Journal Records Mass Weapons Dump "Far Back" on AU Acres

View of McKinley Hall from south side of AUES (1918)

    

Comment from Ginny Durrin, Audience Member: "Although speculation and stories regarding uninvestigated burial pits are not considered solid evidence, Spring Valley residents deserve to have these allegations taken seriously ... In the 1986 EPIC report, a U.S. Army historian referred to Mr. [Arthur] Osborne as an overwrought Victorian writer who spouted nonsense in his newspaper article [see Camp American University Historical Search by J.W. Williams, 10/26/86, pgs. 44 - 47]. In reality, Mr. Osborne was a highly-educated ordained minister who was part of the AU inner circle for many years as a secretary and a prominent person on the AU campus. Believing Mr. Osborne’s exact words isn’t necessary, but his story should not be discounted."
Restoration Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2009 (pg. 17)

There were munitions on hand, including multiplex gas and an invented explosive many times dynamite, valued at $800,000 ...  The numerous collections on hand, just ready to go overseas, was valued at nothing now but the expense of putting them away.  As "this was to be the last war," permission was given to go far back on the University acres, to dig a  pit deeper than the one into which Joseph was cast, bury the munitions there and cover them up to wait until the elements shall melt with fervent heat, when the earth and the works therein shall be burned up.
Arthur Osborne
The Courier ~ (April 1921: pg. 7)