The hill overlooking San Francisco Bay in Albany, California where the Golden Gate Fields racetrack grandstand is located is called Fleming Point. In the late 1800s this was a dynamite factory owned by the Giant Powder Company. The history of dynamite in the Bay Area is mostly forgotten, but it was a leading high-tech industry of its day and it supplied the mining industry all over the American West.

The majority of workers in the explosives industry were Chinese immigrants. Some of them had originally come to California to join the Gold Rush.  American miners didn’t welcome the competition, and in 1850 the California Legislature passed a monthly tax on all foreign miners that was primarily levied on Chinese and Mexican workers. Pushed out of gold mining, many Chinese workers went to work in railroad construction and later in dynamite factories. 

Giant Powder Company was the first dynamite factory in the U.S and soon became a large employer of Chinese immigrants. The company’s manufacturing factory was first established in Glen Canyon in San Francisco and in the sand dunes that became the Sunset District before it moved to Fleming Point, which was then part of West Berkeley.

Chinese workers were assigned to the most dangerous parts of the job such as cleaning the utensils and tools used in handling the nitroglycerine. Sometimes they would dig ditches to create a place for working with nitroglycerine to help contain the accidental explosions in order to limit the deaths to those working in the ditches. The Chinese workers were often housed in small living quarters on the factory site. Company records also show that Chinese immigrants were consistently underpaid for their work compared to their white counterparts. 

When Chinese workers were introduced to the dynamite factories they were trained to become experts in specialized roles. They were so integral to the company’s success that when the company built another factory in New Jersey they sent Chinese immigrants over to show the workers the process. However these jobs were soon simplified and Chinese laborers  were replaced by white employees who were paid more.

Chinese immigrants were frequently blamed for explosions in the factory and generally were not named but only described as “Chinamen”  in newspapers when they lost their lives.  But one newspaper article described a man named Hong Loy, who was a superintendent at the Fleming Point factory. He was described as a good worker who took the utmost care in his work.  The company stated that his death was deeply regretted by the company as he was a well respected man among his peers. 

The East Bay was a national center of the dynamite industry. The Giant Powder Company had a rival in the Hercules Powder Company, which manufactured explosives 12 miles north of Fleming Point on San Pablo Bay.  Hercules is now a community of suburban homes. In 2008 a plaque in memory of  the Chinese workers was installed at Frog Pad Park in Hercules.  The many Chinese workers who died in Albany have not been commemorated. Hong Loy, On Ong, Yen Foo, Won Way, Ah Quonx, Mah Wan and Ah Fork. These are just some of the many names which should be remembered. 

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Special thanks to Dr. Seth Lunine, UC Berkeley,  for his lecture on the California explosives industry.

For further reading:

Chinn, Thomas, ed., A History of the Chinese in California: A Syllabus (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1969)

Griswold, Wesley. A Work of Giants. New York: McGraw Hill, 1962.

Hiltzik, Michael. “Chinese Immigrants Helped Build California, but They’ve Been Written out of Its History.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2019, www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-chinese-immigrants-history-20190405-story.html.

Moyers, Bill.“Becoming American: The Chinese Experience,” 2003.

“Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California (Chinese Americans).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3c.htm.

“Preserving the Explosive History of Hercules, California”  Hercules Historical Society website, herculeshistory.org/2010/11/15/frog-pad-park/. 

“Shook the Earth: A Terrific Explosion in Berkeley,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 12, 1887.

“The Dangers of Giant Powder,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 1879.U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration. 

Monument to the Unnamed Dead

With this bench I hope to honor and memorialize the lives of Chinese immigrants who died during dynamite explosions in the Bay Area. Taking a seat is a way to allow visitors to see the San Francisco port through which immigrants entered California and simultaneously see Fleming Point where the Giant Powder Company was located. This monument is a sign of the intense struggles Chinese people were put through when they first arrived and were unable to become naturalized citizens. I hope to inspire people to discover hidden stories and investigate the roles of immigrants in the building of California.

When you are sitting on the memorial bench looking across at where the dynamite factory used to be, you will see this mosaic that I made. The photo is of Chinese workers in California. However, I have not been able to find photos of the particular Chinese workers at the Fleming Point plant; although Chinese people were the majority of workers, all the photos I could find were of the White workers.

When you are at the Bulb, if you scan the mosaic with the Artivive app on your phone, a short slideshow of historic photos will play.

You can see slideshow here by clicking on the image of the mosaic.