Maynard, 1881
The Powder Works, Yale
BCA Catalogue No. HP057000
BCA Call Number: C-08866
At the beginning of the construction, explosives were brought up the Fraser on board the steamers (which also carried passengers!). A 'Powder Magazine' was set up one and a half miles west of Yale, and a boat landing was built for the purpose of unloading the powder.
According to The Inland Sentinel, (September 30, 1880) construction had already begun on buildings to manufacture the explosives needed for railway work:
The Chemical works building, now being erected, near the Gordon corral, for the Railway Company, by Mr. Robert Piggott and assistants, is really a substantial structure, 110 feet in length and 30 feet in width, lower story 12 and upper story 20 feet, suitably roofed. The ground floor is for furnace, boilers, etc.; second floor for sulphuric acid chambers, air tight, to be built of lead; one 22 x 62, and 18 feet high, and the other 22 x 35, 15 feet high. The works are being erected under the superintendence of Mr. Daniel Ashworth, who has had long experience in his line of business, and is preparing everything with care. When completed we will endeavor to give our readers particulars. The whole works are expensive, perhaps $20,000, after which the Giant Powder works will be erected to use the product of the Chemical works.
The general layout of these various buildings was also described in the Sentinel (November 11, 1880):
Stopping at the Chemical Works we noticed the building is all ready, and a substantial structure it is; the machinery is ready to be placed, the mammoth lead tanks are far advanced, and a tramway is being constructed to run from the boat landing to the Works, to convey the immense stock of supplies that are now ready for storage, to be used when required.
The manufacture of Nitro-glycerine was carried out in a separate building. The same issue of the Sentinel copntinues:
Passing westward a few hundred rods, we come to the new buildings being erected under the superintendence of Mr. L.A. Wright, late of California; the boiler and engine house, are up and nearly ready, while four buildings of a less size are about to be erecvted, which will be part of the plant of 'Dean's Condensed Safety Nitro-Glycerine,' where it is to be manufactured for the use of the Railway Company.
A stone's throw further on is the Powder Magazine erected last spring, and now holding a large supply of Giant Powder of different grades. Signs are displayed: 'Beware of fire,' etc., which causes the nervous to think that there are safer places than around that locality.
Additional buildings were constructed, as reported on January 13, 1881, Descriptions of these operations, after they had started production, were also provided by The Inland Sentinel, in its February 24, 1881 issue.
The Powder Works and Chemical works were twice destroyed by fire and explosions. Both were reported in the pages of The Inland Sentinel on August 2, 1883, and on May 22, 1884
Another photograph by Maynard in the B.C. Archives collection (C-08867) is of the 'Chemical Works.'
