In Search of the Emerald City: Life Next to a Kansas Superfund Site

Abstract

This thesis is an ethnographic investigation of the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant and the surrounding town of De Soto, Kansas. I argue that the ammunition plant has produced not only embodied impacts in the form of industrial contamination, but also affective experiences which have influenced certain populations’ sense of belonging and self-understanding. The ammunition plant serves as a point from which to view many repressed historical violences within the town, including settler colonial dispossession and land seizure, Ku Klux Klan activity, and weapons production itself. In conducting my research, I drew upon several interconnected methods, including interviews with plant workers and town residents, historical documentation and oral histories, and self-reflection as a resident of the town. I attempt to problematize the notion of “remediating” this toxic land, tying contamination to issues beyond those of land use and redevelopment.