An FBI explosive ordnance disposal unit was taken via an Alaska State Troopers helicopter this week to a mining camp north of the Eureka Roadhouse along the Glenn Highway to detonate a batch of old dynamite discovered at the camp by the property's new owner.
According to troopers, the dynamite was discovered Wednesday at a mining camp near the Tyone Creek area in the historic Valdez Creek Mining District. More than 300,000 ounces of gold have been pulled from placer mines in the district since initial mining began in the early 1900s, according to a 1990 report from the Bureau of Land Management.
Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters said Thursday that a new owner of the property discovered blasting caps and the dynamite at the camp, which she described as "at least five sticks of dynamite that were sweating."
Traditionally, dynamite is composed of a stabilizing agent mixed with nitroglycerin, an explosive liquid that over time will "sweat" from the dynamite, making it much more volatile.
Troopers from Glennallen got the call about the dynamite and contacted the FBI to figure out what to do with the aged explosives.
"We don't have the ability to go out and take care of that stuff on our own," Peters said.
The FBI's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit was taken on a troopers helicopter to the site on Wednesday afternoon and again on Thursday, according to Staci Feger-Pellessier, public affairs specialist at the FBI's Anchorage office.
The dynamite -- a "couple of pounds" stored in a trailer, Feger-Pellessier said -- was deliberately detonated.
"Our Bomb Techs determined it couldn't be safely removed -- so they had to counter-charge it in place," she wrote in an email Thursday. "They blew it up."