Return to Reflections index page

From the Gowanda PennySaver News "Reflections" series compiled by Mary Pankow. issue date - March 27, 2005

c. 1912

Sand Hill, c. 1912 - Gowanda’s geology played a major role in the development of some of its industries. When the last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago, melting glaciers left vast deposits of sand and gravel along the rim of this valley. True to its name, Gowanda’s Sand Hill furnished tons of that valuable material over a century ago. Beginning about 1890, the J.E. Carroll Sand Company made "Gowanda Sand” a trademark name from the Canadian border to deep inside Pennsylvania. It had a variety of uses including the making of hard wall plaster. Their pit was located in what is now the vicinity of the Firemen’s Park just above the railroad trestle. A 1900 newspaper clipping stated that “Owners of the sand pit between this village and Collins have had a steam elevator put in and ten cars an hour can be filled, making 100 cars filled daily. The new machinery cost $3,000.” In 1906 a special issue of the Gowanda News noted that the Thompson Cement Stone Company had located a plant in the Sand Hill pit, manufacturing the first concrete building blocks in this area. The 1904 Armes Building was the first block structure erected in Gowanda. Mr. E.J. Thompson, the president and general manager, had previously been superintendent of construction at the Gowanda State Hospital, and before that had extensive experience in the field at both Baltimore and Chicago. A 1913 insurance map shows the James Farrell Cement Block Works located a mile and a quarter northeast of downtown. This photo shows a rail spur that ran from the Erie Railroad through the pit, where the cars were loaded. In the upper left, the State Hospital buildings and the powerhouse smokestack can be seen. Photo from the Earle V. Gray Collection, Gowanda Area Historical Society. (Researched and written by Gowanda Historian Phil Palen)