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Are you curious about the Miami Valley, its history, people or economy? Is there a place, a person or a story that mystifies or intrigues you? Do you like to ask questions? WYSO Curious is an occasional series that lets you ask questions for WYSO reporters to answer.WYSO Curious is a partner of Hearken, founded by Jennifer Brandel.

WYSO Curious Investigates the Explosive History of Buildings Along the Bike Path

Parts of the Miami Powder Company still exist along the along the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail between Yellow Springs and Xenia
Renee Wilde
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WYSO
Parts of the Miami Powder Company still exist along the along the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail between Yellow Springs and Xenia

In our latest installment of WYSO Curious, we answer a question from listener Holly Kozee of Springfield, who wanted to know what the story was behind the abandoned buildings along the bike path in Goes Station.

 Community voices reporter Renee Wilde went in search of the answers and she found an explosive history behind the buildings, and the town.

  

Tucked behind a fence row of tall weeds along the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail, halfway between Xenia and Yellow Springs, sits a group of abandoned red brick buildings. These are the remains of the Miami Powder Company; a factory located in Goes Station that made gun powder during the late 1800’s. 

Greene County Historical Society Executive Director Catherine Wilson shows off some the Miami Powder Company artifacts in their collection
Credit Renee Wilde / WYSO
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WYSO
Greene County Historical Society Executive Director Catherine Wilson shows off some the Miami Powder Company artifacts in their collection

  To learn more about the history behind these building’s, I stopped by the Greene County Historical Society, where Executive Director Catherine Wilson graciously took time out from their annual yard sale to share photos and memorabilia with me from the Miami Powder Company.

"It started out in the 1850’s, somewhere in there, and it was Austen and King," says Wilson. "And Mr. King bought out Mr. Austen, and then it became Kings Powder Mill, and then it became Miami Powder Company."

King’s Powder Mill then moved farther south down the Little Miami River into Warren County in what is now known as the town of King’s Mills.  Black gun powder was widely used in firearms, fireworks, and as a blasting powder in quarrying, mining, and road building. There were a couple reasons why gunpowder mills were located along the Little Miami River, the most important was the water power used to run the steam powered mills.

Another reason were the abundance of willow trees growing along the banks of the river. The gunpowder was made up of saltpeter, soda ash and charcoal. By harvesting and burning the willows along the river, the powder mill was able to make a special grade of charcoal necessary for the explosives.

A 1933 article in the Dayton Daily News by Howard Burba, recounts that before the mills were established, the banks of the Little Miami River were lined with hundreds of thousands of black willow trees. Some of which were hundreds of years old.

"And the Goes Station part of it," says Wilson. "It was Mr. Goe’s property, William Goe, G.O.E., and it was a watering station for the railroad, where they got river water, and they used it for the steam engines. So it was Goe’s Station."

Historic photo of the Miami Powder Company
Credit courtesy of Greene County Historical Society
Historic photo of the Miami Powder Company

The powder companies were the site of many explosions. Working in the powder mill was very hazardous, and the employees were encouraged to work in their socked feet or in overshoes. Exposed nails in worker’s boots could cause sparks, resulting in an explosion.

"People say that’s why it’s named Goes, because there it goes, again. Because it blew up so often."

Newspaper articles from this time period describe the aftermath of these explosions in pretty gory detail.

"There was one particular explosion that the biggest thing they found, was the front leg of a donkey, at Old Town," says Wilson. "How about the one blast where three men were killed and the biggest piece they found of one man was part of his chest, and they only knew it was that one particular man because his chest was so hairy.  There’s a burial out at the Woodland Cemetery in Xenia, and it’s just 'Ten men killed in powder explosion at Miami Powder Mills' and they couldn’t identify them enough to bury them under their names."

Credit Renee Wilde / WYSO
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WYSO

  The largest explosion was on March 1,1886, when shortly before 10 am, a boiler room exploded setting off thirty tons of gunpowder. The explosion left a fifteen foot hole in the ground and three men working in the boiler room lost their lives that day.  

The concussion from the explosion caused the glass in windows and doors to explode five miles away in Xenia. Twenty five miles away in Lebanon horses spooked and broke loose from their hitching posts and newspapers reported that sixty five miles away the ground in Columbus shook like an earthquake and windows rattled in their frames.

"It finally blew up for the last time around 1922," says Wilson.

The former Miami Powder Company buildings along the bike path, and the surrounding land, are now privately owned by a local family farming operation outside Yellow Springs.  

To see more photos and memorabilia of the Miami Powder Company, you can visit the Greene County Historical Society located in Xenia.

WYSO Curious is sponsored by Proto BuildBar, proud supporter of curious minds.

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Renee Wilde was part of the 2013 Community Voices class, allowing her to combine a passion for storytelling and love of public radio. She started out as a volunteer at the radio station, creating the weekly WYSO Community Calendar and co-producing Women’s Voices from the Dayton Correctional Institution - winner of the 2017 PRINDI award for best long-form documentary. She also had the top two highest ranked stories on the WYSO website in one year with Why So Curious features. Renee produced WYSO’s series County Lines which takes listeners down back roads and into small towns throughout southwestern Ohio, and created Agraria’s Grounded Hope podcast exploring the past, present and future of agriculture in Ohio through a regenerative lens. Her stories have been featured on NPR, Harvest Public Media and Indiana Public Radio.