Few know that the United States’s victory in World War II rested, in no small part, on achieving “speed to power.” On Dec. 7, 1941, aircraft launched from carriers attacked the U.S. naval station at Pearl Harbor and decimated the Pacific Fleet. Franklin Roosevelt immediately formed a war cabinet that, recognizing naval and land warfare had changed, set an aggressive goal of producing 50,000 warplanes per year. 

One potential barrier stood in the way: electricity. In 1941, Arkansas held the largest U.S. deposits of bauxite, the raw ingredient used to produce aluminum for aircraft. And anticipating hostilities, the U.S. Defense Plant Corporation had built the Jones Mill aluminum smelting plant in Malvern, Arkansas, in October 1941. The plant, however, needed electricity — and lots of it. The plant at full operation would draw 120MW 24/7, which exceeded Arkansas’ total installed generating capacity of 100MW.