The Power Plant

Of course being so far removed from the rest of Copper Country civilization insured that the Atlas Plant had to construct its own power house to provide the amount of electric power and steam heat a facility of this size would need. But besides the production of electricity, this plant also served to supply a few other more unique materials that an explosive’s plant required such as refrigerant, brine, and compressed air. These materials would be sent across the facility along elevated pipes which criss-crossed between the buildings. Above you can see some of those raised pipes, along with the power house itself - when it was still standing.

Today the old power plant is in much worse shape, having been demolished at some point after the facility closed down. Marking its presence today is a large sea of red chips and shattered bricks spread out among the trees and brush - all that remains of the buildings brick walls. (check out the BIG PICTURE of the remains to see for yourself) What does remain, however, is the building’s concrete stack.

This concrete stack replaced a steel stack which had been originally erected here. The large hole in its front would of connected up with the flue from the boilers - which were inside the powerhouse. While it has managed to survive this long, a closer looks reveals a structure that has been ravaged by both time and the elements.

Here’s the top of the stack. You can see pieces of the decorative cap are starting to come loose, as well as the appearance of its steel reinforcement bars. Besides that the coat of paint that had been applied to the stack is peeling away in large chunks.

Under the piles of brick can be found the plants concrete floor, a large brick-free section of which you can see above. This floor looks very similar to those we have seen at old boiler houses, which makes sense. This building served many of the same purposes.

Another feature reminiscent of boiler houses is this narrow trench. We find these trenches in all boiler houses, thought I’m not exactly sure for what they were used for. I would guess pipes were laid in them.

And what would any ruin be without machinery foundations? A few were scattered about here as well, one of which you can see here. Besides boilers, this building housed an electric generator, compressors, and a brine pump among other things I’m sure. No idea what this as for.

Here’s another foundation to some piece of equipment. This one sits right along the trench discussed earlier. Whatever it was, I think it was oval in shape.

An interesting find here that we hadn’t found previously were a collection of these large steel grates. There was more then one, most of them having been buried in the red brick. Not sure what they are, but my guess would be either a safety cage around something, or they were in fact part of a series elevated walkways in the building.

Before moving out, we noticed the pebble-covered concrete floor seen above. Those pebbles were black and looked like it could be coal. I’m thinking that the piles of coal sat right here on this spot. Those concrete footings seen in the photo were probably part of the rail trestle which would of ran overhead. Coal would of been dumped down from the trestles onto the piles. You can see part of the trestle and coal piles in that old photo I put up near the front of the post.

Moving on…

Thanks again to Bill Haller for the use of a few of his excellent photos from his Atlas Gallery.

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