Many have wondered why the black powder mills closed in the Powder Hole.  The answer given to me is that it was one of money.  The Pennsylvania Railroad raised the rates to transport the powder to a high cost—high enough that the DuPont Company, being very rich, decided to move the machinery to a place nearer the mines.  The move was made to the Moosic area.  The plant survived there until 1997 (last known as Goex) when it was again moved to the Southern U.S.  Some of the families from this region moved to the Moosic area when the mills moved there.  Mr. Eaton Grover, a distant relative of mine, was one of those people.  His farm was held by his family until recently when it was bought by the Roth family who subdivided it.  My brother, John Gilbert, and I purchased the largest parcel which we still hold.  It is adjacent to the Powder Hole property. 

When DuPont left the Powder Hole, they did it in a dramatic fashion.  The buildings were left standing, but almost all of the machinery was moved out and on to the new site at Moosic.  When my mother, Virginia Grover Gilbert, who was born in Wapwallopen in 1914, was a little girl, the buildings were still in good condition.  No one would have used them for manufacturing any more, because electrical power had all but replaced water power, and plants could be located more conveniently to the markets.  As a result, the property was sold to the Springbrook Water Company from Scranton (there’s a town of Springbrook near Moosic). Springbrook apparently thought of damming the Big Wapwallopen creek to provide another source of fresh water, but for some reason they elected not to do so.  Their attorney, a Mr. Lance, then purchased the property from Springbrook.  The Lance family still owns the property to this day.

The story of the Powder Hole is like that of so many other industrial sites around the country.  The men are gone who worked there and walked the paths to and from the buildings and their homes.  Today there are