"Made from a mixture of saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, black powder is produced by pulverizing and mixing the ingredients, then rolling and pressing the material into cakes that are then dried into explosives for specific applications. Black powder was first brought to California in the late 1840s when miners used the explosive in their search for gold. At that time there were no local factories producing black powder. The miners relied on powder shipments from eastern U.S. and European companies. As the Civil War loomed in the U.S., it became a coveted commodity and the once reliable shipments became more scarce as the North and South stockpiled black powder in the event of war. By the time the Civil War began in April 1861, miners found themselves in desperate need of explosives, and John Baird, a miner from Kentucky, recruited investors to establish the California Powder Worksfactory near Santa Cruz, California. Up and running by 1864, the Powder Works factory was the sole manufacturer of black powder in the state. The company employed 275 Chinese workers and within a year produced 150,000 25-pound powder kegs."