In the 1990s, George Huffman and a group of other Marshall residents worked two years to find a private industry to lease a portion of the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant outside Karnack.

The U.S. Army plant – which was operated by Thiokol – closed in the mid-90s, after more than 50 years of manufacturing munitions, among other things.

The group was unsuccessful.

Another group of Marshall residents want to work on the same project, but Huffman, now a consulting engineer, does not believe they will be any more successful than his group was 12 years ago.

Huffman, formerly Thiokol's director of production, said the property was shown to a minimum of eight or 10 companies, including Tyson Food.

But not one industry expressed serious interest in relocating or beginning operations at the Longhorn location, although Huffman said the numerous buildings were structurally sound, as was the infrastructure.

Army spokesmen had even said some financial incentive might be offered to a new industry willing to lease portions of the plant, he said.

Now that the plant's physical structures have been razed and the infrastructure largely destroyed, Huffman said he believes industries will be even less interested in taking over the Longhorn property.

"Every industrial recruitment organization has land," Huffman said, "but you don't bring an industry into a location with just the idea we'll give you land.

"There has to be more there."

Huffman said he personally inhabits the middle ground between environmentalists and industrialists.