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Giant Station,CA - Contra Costa County - October 10, 1917 - Giant Powder Company Consolidated Stock

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 750.00 USD
Giant Station,CA - Contra Costa County - October 10, 1917 - Giant Powder Company Consolidated Stock
Incorporated Aug. 22, 1892. Issued at Giant Station, California to the Atlas Powder Company for 29,993 shares out of 50,000 total authorized. This certificate was the controlling interest in the company. Atlas quietly gained control of Giant Powder in 1914 while the Aetna Explosives Company was negotiating to consolidate all of the competitors of DuPont into one company (History of The Explosives Industry In America, Van Gelder, 1927). W.J. Webster, the president of Atlas Powder Co. quietly bought up the controlling interest in the Giant Powder Company and essentially hood-winked the Aetna group. Aetna had assumed that they would take control of Giant Powder and they had been shut out. The Giant Powder Company operated at Giant Station at Point Pinole on San Pablo Bay. Giant Station was founded in 1892 as Nitro, the company town. The company left it’s previous two locations after disastrous explosions in San Francisco and Berkeley. The famous Giant Powder Company was the first company in the United States to produce dynamite. This controlling interest stock certificate in one of America’s most famous powder companies makes this a historic piece. Stamp and hole cancels. VF.