#13 East Audio Tour

Blasting cut out

NPS Photo

Blasting
Deep rock cuts like this one required specialized labor, tools, and huge quantities of explosives. Cuts were started by two-man drilling teams called double-jackers. One worker rotated a steel, chisel-like star drill, while the other struck it with a sledgehammer. A good double-jack team could drill a thirty-inch-deep hole in an hour. Look carefully; many of these drill holes are still visible. 

When drilling was completed, a powder monkey filled the holes with black powder and connected each hole with fuses. Once everyone was out of the way, the charges were ignited.

A reporter from Salt Lake City's Deseret Evening News vividly described cutting here in the Promontory's:

Sharp & Young's blasters are jarring the earth every few minutes with their glycerin and powder, lifting whole ledges of limestone rock from their long resting places, hurling them around... in every direction. Mr. T. E. Ricks showed me a boulder of three or four hundred pounds weight that was thrown over a half mile and completely buried itself in the ground within twenty yards of his cook room. I ate a hearty breakfast and left that spot sine die.

 

• Blasting

  
  

  Deep rock cuts like this one required specialized labor, tools, and huge quantities of explosives. Cuts were started by two-man drilling teams called double-jackers. One worker rotated a steel, chisel-like star drill, while the other struck it with a sledgehammer. A good double-jack team could drill a thirty-inch-deep hole in an hour. Look carefully; many of these drill holes are still visible.

  Credit / Author:

  Nicki Castoro

  Date created:

  04/12/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Deep rock cuts like this one required specialized labor, tools, and huge quantities of explosives. Cuts were started by two-man drilling teams called double-jackers. One worker rotated a steel, chisel-like star drill, while the other struck it with a sledgehammer. A good double-jack team could drill a thirty-inch-deep hole in an hour. Look carefully; many of these drill holes are still visible.

  When drilling was completed, a powder monkey filled the holes with black powder and connected each hole with fuses. Once everyone was out of the way, the charges were ignited.

  A reporter from Salt Lake City's Deseret Evening News vividly described cutting here in the Promontory's:

  Sharp & Young's blasters are jarring the earth every few minutes with their glycerin and powder, lifting whole ledges of limestone rock from their long resting places, hurling them around... in every direction. Mr. T. E. Ricks showed me a boulder of three or four hundred pounds weight that was thrown over a half mile and completely buried itself in the ground within twenty yards of his cook room. I ate a hearty breakfast and left that spot sine die.