SANDSTONE BLASTED FROM BLUFF Mammoth blocks of sandstone were blasted from the ledge with black powder. Toivo Luoma and other drillers cut rows of holes, with twenty- foot drills, run by air compressors, powered in the early years by steam, later by hydropower. The drill operators were supposed to wear masks, but even their faces covered they could not escape breathing the clouds of stone dust that blew out of the holes as they operated the drills. Black powder was poured into the bottom of each hole, measuring about two inches in diameter. Next, a quarry man connected all the holes wither copper wires and filled the holes with sand. Someone gave a signal and everyone would take cover behind the rock crusher or a bluff. A jolt of electricity ignited all the powder at once shaking the whole town with man-made earthquake in the quarry. In 1898 the Pine County Courier reported that sandstone block was moved more than f...
It was a very frosty morning
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