The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-27

| OF knowing. Inc OIUceTS IN Charge are
never very communicative on the sub
ject and just now they are more than
ever silent. All that can be said is that
this magazine is the largest in the coun-
try and that the government always
has kept there its heaviest reserves or
ammunition. There are in all seven
great powder warehouses-6ve for the
army and two for the navy. Each
storehouse is a building having a floor
area of geo feet in length by so in
breadth. The height of the room thus
formed is 40 feet. Now powder as 1t
comes from the factory, is delivered in
boxes that are a shade larger than the
ordinary soap box so familiar in the
country store. and each box contains
$50 pounds of the explosive. 1t will be
understood very readily that a room
20G feet long by so feet wide and 40 feet
high will hold a great number of the
ordinary soap boxes of commerce, and
when it is said that each one of these
magazine rooms is piled high up with
layer after layer of these 15O-pOund
soap-bOx size powder boxes, ii will be
seen that the statement that there are
hundreds of thousands of tons of pow
der in storage is well within conserva-
tive bounds. And this, TOO, is exclu-
sive of the tons of guncOttOn which are
stored away in this remote mountain
recess.
A RESERVATION OF 1850 ACRES.
There are 1850 acres in the tract of
land the government owns there. and
the bulk of this area is in long, mar
row valley about three and quarter
miles from end to end, and varying
from a quarter of a mile TO mile IN
width 1t is a beautiful spot distinctly
suggestive of West Point. with It's
placid stretch OF level ground surround
ed on all sides by great rugged noun
tains which crowd up to its edges and
peer down over each others shoulders
at it from all directions. There is no
Hudson. to be sure, but noisy, fussy
little mountain stream winds through
it and is spanned at various places by
trim white iron bridges. y COVER rnsnJ
road leads from the main highway,
about a mile away. to the handsome
iron and stone gateway at the entrance.
But for the fact that the gate posts are
made in the form of upright cannon
and that the iron of the gates them
selves is wrought into martial designs,
the first impression would he that some
millionaire recluse had made himself
private park away off in the wilder
ness.
Watchful guards are everywhere
about as you enter the grounds. III re
is no restriction TO visitors entering,
even in these critical times; but you
are always conscious that watchful eyeS
are upon you.
THE GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.
There is a fine driveway stretching
nearly a mile straight before you as
you enter. Il leads TO the administra-
ton building and to another wide ave
nue. running at right angles to the en-
trance drive. Al the intersection of
these avenues is a very important
g handsome large brick structure, and
through its windows you catch the CLINT
of the polished nickel and brass mount
ings of fire apparatus. OF to the LETT
is a group of buildings and a hand
some dwelli- 3 house with trees and
shrubbery about it. Here the superin-
tendent or head Waterman lives with
his family.
Scattered here and there at wide in
tervals apart, and apparently in TO reg
ular order. are the seven silent s.eepers
for whose benefit all this wide expanse
and profound solitude have been s.
cured. Very quiet and harmless they
iook-dull. lead-cOlOred brick bui o. rs
with red-tiled roofs and red iron shut
ters and doors-dOors and shutters par
tally thrown open in fair dry weather
that the air may get through the build
ings where the encGsed explosives are
stored. Water as well as fire has 20 be
guarded against in the storage OF pow
der, and dampness is water. One rea-
son the high mountain region was Sc
lected was to get away from the m9ls-er
air of a lower level.
The navy powder is stored away ard
apart from that of the arm--. and the
buildings are all painted the dirty,
muddy yellow, which for some reason
is traditional with the navy They are
in q set-Off tract of $40 acres and on
mountain side above the valley proper.
A branch of the Morris County railway
runs into the reservation Cars are
backed up to the magazines at various
points. Two hours after ammunition
is put aboard them ii may be in New
York, if there is need Of so great a
rush. They are filling shells now in the
navy magazine. and carload after car
load of them have been sent away since
the war scare began.
1t is Major Burlington. the inventor
of the disappearing gun carriage which
has worked such revolution in coast
defenses. VINO is now in charge OF the
Piccatinny powder depot. He has bsen
at the post about year.
Comparatively few people know there
is such an establishment as this re-
movable ammunition depository in ex-
istence. Lying right at the very gates
of New York not one New Yorker IL
q. thousand Knows OF us eAlSlrA4CH- -
for the country people who live in the
vicinity. the fact of the powder maya
zines existence has so long been an old
story with them that they had practi-
cally lost all interest in it until the re-
cent war excitement came on. But now
the humblest mountaineer to be found
within q radius of ten miles visibly
swells with patriotic pride at the mere
mention of the great government de-
Dot. They obviously feel that the tenn
pie of Janus is right at their doors,
and that thew have a sort of personal
responsibility for the safe keeping of
the keys.
SUSPICIOUS OF SPANISH SPIES.
1t is a matter of conviction among
them, Just at the present moment, that
the woods are filed with Spanish mis-
creants, loaded with explosive designs
on the magazines. The stranger is glar-
ed at with the eye of suspicion, and TO
ask the road to the government reser-
walton is to open the door 10 a rigid
REORGANIZATION.
Il won't tell you no road to no reser-
walton nor nowhere else" was the
greeting a photographer, a mild. pale
faced dim little man got from a native
out in the mountain road the other day.
Y won't tell you nothin'; l believe
you're goldarned Spanish spy If you