Demolition of old plants, facilities at Hanover [Montana] underway

              DEMOLITION OF OLD PLANTS, FACILITIES AT HANOVER UNDERWAY
Nsp Oct t0,l97t
And the walls came tumbling down!
Demolition crews have stafted tearing down the old cement plant and plaster
plant at Hanover and soon the remaining homes and the buildings at the
company-owned town will be destroyed. The work is expected to take about
three months and at the end of that time almost no evidence will remain of the
town that once thrived and the plant and mines that hired almost 300 men.
A & B Construction Co. of Helena has the contract for the demolition. Al
Balentine, superintendent, said after the buildings are dynamited, pushed down
with a bulldozer and burned, they will be buried under at least one foot of soil.
The old plaster plant, a metal building, was demolished yesterday. A blast of
dynamite was used to take down the huge smokestack of the former crushing
plant. It was planned to burn the crushing plant today.
The property belongs to the Ideal Cement Company.
The original plant was built shortly after the turn of the century. Gypsum and the
lime were mined nearby and the mills were used to convert them into plaster
and cement. Products from the plant were shipped to a wide area, including the
west coast, the Dakotas and Wyoming.
The town of Hanover was constructed to house families working at the plant.
Although there are only abut 15 homes there now, at one time there were quite
a few more, as well as a school, hotel and store.
The homes are of brick or stucco construction.
The plaster plant was closed in 1951 and gypsum mining operations ceased in
1965.
A spokesman for the Ideal Cement Co. previously announced that if a use could
be found for the houses at Hanover, the company would consider donating them
to the county.