World War II brought another major increase in the production of chemicals in the Kanawha Valley. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called rubber a critical material because Japan threatened America’s natural rubber supply. Union Carbide quickly developed a way to make butadiene, an important part of synthetic rubber, from alcohol. The U.S. government helped build a big plant at Institute, just west of Charleston, to make synthetic rubber during World War II.

Construction was fast and involved thousands of workers. The plant started producing synthetic rubber in 1943 and soon supplied 60% of the U.S. synthetic rubber made from alcohol. Nearby, Monsanto also made chemicals for the rubber industry and later became a world leader in rubber chemicals.

After the war, the government stopped the rubber program, and the Institute plant closed in 1946. Union Carbide and other companies then took over parts of the plant to make other chemicals and rubber products.