4th of July Anvil Daze - not too bead related
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Posted by: Dogboy Mail author
07/06/2014, 16:43:26

Summer greetings from the hot and sunny Oregon outback!
We are in the throes of summer here, the sun is high, and with the protracted drought cooking off it is extra dry and arid. We’ve survived another 4th of July with no one getting hurt or blown up though we once had a mighty close call.
Years ago the local tradition was to have a total blow-out party on the 4th with ranchers and partiers coming from far and wide to town where we had a pit barbeque with beer and music running all afternoon and into the evening. The party was held at the edge of town. It wasn’t a park like a city park with swings and such, but there was a nice grove of cottonwood trees for shade and lots of picnic tables and several horseshoe pits.
The pit roast always had a whole hog and a venison or beef quarter slow cooking. There was lots of parking near the road and out beyond the cottonwoods was a lot of vacant desert where the men set up small fireworks in the evening, and blew the anvil to kick the party off.
Blow the anvil you might ask? This stemmed from a nineteenth century practice of setting up a large anvil upside down on a stump and placing a small charge of black powder in the hollow pocket in the base before setting a fuse and another anvil right side up on top.
The historical tradition for this was to set off the small charge and pop the top anvil up in the air eight or ten feet where it would come down on the other anvil striking it with the force of the biggest hammer at which point both anvils would commence to ringing. Some said you could hear the ring of a good anvil shot for better than a mile. That was back in history. In modern times up here in the outback our guys went for distance.
I’m not sure just when the anvil shoot began up here, but it was around 40-45 years ago. I am sure when it ended though, and that was 4 years later.
The party always began loosely in the morning with various guys setting up the pit roast and folks heading in and setting up little camps all morning into midday. The beer kegs came in by around noon and by two the musicians would be set up. Someone decided that at two the party officially began and it was set into motion with the anvil shoot.
A local blacksmith brought out his two anvils and set them up out in the field. The first year they set off a fair charge and the top anvil went up about fifteen feet in the air. The blast shattered the stump below the lower anvil. The top one missed the bottom one so we didn’t get to hear the killer ring predicted, but the show was pretty awesome with a 200 pound anvil tossed up in the air like that. Since the stump was shattered that was the end of that for the day.
The next year several of the guys got together to make the anvil shoot come off better. One guy was an ironworker and he provided a nice big piece of heavy I –beam to set the anvils on. Another suggested a bigger charge. This year's shot was a beauty with the anvil going up a good twenty plus feet, the boom and the smoke was spectacular as was the sight of the anvil way up in the air. The falling anvil still missed its target but the party got off with a bang.
The following year was the best shot yet. Someone came up with the idea to lay a bead of caulk around the perimeter of the anvil foot and this served to make a total seal for the charge and also to accommodate a larger charge. The upper anvil went a good fifty feet into the air. Kids went running in fear and the crowd was in awe. The upper anvil seemed to hang in the air for minutes. It came down about six feet from its starting point so we were still denied the ringing of the anvils. But with a show like that we didn’t need to hear it ring. The party was off and running and the beer was flowing. By 6 or 7 the pit was opened and everyone was eating like kings. The music ran deep into the night.
Those were the years of the great anvil shoots.
On year four out came the anvils again with the big I-beam for a base. The party started as usual in the morning with people getting set up and the beer arriving around noon. The band had a new drummer who heard about the anvil shoot and wanted to participate. He said he was in Ordinance with the army in Viet Nam and knew explosives so he stepped in and helped set up the shot.
Following the previous years pattern a nice bead of caulk was laid onto the foot of the lower anvil. The powder was placed and fuse and the top anvil set. At two o’clock the fuse was lit and the crowd watched in anticipation. When the explosion went off it was deafening. It took a moment to notice that there was no anvil in the air. In fact there were pieces of anvils flying in several directions. Both anvils were destroyed and blown into three and four pieces each The I-beam under the lower anvil was deformed into an S shape from the force of the blast. The crowd went into a kind of shock. When the smoke cleared we all went out in search of anvil parts. All were found and several folks took the piece of anvil they found as a trophy of the day. I collected the front foot of one which weighed some thirty pounds and later gave it to a blacksmith friend.
It was a miracle that no one was hurt as one twenty five pound chunk landed just feet from the crowd. The party still began but kind of slowly and the subject of the anvil shoot never left the conversation for the rest of the day. The blacksmith was devastated as both his anvils were destroyed. As he was one of the musicians, it kind of set the tone for the music as well. We found out later that the drummer had provided the powder, which was smokeless rifle powder. Traditional black powder would never have the power to wreak such havoc. Not long after that party, the drummer left the band too.
The following year there was no anvil shoot and there hasn’t been one since. In fact the 4th of July party scaled way back after that year, and for the last 30 years or so there has been no town party.
We’ve all gotten older now and have small get-togethers at various ranches with a few six packs and steaks on the grill. The most explosives we see now are a roman candle or two, some sparklers for the grandkids and maybe a few bottle rockets. Someone always recalls the great anvil shoots and that last big one.
The pictures here were printed from rusty old negatives I rescued from a flood, kind of rough but they get the idea across. I think they were from the third year’s shot. It was a sight to see.
Well I know this post ain’t exactly bead related but I guarantee you that some of those hippies in those pictures were wearing beads, and probably still are too. I am.
Keep your powder dry and keep that string in the middle of the hole.
dog


anvil1.jpg (102.8 KB)  anvilshot1.jpg (133.0 KB)  


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