The National Fireworks Company was founded in 1899 ? and apparently made novelty fireworks. Business flourished and in 1907 the company was incorporated by George J.J. Clark. He was an entrepreneur from Prince Edward Island in Canada. In 1917/18 the company began making munitions for the Federal Government. Apparently for a time this was the only manufacturer of tracer ammunition. Many other types of ammo were produced as illustrated below. Note that these are similar and not actually rounds that were from the fireworks factory.

Sometimes working at the factory could become deadly and there were a few explosions that unfortunately took lives. Below is an article from the Rockland Standard Newspaper in 1921.

Between the wars the factory went back to making fireworks and novelty items. Below are a couple.

 All of that changed when Pearl Harbor was attacked December 7, 1941. The Federal government enlisted the help of the National Fireworks Company once again. On December 30th 1941 George J.J. Clark  purchased vast amounts of land in Hanover probably through money that the government had fronted him to prepare to make war munitions. These land purchases are in the Plymouth County of Deeds (Book 1822 Pages 250-285ish)  and I bumped into them while researching a land title. Even his son's airport was purchased and used to store ingredients for these munitions. As a child I lived off of Plain Street on Old Farm Road and the land I lived on was originally purchased by the fireworks company in the first days of World War Two. Below is a 1940 USGS map of the area and then a 1949 USGS update. You can see the expansion of the fireworks company.

During World War Two The National Fireworks Corporation and Pilgrim Ordnance made many types munitions, among them incendiary and high explosive. It is said that most of the incendiary bombs that fell on Hanover, Germany were made ironically in Hanover, Massachusetts. Most of this work was done under tight security.

After the war the National Fireworks Company started a slow decline. The airport area was relinquished and became an airport again, albeit only until 1958 when it was sold to a residential development company and is now known as Indian Head Village. Other areas too were not needed and they were sold off also like the area west and east of Plain Street. The area around Factory Pond became a conglomeration of specialized industrial companies. - Atlantic Research, American Potash and Chemical, and others. Atlantic Research did testing on military equipment and MIT had some sort of operation going on there as well. Below is an 81 mm mortar that I dug up in the summer of 1995.

In the early 1970's Atlantic Research Corporation left the area and the land that was transferred to the Hanover Conservation Commission. When the Factory Pond damn was being repaired the water level in the pond dropped dramatically. You could see that there was a lot of things dumped into the pond. Using old maps I was able to find a suspicious area that I thought would be a great dump site and began digging. Within a foot I found crates filled with these 81 MM mortar rounds. The police showed up and then the Army Corp of Engineers closed the area. The munitions we dug up were practice rounds and were loaded with inert clay, not explosives. It does make you wonder how the nose fuse was damaged from high speed impact though. How did it hit something so hard and have no propellant? When the water level rose back to a higher level the area was reopened.

    American Potash and Chemical did testing with radioactive materials in the 50s and maybe the 60s. They are listed in the Department of Energy's list of Privately-owned facilities and plants where atomic weapons employees processed, produced, or handled materials for nuclear weapons (coded as “AWE”). American Potash and Chemical was bought by Kerr-McGee in 1967. They are involved in nuclear energy. Remember the movie Silkwood? They were the corporation that owned that nuclear powerplant/processing facility and were suspected in the possible murder of Karen Silkwood. Hmmmm... Maybe I should say no more..... But I have to add one last piece of intrigue.....

    After years of people complaining about the mercury content of Factory Pond and 55 gallon drums left all throughout the area, the DEP and EPA decided a cleanup was in order. So in 1988 all those barrels were removed and many areas were tested for chemicals and the site became a superfund site that was to be administered and periodically tested, blah, blah, blah. I went through the folders that were left from the cleanup and found that old map from one of those companies maybe? that had been made probably in the 1960s. On it I found a site labeled "radioactive waste dumped 1957". I forget the exact date, but you get the gist of it. I also found an ambiguous section of the cleanup in 1988 that tested for radioactive materials at this area. I went out to see the area for my own eyes and there I found a new steel fence with barbed wire at the top surrounding maybe a half an acre of plain looking land in the middle of a forested area. And there was no way in. There was also what looked like a cement slab (maybe a radioactive sarcophagus like Chernobyl has?) in the center of this area. I erred on the side of caution and did not try to get over the fence. I plan on venturing there one of these days with my gieger counter to see if there is any residual radiation.