On Sept. 9 1905, the Rand Powder Mill near Fairchance, Pa exploded killing 19 men. The initial explosion which took place in the plant that manufactured black powder for explosives, also ignited nearby train cars of TNT, essentially destroying the mill. Today, by request of our pals Rich and Doug, we headed into the woods near Fairchance to find the mill.
After talking to some nice local folks who not only gave us directions but let us park in their yard, we headed out on our search. We walked for awhile before we realized...we were headed in the wrong direction. We headed back toward the road, ready to call it quits. We were almost back when we decided to give it one more shot. We re-routed and in about another half hour we started finding building remains.I'm not sure if all the ruins we saw were related to the powder mill or not. If so, it was pretty big!
As you can see from the photos and the video, most of the wood framed buildings have collapsed into themselves but many concrete foundations remain as well as the smoke stack. A local man we met told us he grew up in the area and there were buildings scattered all over the area.
We don't have as much information on the mill or the explosion as we would like. If you know any more about it, please email us and we'll post it up! We plan on going back when its a little cooler, so look for part 2 soon!
Oh, and Rich...sorry I called you Frank in the video!
After talking to some nice local folks who not only gave us directions but let us park in their yard, we headed out on our search. We walked for awhile before we realized...we were headed in the wrong direction. We headed back toward the road, ready to call it quits. We were almost back when we decided to give it one more shot. We re-routed and in about another half hour we started finding building remains.I'm not sure if all the ruins we saw were related to the powder mill or not. If so, it was pretty big!
As you can see from the photos and the video, most of the wood framed buildings have collapsed into themselves but many concrete foundations remain as well as the smoke stack. A local man we met told us he grew up in the area and there were buildings scattered all over the area.
We don't have as much information on the mill or the explosion as we would like. If you know any more about it, please email us and we'll post it up! We plan on going back when its a little cooler, so look for part 2 soon!
Oh, and Rich...sorry I called you Frank in the video!
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| A screen shot from Bing maps. |
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| Our guide out. Always trust a man w/ a pistol in his back pocket. |