The Navy has an entire forest to maintain a single ship
By
Logan Nye
Aug 9, 2023
SUMMARY
How did a massive section of boring forest far from the water become essential to Naval Support Activity Crane? Let’s find out.
Wanna guess where one of the largest Navy installations by land mass is? A few hints: It's in a double-landlocked state, it's basically a quirk of history that the Navy even owns it, and it's vital to the preservation of the oldest active warship in the world. It's Naval Support Activity Crane in Indiana. Yeah, it's named so inconspicuously that it could be a setting in The Simpsons. And while Indiana has a little Great Lakes frontage thanks to Lake Michigan, NSA Crane is 200 miles from even that bit of moisture. So, how did a massive section of boring forest far from the water become an essential Navy base?
The growth of Naval Support Activity Crane
The Naval support activity came about thanks to a twist of history. According to National Geographic, the government originally purchased 40,000 acres of land there as a part of the New Deal. The feds scooped up land that was unfarmable and otherwise hard to develop, infusing cash into communities.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/military-news/naval-support-activity-crane-has-an-entire-forest-to-maintain-a-single-ship/