See The T Walls at Gopher Ordnance Works, Rosemount, Minnesota

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During World War II, the U.S. Army operated a munitions facility at what is now the Rosemount Research and Outreach Center for the purpose of manufacturing smokeless gunpowder for the war effort. The facility was called the Gopher Ordnance Works (GOW). The concrete structures along Dakota County Road 46 are loosely known as the "T" wall structures; they offered the primary support for solvent recovery buildings. These buildings were known as the 214 Solvent Recovery Houses. They functioned to remove and recover solvents (diethyl ether and ethanol) from the "green" smokeless gunpowder. The solvents were removed and recovered through a temperature control process. The concrete walls are blast walls designed to limit the impact of an explosion. The walls, or barriers, are configured in a "T" shape and formed the blast walls of a two-section work unit where the stem of the "T" was the center wall. The other two walls of each work unit were not reinforced or harden. If an explosion occurred in one of the work units the energy would go out two sides and upward. The center blast wall would protect workers in the unit on the other side of the wall, and the "T" design of the two-section unit to the rear (the upper part of the "T") would protect workers in the units there from the blast that occurred in front of them.

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