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---
title: Dynamite and the Old Snag
---
_I can't remember the precise time of this memory. My best guess is that
it happened during the Summer between one of my later high school years
or perhaps one Summer between university semesters at BYU._
Dad was developing a large parcel of land to break it up into smaller
lots for building homes. This often involved building a road through the
forest. Dad had a Caterpillar that could handle most of the forest
clearing and leveling that was necessary to create a good access road.
However, he occasionally came up against an obstacle that required
blasting with dynamite. He asked me to go with him to help out with the
blasting. I was all over that like "ugly on an ape". Anything that
involved blowing stuff up was high on my list of cool things to do. This
probably contributed to my later interest in pyrotechnics and "energetic
chemical reactions".
On this occasion, the obstacle that was too big for the Caterpillar to
handle was a large "snag" pine tree. It was an ancient old beast that
was about 5 feet in diameter. The trunk was about 40 feet tall, but the
top of the tree was missing. It probably snapped off in a wind storm a
hundred years ago and had been rotting in its vertical position ever
since then. It was too rotten to attempt to fell like a normal tree. It
could easily break up and fall in an uncontrolled manner. Thus, the best
solution was to try to blast it with dynamite from a safe distance.
The first step in the process is to open a hole under the stump with a
small charge. Dad cut one stick of dynamite in half for the job. He used
a special pair of plyers to crimp a blasting cap on a 2-foot piece of
fuse. Then he used the pointy end of the plyers to make a hole in the
end of the half stick of dynamite. He stuck the blasting cap in the hole
and Bob's your uncle. It looked like a large fire cracker. Then Dad used
a 6-foot heavy iron pry bar with a sharp end to make a small hole in the
ground just beneath a few of the big roots of the ancient tree stump. He
then placed the big fire cracker in the hole and lit the fuse. Dad
started walking casually away from the tree stump. This told me there
wasn't too much to be afraid of, but I had no idea how much power was
contained in a half stick of dynamite, so I booked it out of there in a
bit more of a hurry.
The sound of the charge going off was more like a "thud" than a loud
boom like you see on the TV shows. It was kind of like a big T-Rex
stomped on the ground just to let you know who is the biggest "baddest"
dude in town. When we walked back to the old stump, sure enough, there
was a nice little cave under the stump. It was just right for placing in
it the big charge that would truly get the job done.
This time Dad got out a five-gallon bucket and poured about 20 pounds of
ammonium nitrate fertilizer into it. These were the typical small beads
that looked about like tapioca before you add the water and cook it.
Then Dad poured about a gallon of diesel fuel into the bucket. After
stirring the goop with a big stick, he said that should do the trick. He
then prepared a small bundle of about5 sticks of dynamite that were
taped together to form a nice tight cylinder. He prepared a fuse with
another blasting cap crimped on the end and inserted it into a hole he
made in the side of one of the sticks. Finally, he poured the ammonium
nitrate goop down the hole under the stump and carefully shoved the
bundle of dynamite as far into the hole as he could reach.
This time the fuse was about 6 feet long to give us plenty of time to
make some distance between us and the stump after lighting the fuse. I
remember running with Dad about 50 yards away where we stood behind the
truck and watched the fuse burn. It was just like in the old movies
where the fuse made lots of sparks and smoke as it burned. It seemed
like we watched the fuse burn for about 5 minutes, but it was probably
only about 20 seconds. The excitement and anticipation were thrilling to
a young guy like me who had never seen a real dynamite explosion before.
This time, the sound was much more impressive. It was a big ka-whump
that shook the ground and filled the air with a big cloud of dust. Rocks
and chunks of rotten wood were thrown into the air about 80 feet high.
We had to keep our eyes looking in the air for a while to make sure none
of those big rocks were going to make it all the way over to where we
were standing. It took at least a few minutes for the dust to settle
enough for us to see what had happened. When the dust finally cleared
Dad started to laugh. The big old stump was still standing, but now it
was only about 8 inches in diameter. Apparently, the charge had blown
away all the rotten wood, but there was a solid core of wood that was
strong enough to resist the blast.
It just goes to show ya that when it comes to people and old stumps, you
just can't tell what's really inside by looking at what's on the
outside. We had no idea that that old stump had a solid core of wood
inside that was strong enough to survive a sizeable blast of explosives.
And just like that ugly old stump, the funny-looking kid next door could
have a heart of gold when you really get to know him. The moral of the
story is... don't trust your eyes when it comes to judging a stump or a
person's character. The skill of "looking upon the heart" takes a lot
more effort than a mere glance with our mortal eyes.
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