North Dakota Indians to make jewel bearings. Later in the month a selection committee visited Rolla

and Dunseith, west of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. On April 15, the Army notified Senator

Langer' s office that Rolla had been selected as the location of a pilot plant to manufacture jewel bearings .19

The community enthusiastically responded to the possibility of the plant. When the federal

managers announced that local support was important to sustain its initial selection, business leaders in

Rolla quickly called a special meeting and within two hours had pledged $25,000. The money raised was

used to acquire land and erect the first building. 20

Construction ofRolla's Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant, as it originally was known,21 began in

the autumn of 1952. In early October the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, on behalf of the Army

Ordnance Corps, signed a contract with the Bulova Watch Company to operate the jewel bearing plant, for

$1 per year. The Rolla Civic Improvement Association, Inc. was organized to acquire a site on the west

edge of town from the Rolla Sportsmen's Club, and erect the building. The ceremonial groundbreaking on

October 18 attracted about 2,500 people, including officials from the federal and state governments, the

military, and Bulova. Indian dancers and the Rolla school band performed. Company managers stayed to

supervise construction, and install machinery taken from naval storage and prepared for reuse by the

Bulova plant at Sag Harbor, New York. At the beginning of December, State Employment Service

personnel arrived to start testing job applicants. Those seeking work could be up to fifty years old and a


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high school education was not required; it was expected that 80 percent would be women. By mid-January

1953, 212 applicants had taken the tests. 22

Applying for work at the plant in the 1950s involved a series of tests and an interview. The State

Employment Service used U.S. Department of Labor tests for aptitudes in spatial and form perception,

motor coordination, and manual dexterity to do a preliminary screening. Passing applicants entered a pool

from which the managers selected candidates. Interested individuals filled out applications, took the

Personnel Research Center (Philadelphia) Personality Test for emotional stability and honesty, and drew

pencil lines through every "a" and "v" in blocks of small letters. An interview by the Assistant Production

Manager followed. Finally a local optometrist administered a series of eye tests.23

In the spring, hiring and manufacturing began. Among job applicants, about six of every seven

were Indians. On March 12, the first two production employees-Dorothy Dauphinais, of Belcourt, and

Mary Vondell, of Rolla-reported for work, drilling holes in jewels. By late April, thirty employees

completed the first batch of about 500 synthetic ruby bar hole bearings. Employment continued to grow,

so that within six months there were about seventy people in the plant. 24

The operators celebrated a successful beginning on "Bulova Day," November 4, 1953. Public and

company dignitaries again congregated in Rolla. Among these was Omar Bradley, just appointed president

of the Bulova Research & Development Laboratories after retiring from four decades of army service,

including World War II high command and heading the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Later, occasional

celebrations at the plant were called Bulova-Bradley Days.) The public toured the facility. At the same

time, the Rolla Civic Improvement Association announced plans to double the plant area. 25 The expansion

was completed, with landscaping around it, in 1954. A Swiss expert on vee jewels joined the staff that

year.26

D. THE WORKERS AT THE PLANT

Although the Swiss presence at the Turtle Mountain plant apparently was small, it was initially

important. In 1952, Bulova brought in a married couple, Emil and Trudi Schneider, both experienced jewel

bearing workers. Emil first installed machinery and then managed production, while Trudi oversaw the

hiring and supervision of workers. A later Swiss arrival called her "the soul and heart of the operation."


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The Schneiders left Rolla in 1962. Of the Swiss contingent (unknown size), only Ed Allamand, who

arrived in 1957 and later became the plant manager, remained after the 1960s.27

Making jewel bearings was work with advantages not often found in small towns in rural regions.

In the mid-1950s, Bulova paid workers seventy-five cents per hour, with benefits covering retirement, paid

vacation, and health insurance. This kind of steady work and compensation was rarely found on the farms

and in the small retail businesses of the area.28 Between October 1952 and June 1957, more than one-half

of the total expenditures of approximately $2.5 million on the plant were paid in wages to people in the

county and on the reservation. 29

Through the decades, the work force at the Turtle Mountain plant remained relatively stable in size

and composition. Located in Rolla in large part to employ nearby Indians, Chippewas have consistently

comprised about 60 percent of the employees.30 As predicted when applicant testing began, women

provided most of the labor, or about 70 percent. When Doreen Hudson went to work at age nineteen in

1954, most of her coworkers were "older" women and, like her, married.31 By the mid-1950s, employment

reached a level kept for decades, with about 150 on the payroll. Many stayed at the plant for much of their

working life. Of the approximately 165 employed at the plant in May 1966, 48 had been there since

November 1952. From the early 1960s to the early 1990s, the plant work force remained "unusually

stable," averaging about 143 employees. A majority of workers were between thirty and forty years old;

most had worked there ten to fifteen years. The changes and uncertainties of the mid-1990s (see below)

brought lower levels of employment. The number of non-management workers declined to 119 in July

1994, and then to just 77 two years later.32 While the work force diminished, the proportions of Native

Americans and women among the employees remained stable.33

Work at the Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant brought economic benefits to a small but significant

proportion of the Indians in the county. The plant employed more Indians than any other single enterprise

in and around the Turtle Mountain reservation.34 While Chippewa workers at the plant represented only

1 Yz percent of the total Indian population of Rolette County, and Indian unemployment in the county has

never fallen below 30 percent, the importance of the plant to area Indians, and especially Indian women,

through the early 1970s is noteworthy. Employment data show that, from the early 1960s through the early

1970s, Indian workers at the jewel bearing plant represented 7-10 percent of all employed Indian workers.

During the same period, about 14 percent of women in the Indian labor force in Rolette County worked at


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the plant.35 By the mid-1970s, however, these percentages began a rapid decline, so that in 1995 Indian

workers at the Turtle Mountain plant represented only about 3 percent of the county's total Indian labor

force. 36

In addition to the benefits of permanent employment, the early example of Native American labor

at the Turtle Mountain plant helped start a pattern. This was the first known employment of Indians in

manufacturing for government contracts and military goods, and set a precedent for placing many other

such plants on Indian reservations in following decades. In the late 1970s, for example, the Turtle

Mountain Corporation at Belcourt manufactured electronic components for the military, employing

between twenty and sixty workers.37

E. CHANGES AND CHALLENGES OVER THE DECADES

The Turtle Mountain plant has survived changes in levels of military procurement, advances in

instrument technology, challenges to the cost and quality of its products, and questions about Bulova' s

commitment to the operation.

Local fears for the viability of the plant began early. Rolla' s Turtle Mountain Star in 1954

believed that businesses in the United States that wanted lower tariffs on Swiss jewel imports were

circulating "propaganda" to undermine the Rolla plant and its products. Months later, there were worries

that Bulova would not renew its contract on the plant. 38 During the annual shutdown for vacation in 195 8,

some workers heard a rumor that Bulova had come close to permanently closing the plant. 39

When voluntary demand would not support full employment and production at the Turtle Mountain

plant, the government took steps to maintain production. In 1958, a directive from the Office of

Emergency Planning required contractors to use Turtle Mountain jewels in the items they made for military

use. In the 1960s, this directive became law, part of the Armed Services Procurement Regulation (ASPR),

later Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). 40 Even then, companies often ignored or evaded these rules,

and enforcement was difficult. A 197 5 independent report to the Bulova company noted that the Turtle

Mountain plant suffered an "image problem," the exact cause of which was unspecified. Also, the

businesses that used jewel bearings resented paying five to ten times the price of imported bearings for

Turtle Mountain plant products and some had doubts about the jewels' quality. Some contractors

reportedly bought the North Dakota bearings as required, but instead put Swiss jewels in their products.41


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As military equipment construction failed to keep the Rolla plant busy, the U.S. government

bought North Dakota jewel bearings for its strategic stockpile. While the stockpile program was primarily

intended to ensure availability of essential commodities from overseas, it could also serve as a means of

financial support for an operation like the jewel bearing plant. By buying bearings when contractors'

orders were low, the stockpile kept the plant busy and its labor force exercising its skills. 42

The technology of instruments and control devices changed radically in the 1970s, reducing the

need for jewel bearings. 43 Jewels were an essential part of the analog method of measurement and control.

In this, continuous mechanical or electrical quantities such as gear speed or voltage proportionally

represented elements such as time, temperature, or altitude on gauges and dials calibrated with fixed scales.

Dozens of jewel bearings were required for such devices, with all their internal gears and display needles.

This changed with the culmination of a revolution in electronics and the digital form of information, in

which data of all sorts could be conveyed through discrete electromagnetic memories in binary code.

Watches, meters, gauges, and control devices could be made without gears, pivots, needles, and other

moving parts which required bearings. While sapphire bearings are still a part of contemporary industrial

instruments and military equipment-for example, gyroscopes and analog instruments for emergency

backup use-much of their former necessity has vanished. 44

Even as new technology supplanted many jewel bearings, the Turtle Mountain plant considered

expanding its jewel business. The plant at Rolla sought new products and markets beginning in the 1970s.

Bearings ordered from and made at Rolla fell from just under 2 million in 1969, to about 1 million a year

later, to one-half to three-quarters of a million for each of the following four years. 45 The managers of the

Turtle Mountain plant responded by making the first jewels for uses other than bearings in July 1973. In

1976 Bulova submitted a proposal to the GSA to manufacture jewel blanks-from which bearings were

made-at Rolla. Twelve years later, with the final addition to the factory, this finally became reality (see

below). 46

By the 1990s, the range of products had grown to include spacers for insulation in microwave

components, rods and pins for lasers, and windows for infrared sensors and ultraviolet filters. The Turtle

Mountain plant gained about 30 percent of the market in sapphire and ruby orifices (nozzles) used in water

jet cutting. Production also expanded into work on materials other than synthetic sapphire and ruby,

including spinel (magnesium aluminum oxide), carbide, and ceramic tubular ferrules, the latter used for


(Page 13)

fiber optics. 47 The manufacture of dosimeters, small instruments which warn the bearers of exposure to

dangerous radiation, was tried at Rolla. For this purpose, a separate building about 1 mile from the main

plant was constructed in 1982. The Gulf War of 1990-91 resulted in a short-lived surge of orders,48 but

production ceased soon thereafter. Today jewel bearings, once the mainstay of the plant, represent only

about 15-20% of the total plant product.49

In the early 1990s, the impetus for the development of new products was an indication that federal

government support of the facility was about to end. By 1990, the Department of Defense's Inspector

General concluded that the Turtle Mountain plant produced more bearings than needed for ever-diminishing

demand, at higher costs than private vendors, and that contractors were still evading the legal mandate to

purchase Turtle Mountain bearings. The report recommended closing the plant and ending mandatory

purchase by military manufacturers of bearings made in Rolla.50 In 1994, the U.S. government made the

last purchase of jewel bearings for the stockpile, ending four decades of reliable income for the plant. Like

thousands of publicly-owned or government-supported enterprises around the world in the 1980s and

1990s, the Turtle Mountain plant faced the new world of privatization. 51 To aid in the transition to private

ownership, a $4.5 million appropriation from Congress funded the study of new markets and physical

adaptation of the plant.52 On September 27, 1996, Microlap Technologies, Inc. acquired the building and

equipment, and now operates the facility.53

Military need for jewel bearings made in the United States had almost disappeared when the end of

the Cold War altered American foreign policy. Events in the Soviet Union in the mid- l 980s, and the

dissolution of the USSR itself in 1991, ended even the perception of a communist threat. 54 The military

and its demands for weapons technology did not disappear, of course. U.S. concerns, including control of

petroleum reserves in southwest Asia and small hostile nations with possible nuclear weapons, kept military

spending high. Jewel bearings, however, were no longer a strategic concern, due to the lessened need for

jewels and to a perception that foreign sources were under less of an international threat.

F. SIGNIFICANCE

The significance of the Turtle Mountain plant is largely dependent on its uniqueness. It often has

been stated that the Turtle Mountain plant is unique for being the only jewel bearing manufacturing facility

in the United States, North America, or even the western hemisphere. Further, in its first years, it was cited


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as the only complete jewel bearing manufacturing plant outside of Switzerland and a few other nations in

western and central Europe.55

These claims of uniqueness are more or less correct, although the early history of jewel

manufacture in the United States is more complicated than they suggest. The industry in the early 1950s

had a small but growing presence. From 1950 to 1953, domestic production grew from 3.3 million finished

jewels to 15.7 million, then fell to 10.5 million in 1954. That year at least eight firms, almost all in

industrial centers of five states and often in watch-making towns, reported production. (By way of

comparison, in its first five years of production, from March 1953 to early 195 8, the Turtle Mountain plant

produced over 5 million bearings.)56

The nature of jewel production at other domestic plants in the early 1950s is unclear. Ed

Allamand, long-time Turtle Mountain plant manager, believes that the other firms reporting making jewel

bearings in the United States at the time did not have "true manufacturing" operations. Instead, they relied

on imported, partially-worked jewels and did limited touch-up and finishing work. 57 Whether the only "true

manufacturer" of jewels or instead one of several, the plant at Rolla soon distinguished itself as "the only

large-volume integrated domestic source of jewel bearings" in the United States. In 1959, it produced all

but 11,000 of the more than 2 million sapphire bearings made in the United States.58 According to Willy

Gyger, a Swiss technician installing machinery at the plant in 1966, the Turtle Mountain facility was the

only jewel bearing manufacturing plant in North America and one of the few in the world which made a

wide variety of bearings from start to finish. Gyger said that most European facilities specialized in a

limited range of jewels or steps of manufacture.59

Whatever the validity of conflicting claims, the plant in Rolla is unusual for its small-town setting

in a largely rural state, the majority of Indians in the labor force, and its history of government creation and

support. The Cold War era has left many marks on the American landscape, from prairies dotted with

missile silos to a few surviving bomb shelters in residential backyards. In a small town on the Great Plains,

an ordinary light-industrial building housing Chippewas, farm women, and Swiss immigrants making tiny

rings of synthetic jewels may be one of the most unexpected.

II. PHYSICAL PLANT

A. BUILDING HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION


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The Turtle Mountain plant continues to operate at its original location, but the size and

configuration of the plant facility have changed dramatically over the facility's lifetime. The plant began as

a 40-foot by 100-foot rectangular metal building, manufactured by the Butler Manufacturing Company of

Kansas City, Missouri. (For several decades, the Butler company has been a major supplier of

prefabricated steel buildings for industrial and agricultural uses.) Rolla business leaders, responsible for

erecting a suitable structure to house the plant, found an available Butler building in Fargo, from where it

was dismantled and trucked to Rolla for reassembly.60 This original building was steel-framed, with

corrugated metal siding and a gable roof. The fenestration pattern featured banks of multi-pane windows

along the long elevations, with doors centered in the ends. In 1954, a second corrugated metal building,

nearly identical to the first, was installed along the south elevation of the original structure, effectively

doubling the plant's size (see figure #3; HAER photograph ND-10-1). By 1957, a third structure was

added, again similar to the first two; this increased the plant's total interior area to 12,000 square feet.

This ad hoc assemblage of buildings continued to house the Turtle Mountain plant into the early

1960s. In May 1963, however, Congress appropriated funds to construct a "permanent building" at Rolla,

as well as purchase new manufacturing machinery for the plant. Three years later, on May 28, 1966-a

"Bulova-Bradley Day"-the $1.15 million project was dedicated. The remodeled facility presented a

dramatically different appearance. A modem addition to the original structure, built at a cost of $700,000,

wrapped around the existing plant on the east and southeast sides. The flat-roofed addition was virtually

windowless, constructed with load-bearing cinder block walls and a brick exterior veneer. The remodeled

building housed $335,000 of new "automatic" manufacturing equipment imported from Switzerland.,

which would reportedly allow for a tripling of production, and the use of more efficient processes. In

addition to these capital costs, $95,000 was set aside for future renovation and equipment purchases.61 At

completion, the building had a floor area of about 30,000 square feet. 62

The plant largely retained its 1966 appearance until 1988, when additional space was needed to

house the manufacture of jewel blanks. This resulted in the completion of a 2,000-square-foot addition,

matching the 1966 building mass in design and materials. Approximately 4,000 square feet of the 1950s

portion of the building was simultaneously rehabilitated.63 The three gable roofs of the 1950s plant were

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Figure #3. Turtle Mountain Ordnance Building Expa11Sion.


(Page 17)

covered with a new shallow-pitch roof superstructure, although some of the original steel walls remained

visible.

Today, the plant is a melding of 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s construction (see figure #4), but most of

the facility's exterior continues to convey its 1966 appearance. The 1966 construction is characterized by

a flat roof and cinder-block walls with an exterior veneer of wire-decorated orange-tan brick. The

corrugated steel walls identifying the 1950s building masses remain visible only on the west comer of

current building. (The 1988 renovations were of a relatively minor scale, and were designed to visually

blend with the 1966 building mass.)

The main axes of the plant building are oriented northwest-southeast and northeast-southwest; the

southeast fa9ade contains the primary entry and is the "front" of the building (see figure #4). There are

metal-framed windows on the front elevation, illuminating the main entry area and a small portion of the

offices (HAER photographs ND-I 0-2 and 3). Above the main entry doors, a mosaic pattern of white,

black, and orange tiles forms a Thunderbird design; this is the only significant visual detail in the building

exterior.

The building's other walls are almost wholly unadorned. Other than on the front elevation, all

brick walls are windowless. There are doors on the southwest elevation, and the northwest facade has a

freight door and dock and a brick chimney (HAER photograph ND-10-5). At the west comer, portions of

the original 1950s plant remain visible; this area features corrugated steel walls with 9-light, metal-sash

hopper windows (HAER photographs ND-10-5 and 6). The three parallel steel gable roofs which once

characterized the 1950s buildings are now covered by a recent windowless half-story, supported on tapered

I-beams, with a gable roof of very low pitch.

The building's interior reflects its utilitarian, manufacturing function. Floors are covered with tile.

Cinder-block walls and modem drop ceilings are evident in most areas, although the 1950s building masses

retain their original gabled ceilings. Interior doors are wood.

The plant is surrounded by paved parking lots, lawns, and rock gardens, all enclosed inside a

chain-link security fence. Just outside the fence are two small storage buildings, a fuel tank inside a dike,

and more lawn.

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(Page 19)

Key to Figure 4.

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(Page 20)

B. OVERVIEW OF PLANT NAMES, OWNERSHIP, SUPERVISING AGENCIES

The jewel bearing plant has had various names, owners, and responsible government agencies. It

was officially called the Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant from its founding until 1966, when an act of

Congress renamed it the William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant. Recently, as part of privatization, the

plant's name has been changed to Microlap Technologies/William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant.

At the beginning, the facility was under the jurisdiction of Army Ordnance, acting on behalf of all

the armed forces, in the Department of Defense. In 1957, budgetary constraints led Army Ordnance to tum

the operation over to the General Services Administration (GSA), while retaining inspection

responsibilities. In April 1964, the Rolla Civic Improvement Association, which until then held title to the

land on which the plant stood, sold the land and buildings to the GSA for $18,437.50.64 The GSA returned

the plant to the Department of Defense in 1988, as part of the Defense Logistics Agency and its field

operation, the Defense National Stockpile Center. 65 Through all these changes of government management,

the Bulova Watch Company was the operating contractor. Bulova withdrew from the operation in 1995.66

As stated above, Microlap Technologies, Inc. acquired the building and equipment in 1996, and currently

operates the plant.

III. THE MANUFACTURE OF JEWEL BEARINGS

Many different jewel bearings have been made at the Turtle Mountain plant. The most common

basic type is a disc of corundum with a cylindrical hole at the center (see figure #1). 67 Variation within this

type results from treatment of the hole and the exterior surfaces. The hole of a finished ring jewel has one

of several profiles: (1) with the same inside diameter along its short length (bar hole jewels), (2) with

conical enlargements widening at each end, or (3) with oliving. In the last, the hole in elevation cross

section has two convex sides closest at the middle of the hole, like olives not quite touching. Modifications

to the outside surfaces of jewels may include bevels (chamfers) on the outside diameter, cups or

countersinks around the hole, or bombes (radii) on the upper surface. Other basic jewel types are not

pierced by holes. A vee jewel has an indentation of v-shape on its upper side to hold the end of a pivot. A

cup jewel has a hemispherical depression for a ball pivot.

Depending on the type of jewel produced, there is considerable variation in the tasks performed and

the machines and supplies used. Variations also may be due to the size of the hole in the center of the


(Page 21)

jewel, the number of jewels ordered by the buyer (and consequently worked at the same time), the fineness

of surface polishing required, or other factors. 68

There also have been changes in jewel manufacture over time. Techniques observed at the plant in

1996 are somewhat different that those employed in the past. This is due to two main factors: the

installation of new machinery from time to time, and the change in product emphasis over the last ten years.

The first machinery installed at the plant had been used by contractors for the U.S. Navy during

World War II and stored afterwards at Naval Supply Depots in Utah and Pennsylvania. Bulova's plant at

Sag Harbor, New York inspected and prepared the machines for use at the Turtle Mountain plant.69 These

machines remained in service until a major revamping of the plant in the mid- l 960s, when apparently all

except the drilling machines were replaced. Most of the new machines were stock equipment of Swiss

manufacture. Meyer & Burger A.G. made much of the new equipment, but other Swiss manufactures

included Werner Zaugg, Otto Sallaz, Gerber Lyss, Guignard Pollens, Berney, Stocker & Cie, and F.

Chapatte.70 With minor exceptions, the Swiss machines remain in use at the Turtle Mountain plant.

However, newer equipment, such as an outside diameter grinding machine made by Schaefli Engineering,

has been added within the last ten years.

In addition to the stock equipment, many machines at the plant either have been fabricated or

modified at the on-site machine shop. Generally, the "home-made" equipment was built either because the

machines were not available at the time they were first needed or because available items did not perform

the tasks desired. For example, most of the large hole-opening machines have been made on-site because

the only available machines opened just small or medium holes. Also, the plant's machine shop has

routinely modified stock equipment to fit the needs for a particular order (HAER photographs ND-10-28

and 29).71 Finally, virtually all machinery maintenance and repair has been and continues to be conducted

on-site, and even some production supplies are made at the plant. For example, workers make stepped wire

for enlarging holes (HAER photograph ND-10-30), while the shop machines the lap plates to which jewels

are cemented for brushing and polishing (HAER photograph ND-10-31).

The second factor resulting in a different in manufacturing techniques over time is the change in

product emphasis, most notably within the last ten years. The plant's change in focus from jewel bearings

to products such as windows and ceramic ferrules (HAER photographs ND- I 0-25 and 27) has involved the

acquisition of new machinery, inspection equipment, and manufacturing techniques.


(Page 22)

The physical layout of the Turtle Mountain plant does not reflect a clear, schematic plan of

materials flowing through a line of sequential work stations (see figure #5). Due to the varied product

types and the fact that jewels themselves have little bulk, locating each manufacturing, washing, and

inspection station next to the preceding step is neither as essential nor as possible as it would be in

traditional heavy industry plant. The circuitous route that jewels take from the blank stage to the finished

product is illustrated by the addition of cupping to bar hole jewels. A worker walks from the outside

diameter station, past the brushing and polishing station, to access the cupping area of the plant. After

cupping, however, another worker must re-trace her co-worker's steps to deliver the jewels to brushing and

polishing.

The following description covers the manufacture of ring or hole jewels at the Turtle Mountain

plant (see figure #5). It identifies the techniques used, especially from the mid-I960s to the late 1980s, to

produce the simplest form of jewel.72

Work begins with blanks, very small flat plates of synthetic corundum. Until 1988, most of the

blanks were supplied by Swiss companies, including Stettler A.G. and Comadur S.A. When the plant

expanded in 1988, a blank manufacturing area was added where boules (globular cylinders of synthetic

corundum; see above) are cut into blanks (HAER photograph ND-10-26). The process of blank

manufacture is not described here due to its recent addition to the plant.

The first step in jewel manufacture is to prepare the blanks for drilling. Blanks are pasted to the

ends of small steel rods (HAER photographs ND-10-7 and 8). When the plant first opened, all blanks were

pasted by hand. But within a short time and certainly by 195 7, automatic pasting machines fabricated at

the plant had been installed. These were replaced in about 1965 by pasting machines manufactured by

Meyer & Burger A.G. These Meyer &Burger machines continue to be used today, with minor exceptions.

(Blanks with an outside diameter greater than 4 mm are pasted by hand, however.) After pasting, the

blanks are moved to the drilling machines where a hole is drilled into the center of each jewel (HAER

photographs ND-10-9 and 10). The drills are World War II machines manufactured by unknown parties,

and slightly modified over time. Each machine consists of an array of 26 drills, the bits of which are

tungsten-carbide wire. The drills turn up to 30,000 revolutions per minute while the pasted blanks are

moved slowly into the bits (HAER photographs ND-I 0-9 and 10). When a comparatively large hole in the

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(Page 24)

jewel was required, the holes are bored with broaches (rotating enamel and diamond abrasive sticks)

instead of drilled. Meyer & Burger boring machines are used.

The drilled (or bored) blanks are moved to the hole-opening section of the plant. To prepare for

hole-opening, the blanks are strung on a wire by hand. Each string is then encased in either black wax (for

larger jewels) or Wood alloy (a metallic compound that melts in boiling water; for smaller jewels), a

process called investing (HAER photograph ND- I 0-12). Each string of drilled or bored blanks then

usually passes through two hole-opening machines (HAER photograph ND-10-14). Depending on the size

of the desired hole, the string may pass through a set of two small (0.25 mm or less in diameter), medium

(0.25-0.65 mm), or large (over 0.65 mm) hole-opening machines. Each machine includes two spools which

pull a wire back and forth through the holes. The wire is diamond-dust encrusted and stepped, becoming

gradually larger in diameter as the blanks are worked to the end of the operation. This particular operation

has benefitted from some of the most significant improvements and innovations. Meyer & Burger hole

opening machines for small and medium holes were installed at the plant in the mid- l 960s. Also, a

W emer Zaugg machine was installed, perhaps at about the same time, as one of the first ( of two in a series)

hole-opening machines. Because there were no large hole-opening machines available at the time updated

equipment was added to the plant in the mid- l 960s, the machine shop at the plant built "long benches" and

the "rocket launcher" for large hole-opening (HAER photographs ND-10-13 and 15). These operate on the

same principal as the smaller machines, but are considerably longer than the others. Unlike the long

benches which lay horizontally, the "rocket launcher" stands inclined slightly off of vertical to reduce the

amount of floor space required for operation.

Next, the jewels pass to the outside diameter station. The purpose of this operation is to shape the

outside diameter of the jewel, both for size and to insure that the hole is centered. Beginning in the mid-

1960s and for an unknown period of time, the work was accomplished by Otto Sallaz Rough Type and

Finish Type Grinders. These machines have been replaced by others manufactured by Meyer & Burger.

All of the outside diameter machines operate in a similar fashion. The jewels are strung on wire which is

held in a bow and moves between two diamond-bonded wheels (HAER photograph ND-10-16).

The jewels then may be moved to the cupping station if the buyer requires such a finish. At this

station, workers may add a cup, bombe (radius), or bevel to the jewel. Broaches abrade the jewels to form


(Page 25)

the desired shape. This step is accomplished by Meyer & Burger machines, either D.C.1 or Creusomat

models, depending on the desired finish.

At the next station, jewels are brushed and polished. To prepare the jewels for brushing and

polishing, they are blocked or cemented with rhodopas (a synthetic varnish) on a cast-iron disc or plate

(HAER photograph ND-I 0-17). The jewels on the plate are first brushed and then polished on one side,

and then blocked again for brushing and polishing on the opposite face (HAER photograph ND-10-18).

The brushes may have bristles of metal, animal hair, or rice-all encrusted with diamond dust. The

brushing machines were manufactured by Gerber Lyss, and apparently date to the mid-l 960s. Jewels may

be pre-polished using the Guignard Pollens machine, a type of grinding wheel. They are fine-polished or

lapped by Berney Polishing Machines. (The Berney machines also are used for stock removal, i.e., prior to

drilling when the blanks are substantially thicker than required for the finish product.) Rotating plates

under the rotating diamond-dusted polishers provide the final burnish to the outside surfaces (HAER

photograph ND-10-18).

If the jewels require olive (or cone) holes, they are moved to the next station, where they are strung

by hand preparatory to oliving. Briefly during the 1960s, a Stocker & Cie Loading Machine was used to

string the jewels, but the machine was found to be more complicated than stringing by hand and was

abandoned quickly. One of two oliving machines may be used. The first is a semi-automatic oliving

machine manufactured by F. Chapatte. The other was made at the plant by the machine shop. In this

particular machine, the diamond-dust encrusted string wire is affixed to a bow which is moved back and

forth at an angle to create the olive shape in the hole (HAER photographs ND-10-19 and 20). The jewels,

held apart from each other by nylon strings, are rotated around the string wire by rolling on a small flat

belt.

After most steps, the jewels are washed-boiled in a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid, rinsed in

water, and dried-to ensure clean pieces for the next step (HAER photograph ND-10-11 ). There is also

frequent visual inspection under magnifying glasses or projected images, and precise measuring of the

partially-completed jewels (HAER photograph ND-10-24). These inspections are called in-line inspections

and often occur at benches between stations.

After the jewels are completed, workers take them to the final inspection room where they are

examined before transferred to the shipping department. Inspection is accomplished by workers using


(Page 26)

magnifying loops, and more recently by microscopes and computer equipment (HAER photographs ND-

10-21 and 22).

IV. NOTES

1. Randall P. Cameron, Jr., "Jewel Bearings-Precision Components for Quality Equipment," Product Engineering 24 (August 1953): 186-191; "The Fulfillment of Essential Jewel Bearings Requirements to Meet a National Emergency," a report to the Honorable Frank B. Ellis, Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, by the OEP Advisory Committee on Jewel Bearings, 13 November 1961, 11-12, 14 (hereafter cited as "Jewel Bearings Requirements"). A detailed technical report covering design, applications, and production of jewel bearings is "A Report on Jewel Bearings: Turtle Mountain Plant, Rolla, North Dakota," [by Bulova Watch Co., New York, 1962] (hereafter cited as "A Report on Jewel Bearings"). (All of the above are located in the offices of the Microlap/William Langer Jewel bearing Plant, Rolla North Dakota.)

2. George Letchworth English, Getting Acquainted with Minerals (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1934), 31, 131; Frederick H. Pough, A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals 4th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976), 112-113.

3 .. B.W. Anderson, Gemstones for Everyman (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 314-16; "A Report on Jewel Bearings," 40, 42.

4. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993 ed., s.v. "watch"; "Basic Technical and Production Data, Jewel Bearings: Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant, Rolla, North Dakota, Volume I" (report prepared by the Bulova Watch Company, New York, for U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, Philadelphia, [1958]), 6. [MS 10497 in the special collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck] (hereafter Volumes I and II are cited as "Basic Technical Data," I: or II:).

5. "Jewel Bearings for Defense" (Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant promotional pamphlet, undated [ca. 1956]).

6. James C. Olson, Histo:1:y of Nebraska, 2d ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 271; GCM Services, Inc., "Cultural Resource Inventory and Evaluation of the Benbow Mine and Mill and the Mouat Mine in the Stillwater Complex, Stillwater County, Montana" (Butte: for the Montana Department of State Lands, 1990), 9, located at Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Helena.

7. Simone K. Leyva, "A Program Evaluation of the William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant" (report for PA 631 and PA 694, Troy State University, 1 September 1994), 5; U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Minerals Yearbook, 1942 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1944), 20-26.

8. "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 12-13, 19; "Basic Technical Data," I: 6-8.


(Page 27)

9. Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1984, 5th ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 1-28; H.W. Brands, The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), v-viii, 3-4, 218-19. On the potential political and economic usefulness of the Cold War, see Brands, 34-41, 149.

10. LaFeber, America. Russia, and the Cold War, 29-73.

11. Ibid., 74-124; Ernest R. May, ed., American Cold War Strategy: Interpreting NSC 68 (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1993), 1-9.

12. May, American Cold War Strategy, 9-82; LaFeber, America, Russia. and the Cold War, 96-98; Brands, The Devil We Knew, 55. On fears of Soviet invasion of western Europe, see May, 9, 38; LaFeber, 53, 96.

13. "Basic Technical Data," I: 8; "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 7, 13.

14. "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 9-10.

15. "Basic Technical Data," I: 10.

16. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Census of Population: 1950, Volume II: Characteristics of the Population, Part 34: North Dakota (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1952), 15, 27, 59.

17. John A. Garraty, ed., Dictionary of American Biography: Supplement Six. 1956-1960 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980), s.v. "Langer, William," by David H. Bennett, 360-62. In his first term as governor of North Dakota, in May 1934 a federal grand jury indicted Langer for illegally "soliciting funds from federal employees for personal and political gain." He was convicted and removed from office. Langer appealed twice and was acquitted in the third trial; he was re-elected governor within four years. Langer died in November 195 9, in his fourth term in the U.S. Senate, and in 1966 an act of Congress named the jewel bearing plant for him. Ed Allamand, who came to Rolla in 1957 to work at the bearing plant, believed that the public explanation of Langer' s crucial role in locating the plant in Rolla was overstated. He stated that North Dakota's junior U.S. Senator in the early 1950s, Milton Young, "did all the work, and Langer took all the credit" (Ed Allamand, interviewed by Mitzi Rossillon, Rolla, 25 June 1996).

18. Turtle Mountain Star [Rolla], 9 October 1952; 27 June 1963, 2. (Unless noted otherwise, all articles in the Turtle Mountain Star are on the front page, with some continuing on the back page.) "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 8-9; "Basic Technical Data," I: 4, 10. For a photo of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission-nine white men-see Turtle Mountain Star, 24 September 1953.

19. Turtle Mountain Star, 17 April 1952.

20. Turtle Mountain Star, 8 May 1952; 23 October 1952; 27 June 1963, 2.


(Page 28)

21. Throughout this document, the factory will be identified as the "Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant" for the sake of consistency, even though the official name was changed in 1966 and again in 1996 (see below).

22. Turtle Mountain Star, 9 October 1952; 23 October 1952; 27 November 1952; 15 January 1953; Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996.

23. "Basic Technical Data," II: 4-8.

24. Turtle Mountain Star, 12 March 1953; 19 March 1953; 30 April 1953; 17 September 1953.

25. Turtle Mountain Star, 29 October 1953; 19 November 1953.

26. Turtle Mountain Star, 18 March 1954; 26 August 1954; 4 November 1954.

27. Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996; Doreen Hudson and Mavis Nurmi, individually interviewed by Mitzi Rossillon, Rolla, 26 June 1996; "Jewel Bearings for Defense."

28. Nurmi, Hudson, interviews.

2 9. "Basic Technical Data," I: 10-11.

30. Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996.

31. Hudson, interview.

32. Dan MacCrindle, interviewed by Mitzi Rossillon, Rolla, 24 June 1996; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," 8, 13.

33. "Jewel Bearings for Defense"; Minot Daily News, 28 May 1966, 18; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," 13.

34. Other sources of income on the reserve were lease payments on agricultural land, sand and gravel excavation, and work in the Belcourt business and light industrial district: The Confederation of American Indians, comp., Indian Reservations: A State and Federal Handbook (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1986), 210-11. Other than retail enterprises, business employers in Belcourt have included a farm equipment manufacturer and contractors for the U.S. government making electronic components and processing income tax data: North Central Planning Council, "Comprehensive Plan, Volume I: History, Inventory and Analysis" (Devils Lake, North Dakota, March 1977), 105.

35. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1980 Census of Population, Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population, Chapter B, Part 36: North Dakota (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1982), 82, 141; "Report of Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment for the Turtle Mountain Reservation," 1964-1965; "Report of Labor Force," 1967-1973, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Belcourt. The 14 percent figure assumes that there were 7 5 Indian women employees at the plant on average from 1965 through 1973.


(Page 29)

36. "Report of Labor Force," 1977-1992; "Indian Service Population & Labor Force Report," 1995, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Belcourt.

37. Ervin H. Dockter, Vocation Development Officer, Bureau oflndian Affairs, to Debra Ann Geiger, North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, 18 May 1978, Bureau oflndian Affairs, Belcourt, North Dakota; Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996.

38. Turtle Mountain Star, 22 April 1954; 11 August 1954.


40. "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 14; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," ii.

41. AM. White and C.S. Peet, "Final Report on Analysis of Uses ofJewel Bearings in United States Government Products" (Battelle: Columbus [Ohio] Laboratories [to Bulova Watch Company], 25 June 1975), ii, 33; Lucette Lagnado, ''Watch on Waste ... The William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant," Investigator (October 1981): 74; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," ii, 2, Appendix B. None of the sources consulted were specific about the supposed defects in jewels made at the Turtle Mountain plant. One source reported that the rate of defects in 1962 was 1 per 40,000, but there is no indication that the rate either exceeded or was less than that of its Swiss counterparts: "A Report on jewel Bearings," 1.

42. Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," 5; Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996.

43. Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," iii.

44. Ibid., I; MacCrindle, interview, 24 June 1996.

45. White and Peet, "Final Report on Analysis," 29.

46. "Report: Facilities, Equipment and Labor Requirements to Establish and Operate a Pilot Plant Facility for the Manufacture of Jewel Bearing Blanks," submitted by Bulova Watch Company, to General Services Administration, 17 November 1976; "The William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant" (typescript, undated [ca. 1987]), 7, located at Microlap Technologies/William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant, Rolla, North Dakota.

47. "When Precision Counts" (William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant publicity pamphlet, undated [ca. 1995]); MacCrindle, interview, 24 June 1996.

48. Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," 10-11.

49. Ed Allamand, telephone interview by Mitzi Rossillon, 12 February 1997.

50. Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," iii, 13-14.

51. Allamand, interview, 25 June 1996; MacCrindle, interview, 24 June 1996; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," iv.


(Page 30)

52. Dan MacCrindle, telephone interview by Mitzi Rossillon, 24 February 1997.

53. Ibid.

54. Brands, The Devil We Knew, 194-96, 204-206, 209,212.

55. For examples, see "Basic Technical Data," I:[2]; ''When Precision Counts;" and ''NDCRS Site Form: Architectural Sites" for 32R020, by Rebecca Otto, 3 February 1995.

56. "Basic Technical Data," I:[2]; "Rolla Production Schedule-First Six Month Period" [March-August 1955].


58. "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 7.

59. Minot Daily News, 28 May 1966, 18.

60. Untitled, typed page of construction plans, 30 October 1952, located at Microlap Technologies/ William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant, Rolla, North Dakota; Turtle Mountain Star, 23 October 1952.

61. Turtle Mountain Star, 27 June 1963, 2; Minot Daily News, 28 May 1966, 18.

62. "The William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant," 1.

63. Ibid., 7.

64. Rolette County Clerk and Recorder, Deed Book 49, p. 99; Deed Book 54, p. 8.

65. "Jewel Bearings Requirements," 11; Leyva, "A Program Evaluation," 5.

66. MacCrindle, interview, 24 June 1996.

67. See note 1 on jewel bearings.

68. Morris Azure, telephone interview by Mitzi Rossillon, 11 February 1997; Ed Allamand, interview, 12 February 1997.

69. Untitled, typed page of construction plans, 30 October 1952; Turtle Mountain Star, 23 October 1952; 27 June 1953, 2.

70. "Operation and Machine Description," undated.

71. Allamand, interview, 12 February 1997.

TURTLE MOUNT A.IN ORDNANCE PLANT HAER No. ND-10

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72. The following description of the manufacturing process is compiled from several sources: "A Report on Jewel Bearings," 44-49; "Olive Hole Jewels" (typescript, with hand-lettered date 10/29/56); "Sequence of Operations - Bar Hole Jewels" (typescript, undated [ca. 1957]); Turtle Mountain Star, 12 March 1953; "Jewel Bearings for Defense;" "Tour Guides Manufacturing Operations Facts Sheet" (typescript, with hand-lettered date 06/15/88); "Operation and Machine Description"; Allamand, interview, 12 February 1997; Azure, interview, 11 February 1997.

V. BIBLIOGRAPHY

A BOOKS

Anderson, B.W. Gemstones for Everyman. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976.

Brands, H.W. The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Confederation of American Indians, comp. Indian Reservations: A State and Federal Handbook. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1986.

LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1984. 5th ed. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1985.

May, Ernest R., ed. American Cold War Strategy: Interpreting NSC 68. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1993.

Olson, James C. History of Nebraska. 2nd ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1966.

Pough, Frederick H. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.

B. ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS AND REFERENCE WORKS

Bennett, David H. "Langer, William." In John A Garraty, ed. Dictionary of American Biography: Supplement Six, 1956-1960. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980.

Cameron, Randall P., Jr. "Jewel Bearings-Precision Components for Quality Equipment." Product Engineering 24 (August 1953): 186-191.

Lagnado, Lucette. "Watch on Waste ... The William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant." Investigator (October 1981): 74.

C. NEWSPAPERS

Minot Daily News. May 1966.


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Twtlt: Muw1tai11 Stat [Rulla]. Ap1il 1952-November 1954, Jwie 1963.

D. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census of Population: 1950, Volume II: Characteristics of the Population. Part 34: North Dakota. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1952.

____ . 1980 Census of Population, Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population, Chapter B, Part 36: North Dakota. Washington: Department of Commerce, 1982.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. Minerals Yearbook, 1942: Volume I: Metals and Minerals (Except Fuels) Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1944.

____ . Minerals Yearbook, 1954: Volume I: Metals and Minerals (Except Fuels) Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1958.

E. UNPUBLISHED REPORTS AND MANUSCRIPTS

Note: unless noted otherwise, all are located in the offices of the William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant, Rolla, North Dakota.

"Basic Technical and Production Data, Jewel Bearings: Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant, Rolla, North Dakota." 2 volumes. Report by the Bulova Watch Company to the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, Philadelphia, [1958]. (MS 10497 in special collections at the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.)

Dockter, Ervin H., Vocation Development Officer, Bureau of Indian Affairs, to Debra Ann Geiger, North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, 18 May 1978. On file, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Belcourt, North Dakota.

"Fulfillment of Essential Jewel Bearings Requirements to Meet a National Emergency." Report to the Honorable Frank B. Ellis, Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, 13 November 1961.


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GCM Services, Inc. "Cultural Resource Inventory and Evaluation of the Benbow Mine and Mill and the Mouat Mine in the Stillwater Complex, Stillwater County, Montana." Report for the Montana Department of State Lands, 1990. On file, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Helena.

"Jewel Bearings for Defense." Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant promotional pamphlet, [ca. 1956].

Leyva, Simone K. "A Program Evaluation of the William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant." Report for PA 631 and PA 694, Troy State University, 1 September 1994.

North Central Planning Council. "Comprehensive Plan, Volume I: History, Inventory and Analysis." Devils Lake, North Dakota, March 1977.

"Olive Hole Jewels." Typescript, dated 29 October 1956.

"Operation and Machine Description." Individual typed pages, undated.

"Report: Facilities, Equipment and Labor Requirements to Establish and Operate a Pilot Plant Facility for the Manufacture of Jewel Bearing Blanks." Report by Bulova Watch Company to General Services Administration, 17 November 197 6.

"Report of Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment for the Turtle Mountain Reservation," 1964-1965; "Report of Labor Force," 1967-1992; "Indian Service Population & Labor Force Report," 1995. On file, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Belcourt, North Dakota.

"Report on Jewel Bearings: Turtle Mountain Plant, Rolla, North Dakota." [New York: Bulova Watch Company, 1962.]

"Rolla Production Schedule-First Six Month Period." [March-August 1955.]

"Sequence of Operations - Bar Hole Jewels." Typescript [ ca. 1957].

"Tour Guides Manufacturing Operations Facts Sheet." Typescript, dated 15 June 1988.

[Untitled.] Typed page of construction plans, dated 30 October 1952.

''When Precision Counts." William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant promotional pamphlet [ca.1995].

White, AM. and C.S. Peet. "Final Report on Analysis of Uses of Jewel Bearings in United States Government Products." Report from Battelle: Columbus [Ohio] Laboratories to Bulova Watch Company, 25 June 1975.

''William Langer Jewel Bearing Plant." Typescript, [ca. 1987].

F. INTERVIEWS


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Note: all conducted by Mitzi Rossillon either in Rolla or via telephone. Tapes of Rolla interviews at Renewable Technologies, Inc., Butte, Montana.

Allamand, Ed. 25 June 1996, 12 February 1997.

Azure, Morris. 11 February 1997.

Hudson, Doreen. 26 June 1996.

MacCrindle, Dan. 24 June 1996, 24 February 1997.

Nurmi, Mavis. 26 June 1996.

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