Pieces of large ASARCO smokestack being sold to create museum
Owning a piece of history will cost you $25.
Capstone Productions is selling pieces of the large ASARCO smokestack that stood from 1966 until its demolition on April 13, 2013. The bankruptcy trustee gave the pieces to Capstone Productions.
And the seller of the pieces says they are safe. The smelter demolition crew collected the pieces in buckets and then washed them at the site with water hoses before they were washed again before being encased in a sealed acrylic case.
“They were from the lower orange stripe on the big stack and would have had the least exposure to ASARCO’s various chemicals and metals,” said Jackson Polk, head of Capstone Productions.
The first 100 pieces, at a price of $19.95 a piece, sold out quickly earlier this year. More pieces are set to go on sale at 10 a.m. this Saturday at both Collectibles locations in El Paso – 1530 Lomaland and 4700 N. Mesa.
Proceeds from the sale will go toward creating a Smeltertown museum about the smelter and its people at the administration building still standing on the ASARCO site.
The administration building was built in 1887 and Polk said the El Paso Heritage Alliance needs funding in the mid-six figures to get the building up to code.