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Carver Park sign, commemorating one of Southern Nevada’s first planned African American communities, circa 1940 –1960.
Dow Metals, Incorporated Photograph Collection on Basic Magnesium, Incorporated, approximately 1940-1990. PH-00260. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Basic Magnesium Plant

200 S. Water St., Henderson, NV 89015

Formed 1941

In 1941, Basic Magnesium Inc. built the world’s largest magnesium plant fueled by power from the Hoover Dam. To support WWII aviation, workers operated heavy machinery to produce more than 160 million pounds of magnesium. Wartime labor shortages drew thousands of workers, including thousands of diverse working-class Americans, to Southern Nevada.

This massive industrial effort led to the founding of the diverse city of Henderson. In 1943, architect Paul Revere Williams designed the Carver Park community to accommodate Black workers migrating to the area. The Southern Nevada Sons & Daughters of Erin, an Irish nonprofit organization, established the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1969. They host a parade in Henderson annually on St. Patrick's Day, honoring the diverse heritage of those who built this vibrant community out of war.

People:

• Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980)
  • Paul Revere Williams was a renowned African American architect. In 1943, he designed Carver Park, a segregated community at the Basic Townsite, which housed African American laborers and their families who migrated from the South. It included 324 housing units, a community center, and a school. It was intentionally built in an elegant style to contrast homes in the South from which many Black laborers came.

• “Magnesium Maggies”
  • “Magnesium Maggie,” a term coined by war worker and researcher Irene Rostine, refers to women who worked in the Basic Magnesium Plant by driving forklifts, handling ingots, operating machinery, and working over molten metal. With many men serving in the military during WWII, the “Magnesium Maggies” filled critical roles at the Basic Magnesium Plant and allowed the City of Henderson to become the thriving community it is today.

Learn More:

• https://www.snsdoe.org/about
• https://www.cityofhenderson.com/Home/Components/News/News/1733/567?npage=3-41&widgetId=41
• https://www.cityofhenderson.com/government/departments/parks-and-recreation/cultural-arts/galleries-and-public-art/magnesium-maggie-statue
• https://neonmuseum.org/news/paul-revere-williams/

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In 1943, workers at Basic Magnesium, Inc. pour molten magnesium into ingot molds, displaying wartime industrial production in early Henderson.
Courtesy of the Clark County Musuem

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A woman operating a forklift to move stacked magnesium ingots at Basic Magnesium, Inc., circa 1942.
Courtesy of the Clark County Musuem

For questions or comments, please reach out to the Clark County Museum at ccmuseum@clarkcountynv.gov.