Just after 1 a.m. on August 7, 1959, a fire in a building at a supply store near the edge of downtown Roseburg, Oregon, spread to a Pacific Powder Company delivery truck parked outside. The fire ignited the truck's load of two tons of dynamite and over four tons of ammonium nitrate, causing an explosion that sent a ball of flame and a mushroom cloud of smoke more than 2,000 feet into the air. The explosion, known colloquially as the Roseburg Blast, created a 30-block disaster area, killed 14 people, and injured more than 120 others. The resulting crater from the blast was more than 20 feet deep and 50 feet in diameter. Attempts to hold Pacific Powder financially accountable for the destruction were unsuccessful; however, the resulting attention from the incident prompted the Interstate Commerce Commission to enact stricter safety regulations and enforcement for transportation of explosives.

Source: “Roseburg Blast,” by Jeff LaLande, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/roseburg_blast/

Jerry Barrett (1924-2010) was a 35-year-old amateur photographer and financial planner from Redding, California, at the time of the Roseburg Blast. He shot the slides in this collection while visiting relatives in Roseburg shortly after the explosion.

Sources: Obituary in the Chico Enterprise-Record, September 17, 2010; reminiscences of Annin Barrett, Jerry Barrett's daughter, in communications with the Oregon Historical Society Research Library