1.02 Basalt Sand and Gravel Company

Looking for an opportunity to maintain employment of the men during the Great Depression, the Olympic Peninsula Logging Company explored and found workable gravel deposits along the railroad right of way. The company developed an ambitious plan to develop the seemingly endless natural resources and looked for partners to assist in that development.

The Basalt Sand Gravel and Rock Company was organized in 1929 and began operations in the summer of 1930. It is located on the Satsop River, on the former site of  OPLC's Camp 9. In 1932 the company partnered with the Northwest Portland Cement Company to develop the sand and gravel deposits located in the area for the Grand Coulee dam in southern Washington. Since then the company provides such material for road, bridge and building construction.

The Satsof River at Basalt is quite wide and the bed is filled with deposit of sand and gravel washed down from the hills by the heavy rains of many years. The material must be excavated, the sand separated from the gravel and the gravel itself separated by means of large revolving screens into the various sizes that are commercially valuable.

Excavation operation. A large dragline excavator operated by electric motors does the excavation. This excavator runs on rollers, and by means of a long boom gathers the material and deposits it in a hopper. The motor installation on the excavator consists of a 112 hp Westinghouse motor to operate the dragline bucket, a 22 hp motor for revolving the excavator and two small motors of 6 hp each, direct connected to air compressors to furnish air to operate the brakes.

Basalt operates three plants: a primary crusher and washing plant, a secondary crushing plant, and a sand plant. Finished materials are stored either in the aggregate yard or in silos adjacent to the sand plant. 

 

Primary Crusher and Washing Plant. The raw material is moved from the excavation area to a hopper by way of a belt conveyor that takes it to the primary crusher and washing plant. The belt conveyor consists of a conveyor belt 30 inches wide, and is also operated by a 75 hp Westinghouse motor. When the material, sand gravel and rock has reached the top of the main plant those rocks over 2 ½ inches are passed down to the 36 inch Symons disc and a No 5 gates crusher and reduced to a proper size. The balance of the material is carried across to the top of the bins, the dirt is washed out by means of two large streams of water through nozzles and the sand separated from the gravel. Sand is then transferred to the Sand Plant.

Gravel and rock is run thru ten long revolving screens to get the exact sizes for the proper bins, and all sizes are again washed and clean, fresh water under high pressure in each of the ten screens. Product is transferred to the Aggregate Yard for storage and loading.

Secondary Crushing Plant. There are two crushers to handle the limestone boulders and rocks that are too large for commercial purposes that reduce them to crushed rock of a proper size – a 36 inch Symons disc crusher of a capacity of seventy tons per hour that handles all that will pass thru a 4 inch opening and a no 5 gates gyratory crusher of a capacity of fifty tons an hour that handles those of a larger size. Each crusher is operated by a 50 hp Westinghouse motor, and dumped onto the main conveyor, so that the crushed rock is thoroughly mixed in with the uncrushed and the mixture makes a particularly good grade of concrete material. The water for washing the material is pumped from fresh water wells adjacent to the plant by means of a 1000 gallon per minute centrifugal pump operated by a 50 hp motor.

Sand Plant. Upon arrival at the Sand Plant, the sand is washed by 4 additional sand washing boxes, then dried, making a concrete or topping sand of the very best quality. After the material has been carried to the top of the plant by the belt conveyors, the other movements including the loading of the cars are accomplished by means of gravity.

Aggregate Yard. The plant has a vast amount of storage, consisting of over 100 carloads of washed, crushed and segregated materials, is principally drawn from during the winter months. The plant has a locomotive crane which can be used for switching cars and with the 1 5/8 yard clamshell bucket is also useful for loading cars from storage piles.