DuPont Powder Mills

Reinstallation Text 2023: Located at this site on land purchased by French immigrant Eleuthere Irenee du Pont in 1802, the du Pont Powder Mills manufactured black powder at three sites along the Brandywine Creek north of Wilmington. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company manufactured powder throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming a leading supplier of propellants and explosives in the United States and throughout the world. Demand for black powder began to decline, and in 1921 DuPont closed their original gunpowder mill on the Brandywine, shifting focus to the production of chemicals and consumer products produced at other plants in Delaware and across the United States. Original Text 1934: Dupont Powder Mills On the banks of the Brandywine, one-half mile northeast of this cross-road, Eleuthere Irenee DuPont de Nemours built in 1802 the first DuPont Powder Mills in America. Powder was manufactured there for the United States Government in War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War and Great War. Old Mills abandoned 1921.