Roxbury Area Where Human Remains Found Has Explosive Past

Human remains discovered in a field off Route 46 in Roxbury Wednesday were found on the old Hercules plant site, where the former explosives factory went up in a 1940 blast, injuring 200 people and killing 51 workers.

The Hercules Kenvil plant was a munitions factory that was originally opened in 1871 to provide dynamite to local iron mines, according to the Roxbury Township Historical Society's website.

The remains were discovered Wednesday by an environmental contractor hired by Ashland, Inc., a specialty chemical company which purchased Hercules in 2008, according to NJ.com. The plant was closed in 1996, according to the historical society.

The discovery was announced jointly by Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Roxbury Police Chief James Simonetti. The remains were found in an area off Route 46 and Hercules Road, according to a press release that stated the investigation is ongoing.

The original Hercules plant covered 1,200 acres. The 1940 explosion, a little more than a year before the Pearl Harbor bombing that launched the American entry into World War II, was thought by some at the time to have been Nazi sabotage, according to the historical society article.

The 1940 explosion was the most devastating of several that happened over Hercules' long history. The most recent accident sent four workers to the hospital in 1994, just two years before the facility was shuttered.