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• 60 Years Ago - July 31, 1962

  The 400-foot steel smokestack was demolished by explosives following two days of preparation by a crew of 50 men using 21 acetylene cutting torches, 4 cranes and a diesel locomotive.  The massive flattened steel ruins were later cut up and removed for salvage.  Gulf States Land and Industries, owner of the abandoned smelter was clearing the site for a new steel mill that was never built.

  The photos show the stack falling in one piece and moments later flattened on the ground.   (John Bell & Gulf States Land and Industries)

   

  Facts:

  • The 400-foot stack was built for the United Verde Copper Company by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works in only four months between November 1913 and March 1914 
  • It was the largest self-sustaining steel chimney in the world at 400 feet in height and 30 feet 9 ½ inches in diameter
  • The bottom 50-foot section of the stack was bell shaped and 50 feet in diameter at the base
  • The upper 350 feet of the stack was constructed using 48 rings of steel plate with a thickness varying from ¼ inch at the top to 11/16 inch at the bottom
  • 72,000 steel rivets weighing 38,000 pounds held the steel plates together
  • The steel stack was anchored to its concrete foundation by thirty-six bolts that were 14 feet long and 4 inches in diameter
  • The interior of the stack was lined with firebrick supported by 4-inch angle iron attached to every other horizonal seam       CBI Water Tower News - Google Books

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