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The SDOHC is devoted to documenting the history of the Northern Plains region and the care of previously collected interviews.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Woman, Man Blown Up By Bandit Gang: A Retrospective of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota Powder House Blast

Photo from Waymarking.com
The title to this post contains the heading of a story run in the Pittsburgh Press on January 2nd,1937. The story went on to described the events of the night before in which the Powder House,  located outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, containing over 3,000lbs of dynamite and over 7,000lbs of black powder, exploded. Blowing out  more than $20,000 worth of windows in Sioux Falls, the blast rattled eardrums 50 miles away, left behind a crater 50 feet across and 25 feet deep. Upon further investigation lawmen discovered a woman alive, having crawled to safety after being beaten with a hammer and shot; listen to the clip below to hear Charles Chamblin's, a law officer on duty at the time of the blast, account of this fateful night.

O. A. Rothlisberger interviewing Charles Chamblin [SDOHP1080]


- Jennifer McIntyre, SDOHC Digitizer/Curator


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THE SOUTH DAKOTA ORAL HISTORY CENTER!!


Contact us at sdoralhistorycenter@gmail.com or 605-677-6386
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2 comments:

  1. Interesting. I knew about the blast, but didn't really know that a woman was part of the gang and she crawled away. Ed Lacey, the guy that found her, is most likely part of the Lacey family who are still in Sioux Falls. They had that big farm place where Menards is on Arrowhead Parkway..

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