Hazard Powder: the Powder Hollow Explosion of 1913

Hazard Powder: the Powder Hollow Explosion of 1913

The story of the rise and fall of the Hazard Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturing facilities in the country in the 1800s, is told in detail from its inception to its death in a violent explosion, crisping employees and nearly destroying the nearby town of Hazardville. More than a book about a powder mill explosion. It recounts the lives and deaths of the men and women who defined themselves by the work they chose and the turbulent times in which they lived. A redefinition of the people and the history behind the industry that carved the town of Hazardville out of the belly of Enfield, CT, and a reframing of the destruction of a way of life by men whose sole allegiance was to money. Learn a bit about the Fowlers, Laflins, and Loomises of Southwick, the gunpowder mills along the Two Mile Brook, and how the construction of the Farmington Canal impacted the water levels of the Congamond Lakes and its tributaries, forcing the Loomises to establish their powder mill along the Scantic River in Connecticut instead of along the Two Mile/Powder Mill/Great Brook in Massachusetts. Join us to hear all about Hazard Powder, it’s going to be a blast…

Author Peter Sorensen will lead the talk. Copies of his book "Hazard Power" will be available for purchase.