Utah Centennial County History Series - Piute County 1999

A s the nation began to pull itself out of the Great Depression, Piute County people looked to a the 1940s as a decade of hope.

Instead, however, Adolph Hitler's German troops began their deadly expansion throughout Europe. At first the United States established a policy of isolation, then one of readiness. On 16 September 1940 the Selective Service Act establishing a military draft became law. In December of that same year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Lend-Lease program which over the next four and a half years would contribute $54 billion in weapons and materials to the Allied (particularly British) war effort.

New life was breathed into the alunite mining industry as the U.S. government anticipated entry into the conflict. U.S. Senator Abe Murdock from Utah and S.P. Dobbs, Democratic national committeeman from Utah, met with defense council assistant George L. Batt in an effort to interest the defense department in providing funds for the expansion of Aluminum Incorporated at Marysvale. Batt showed no initial interest in building new plants, as he believed the country needed an immediate supply of alumina. Only when he realized that