The Powder Hole, located between Wapwallopen and Hobbie on the Big Wapwallopen Creek, was a manufacturing facility from the year 1855 (five years before the American Civil War) to 1913.  The product of this large facility, as you may know, was black powder, also known as “blasting powder” or “gun powder”.  Black Powder was invented in China many years ago.  It was used for fireworks by the Chinese.  Marco Polo, an Italian merchant, was said to have brought black powder to Europe before Columbus discovered America! The Europeans learned to use black powder to propel projectiles, or bullets, in what we call “firearms”, or simply, “guns”.  These people also used the powder for blasting rocks to make mining much easier.

The black powder as made in the Wapwallopen mills was made of three things.  These things were fairly easy for men to gather.  They are: Charcoal, Sulfur and Sodium Nitrate.  Charcoal is made from wood which is heated up to high temperatures without actually burning it (rather like baking a cake!), which drives off all the volatile gases and leaves behind a reasonable pure form of carbon.  Sulfur is mined from the earth.  Sodium Nitrate was made from the droppings of birds and bats.  The birds, as well as the bats, live in huge colonies such that, over time, their droppings add up to tons and tons.  The bird droppings came from near Chile, in South America, and were called “guano” by the natives of that region.  It was hauled in to the powder mills after coming by ship from Chile.  In the mills, it was refined by forcing steam up through it.  The steam cooked off the impurities (those parts which don’t help the Sodium Nitrate do its job), and left only the Sodium Nitrate (also called “Soda” or “Saltpeter”).  This, and many other of the processes to make the powder, was very dangerous!  We’ll take a closer look at the dangers and the making of the black powder later in this article).

In 1855, a man named Silvers, whose relatives still live in Nescopeck and around this area, started a black powder works in the Powder Hole.  He wanted to make powder for the mines in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and other mining towns in Northeast Pennsylvania.  Anthracite coal was becoming popular at that time, thanks to the invention of cast iron grates which could stand up to the great heat provided by the coal.  Until Mr. Silvers opened his factory, the powder had to be hauled into Northeast Pennsylvania, primarily from Delaware, the site of the great DuPont company.