California Powder Works

California Powder Works was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For fifty years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz.

A dam was built on the San Lorenzo River upstream of the powder works on what is now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. A 4 by 6 feet (1.2 m × 1.8 m) tunnel 1,200 feet (370 m) long was dug in 1863 to bring water from the dam through the powder works. Water powered powder mill machinery and was used to dissolve and purify the crude potassium nitrate from Chile. Water was distributed through the powder works by a system of flumes later dismantled when electricity became available to power the wheel mills. Charcoal was manufactured locally using redwood fuel to char willow, madrone and alder. To facilitate transport and shipping, the company built a bridge across the river (the first bridge can be seen in an early panoramic lithograph, viewable online) and purchased a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach.

The first bridge collapsed in 1871 and was replaced the following year by the covered bridge (now a National Historic Landmark) still in use today built by the Pacific Bridge Company. The wharf was used to receive shipments of potassium nitrate and sulfur from Sicily. Horse-drawn wagons moved raw materials and gunpowder between the wharf and the powder works until the South Pacific Coast Railroad was built. The powder works wharf was unused after 1882 when railroad freight rates encouraged use of wharves in San Francisco Bay. A railroad wharf constructed near the powder works wharf in 1875 was made available for powder works freight until at least 1892 and was not demolished until 1922. Two Victorian mansions were built on a bluff overlooking the powder works as homes for the powder works superintendents. Company housing was available for powder mill workers, and a school opened nearby for their children.

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