daniel_bingamon

Actually, there is another pumphouse on top the hill behind the buildings (southward) - there are remains of two steam turbine pumps from the 30's/40's era - one of them has the top missing from it and you can see the turbine buckets/scoops in it. The pump was designed to pump from a small lake up there in the event of a fire.

The site manager is named Bud and he's in his 70's and is available during the week at the office in the bottom of the Shot Tower between 8:30AM and noon. There is another guy who teaches Karate and has a school in the far back building. If you ask for permission, they will ask for you to sign a waiver form to protect the site from getting sued if you get hurt - there are holes in the floor and eight empty elevator shafts in the whole complex (and it's a long way down on some of them) and one elevator that works in the back building #6. If you're really young, they might not give you permission at their own discretion. In recent years they have made changes in security so this option might not be available any more.

I forgot to mention. When they tore down some of the buildings in the 1980's, even a small building took over a week to demolish. 1 inch thick rebar, was built to contain an explosion. BTW - I hated to see them tear down the old Kings Mills Elementary. The new additions to the High School are ugly.

I live in Kings Mills and would like to set the record straight. Actually, the buildings did not exist there during the Civil War. Peters was Baptist preacher who married into the King Family and started in the 1890's. There were wood building there prior to 1890 when a King Powder was destroyed by a train accident that blew up everything. King then moved to the Kings Mills side of the river and when Peters invented the automatic cartridge loading machine, King invested money in Peters and they built the Cartridge Factory. The first two shot towers were made of wood and they were not located in the same place as the one you see today. I used to rent space there. The chairs are from various tennants that have rented space in recent years, some leftover stuff is carried off by curious teenagers that constantly get into the building without permission. Mainville Police have orders to arrest tresspassers and the fine is over $100 per person. The RCA logos were on metal plates that have been blown down by the wind. Back in 2002 one of the plates blew down and missed a truck by 10 feet parked overnight. RCA used it for a recording studio (records with commericals on them) and Seagrams used it as a warehouse for a while. Lencrafters framing division used it in the late 80's. So remember, Cartridge Factory not Powder Factory. Powder was made on the other side of the river - all wood building (they used to blow up all the time). Building #2 (runs along the road) has three gun shooting ranges, long range, med range and a pistol range. It used to have a ventillation system. In WWII at the height of it all just before they closed it (yes - during the war) there were at the three factory Peters, Kings and the Government Munitions plant (at the top of the hill - now an Army Retention Center) had 5000 people working in that area. There were so many job openings that people camped out along the Little Miami River there for work. A big housing place for the men called the "Manz" was built in the town. You can still see the stair steps that go up the hill to Kings Mills for the employess. That hairpin turn on King Ave the connects to Grandin had a hotel called the "Cliff Hotel". And it was $40 month not $400 - and was never advertised as office space - that is false. Several small business still operate there today. I'm glad that they are there and not more yuppie housing - I'm sick and tired of the area being destroyed by over agressive growth and horrible traffic.