narrow-gauge railroad - never really panned out. The operation was idle for several years until 1913. Then, Romaine Fielding and the Lubin Motion Picture Company came to town, and the abandoned smelter caught the director's eye. "Sundy was a thrilling day for the Silver City people," said the Independent that year. "The Lubin Co. enacted a drama at the smelter below town, blew up the narrow gauge railroad bridge and two large water tanks and incidentally furnished amusement for 2,000 people scattered over the surrounding hills watching the interesting events." Fielding directed a mock labor riot at the smelter and 200 actors rushed up the hill behind the smelter and set fire to the water tanks. As they rand down the hill, the tanks blew up. "The site was a beautiful one, the tank

s being shot fully 200 feet in the air and the rioters and spectators were covered with a shower of slingers and rocks." Later, when part of the narrow-gauge railroad was to be exploded, the cap didn't go off. Undaunted, Fielding grabbed a pistol and fired at the dynamite. The following day, and old oil house near the smelter was also blown up as part of the bridge scene. Today, there isn't much left of the operation. Large black slag piles are gradually being hauled away from Grant County's driveways and highways. The "Big Ditch" is filled with illegally dumped

How Can I Be Selected? Twenty students will be chosen for Explosives Camp and they will see firsthand how energetic materials might be their career choice for the future. All you have to do to qualify is send us the following before May 31st, 2011 (Note that this is an extension of the original deadline of May 01, 2011):

• trash. Rusted pipes protrude from the ground. Twi
• A 500 word essay on "sted iron lies with scattered, broken brick. The burned foundation of the old Continental Ore and Chemical Co. fluorspa
• r concen- tratorfrom Wold War II rests on the ruins of the old Silver City Reduction Works. A road toward the sewer plant south of town leads r
• ight by the old operation. There's not much to s
• ee. There are the tailings, the slag, and with s

ome imagination, there's the old Silver City smelter. The Silver City Smelter Was Big Operation Reduction Works South of Town Once Employed More Than 200 Men and Women Sit of 1913 Silent Movie By RICHARD PETERSON Daily Press Writer Ore was hand-picked from steam powered conveyer belts by men - and children. The equipment was "the best known to metallurgical science." While families depend

ed on the operation for a livelihood. And in 1913, a silent movie was filmed at the site by a prominent California movie company which later merged with Warner Brothers. It was the Silver City Reduction Works, the pride of Silver City and which fro a brief time was a boon to the economy, making mining in the Grant County possible in those early years. Some 60 years later, there is nothing left of the operation. The Silver City Reduction Works went by several names before it was finally scaped. It was originally build by the Hearst family to handle gold and silver ores hauled from their Pinos Altos mines. This were difficult years for the opera

Other information: The camp will include evening activities such as a cookout and a pool party. Residence hall assistants will be available in the student dormitories. tion, and a final crunch came in 1902. The plans was handling just about every ore it could get - custom smelting i

ncluded. And that meant copper was among those ores.

On Saturday, June 25th parents are invited to NMTech for lunch. Group photos will be taken, certificates will be awarded and student presentations will be made. Students can leave NMTech with a parent/guardian after lunch on Saturday.

Copper, in fact, was such a vital part of the smelter's daily operations that depressed copper market c