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Trail Blazers: Who remembers this blast from the past?

Trail Blazers is a weekly historical feature in partnership with the Trail Museum and Archives
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Car rinse in Warfield circa 1966. Photo: Trail Historical Society

This image likely stirs childhood memories for Trail baby boomers and Gen X’ers who recall the thrill of going through this old timey car rinse in Warfield with mom or dad behind the wheel.

It was fun. And back in the day, driving from Trail up to Warfield was considered a trip!

“Pictured here is a car getting a wash down in Warfield outside the fertilizer plants in July 1966,” explains museum manager Sarah Benson-Lord. “Taken by Albert Anderson, who worked in the furnaces at Cominco, this photo and so many like them were captured by Anderson, who documented some amazing scenes and landmarks in our region.”

Although now closed, whether or not you were a Cominco or Teck employee, you still took advantage of this handy rinsing station, Benson-Lord added.

“Bonus points if you can identify the building at the right!”

(PS: it’s the P9 tower)

The P-9 Project was the codename given during World War II to the Manhattan Project’s heavy water production program. The Cominco operation in Trail was upgraded to produce heavy water. DuPont also built three plants in the United States, which operated from 1943 until 1945. The Trail plant continued in operation until 1956. Three nuclear reactors were built using the heavy water produced by the P-9 Project: Chicago Pile 3 at Argonne, and outside of Ottawa, ZEEP and NRX at the Chalk River Laboratories.

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Sheri Regnier

About the Author: Sheri Regnier

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