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| Landmark #1002 | San Francisco County | Visited: November 16, 2013 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A park that was once the site of the first dynamite factory in the United States! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: The first commercial manufacturing of dynamite in the U.S. occurred in what is now Glen Canyon Park. On March 19, 1868, the Giant Powder Company began production at its first manufacturing plant, under exclusive license from Alfred Nobel to produce his new explosive in America. The factory did not last long. On November 26, 1869, an explosion completely destroyed the entire facility, turning every one of the buildings on the place, and the surrounding fencing, into “hundreds of pieces,” according to a newpaper account. The company moved its operations elsewhere, an action that was to be repeated again in the future under similar circumstances, until it moved to its permanent and final home at Point Pinole on San Pablo Bay.
OTHER TIDBITS: This was the same Alfred Nobel who posthumously funded the Nobel Prizes! That means, the Nobel Peace Prize is given in honor of the man who invented dynamite! Isn’t history wild? |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: Glen Canyon Park San Francisco, CA 94131 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~386mi (622km) — 6.5hrs |
| When should I go? | The park is open from sunrise to sunset! |
