Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
C117132-15
Date(s)
- 1917 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
ca. 1917. In 1917, the American Smelting & Refining Company (ASARCO) built a new, giant chimney (right) at their copper smelting plant in Ruston. At 571 feet, it dwarfed their old chimney (left) which at 307 1/2 feet had been the tallest concrete chimney in the world. Smelting on Commencement Bay dated to 1887 when Dennis Ryan built a lead smelting plant along the shore just southeast of what is now Point Defiance Park. The smelter was sold to William Rust in 1889, who converted the plant to copper smelting, and it became known as the Tacoma Smelting and Refining Company. In 1905, the operation was sold to ASARCO. The plant closed in 1985 and the giant chimney was imploded in 1993. (Copy made from glass plate on October 3, 1958, Richards Studio.) (TDL 5/4/1905, pg. 3; 6/29/1905; 12/9/1917)
Chimneys; Industrial facilities--Tacoma; Smelters--Tacoma; American Smelting & Refining Co. (Tacoma); Smokestacks--Tacoma;