A museum in a city that owes its existence to World War I is doing its best to honor those who served in the Great War, as well as in the major American-involved conflicts that broke out before and since.

The Nitro History Wars Museum also tells the story of its host city's explosive beginning — rising from a pastoral, 1,772-acre stretch of Kanawha River bottomland to a city of nearly 24,000 in 11 months. The city was built to house workers at Explosives Plant C, constructed simultaneously at the site by the U.S. War Department to produce smokeless gunpowder for American armed forces destined for combat in World War I.

Ground was broken for the giant munitions plant and the city that served it on Dec. 23, 1917. By the time the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918, Explosives Plant C was producing

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