In a Place with No Roads
The mine’s of the Copper Country were generally self-reliant except for three things which they could not find along the peninsula: coal, iron, and explosives. For that time these items were transported here from elsewhere at high cost to the mine companies. In an attempt to lower these costs, the controlling interests of the Tamarack and Osceola Mines invested in the construction of the area’s first explosives plant at Woodside in 1884. By the turn of the century the plant had come under the control of C&H (who had bought up the Tamarack and Osceola properties) and Dupont (who had bought up the plant’s parent company) but by that time the plant had become obsolete and unprofitable. C&H and Dupont then proceeded to invest in the construction of a new modern plant deep within the Dollar Peninsula in a place that would become known as Senter.
Warehouse Row
Though used as a commuter train for Atlas employees, the Copper Range trains also delivered the wide range of exotic supplies that an explosives plant required. These supplies included a wide range of chemicals used to make the nitroglycerine along with a series of pulp materials used to make the filler for the dynamite. All of these materials arrived to the plant along warehouse row - an area of the plant along the Copper Range spur that was home to warehouses and other storage buildings. Above you can see a photo of the row as it looked while in operation along with some labels of what the buildings were.
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.
Where Nitroglycerin is Made
The inherent danger in explosive making can not be overstated; nitroglycerin - the explosive agent in dynamite - is extremely unstable at high temperatures and highly sensitive to physical shock. The elevated and almost constant risk of explosion prompted Atlas to put into effect a very rigorous set of safety protocols and precautions. The most evident of these precautions is simply space, lots and lots of space. The area that we had previously explored (the warehouses, power plant, and office) were known as the “Safety Side” and were set far from the part of the plant where the dynamite was made. Furthermore, each stage of the dynamite production process was also separated by a great deal of space as well. In the end, the entire production line stretched a good half mile in length. This ensured that if there was an accident in one building, it wouldn’t effect any other buildings in the line.
The Store House
After the nitro was manufactured at the NG House, it was sent down along a rubber lined trough down to the next step in the process - neutralization and storage. Here the nitro was washed with a solution of sodium carbonate to further stabilize it for storage and transportation. From there the neutralized nitro would be stored in a series of tanks until it was needed. All this happened in what Atlas called the Store House, otherwise known as the neutralizer house.
