EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- The name Ensign-Bickford could lend itself to the gentle setting of academia.

Nestled between high-reaching bluffs adjoining Shawnee National Forest, Wolf Lake and a large ox-bow-shaped body of water, a visit to Ensign-Bickford Co. leaves a feeling of having visited a friendly college campus.

The master plan of what in reality is a manufacturing company of explosives products for the commercial blasting industry has a campus look and environment. The firm's 450-acre business and industrial park is near Route 3.

"We have several buildings here," said William J. Caplan, plant manager. "Since Ensign-Bickford acquired this site in 1986, we have constructed eight buildings ranging in size from 1,000 to 20,000 square feet."

The structures house assembly-line operations, warehousing and offices.

"The overall park has a campus look," said Caplan, who moved to the area from Central Connecticut five years ago and now lives in nearby Cape Girardeau. "It's a neat-looking site, especially in the spring with all the greenery around."

Visitors to the plant are required to pass through an electronic gate and cross a bridge that spans Wolf Lake."

"We keep the gate closed, not because we are secretive but because of the nature of our business," said Caplan. "We do produce explosive-type products."

The primary product is commercial nonelectric delayed initiators, or detonators, which ignite a blasting agent.

"The detonators are used in various types of mining," said Caplan. "We also produce cast boosters, which are used in the blasting industry."

Caplan said Ensign-Bickford products are recognized by blasting professionals around the world, and include Primadet nonelectric delay detonators, detonating cord and safety fuses.

Ensign-Bickford, headquartered at Simsbury, Conn., has manufacturing facilities in a number of states, including a plant at Graham, Ky., where explosives are manufactured. Other plants are in Louviers, Colo.; Avon, Conn.; Spanish Fork, Utah; Chile; France; Australia; and Mexico.

"We're basically an assembly operation here," said Caplan. "But you're still working with explosives."

Safety is a big issue here and everywhere in the company, he pointed out.

"We stress it, we practice it, and we offer incentives for it," he said. "We feel that the business here is as safe as any business as long as safety awareness is practiced."

Workers wear special safety shoes and glasses while working in the various assembly buildings.

As part of the company's emphasis on safety, workers can build up `safety dollars.'

"These dollars can be used as money or cashed in for extra days off," said Caplan.

One of the most recent structures at the facility is a training center where safety training is conducted. "The new center also includes a computer room," said Caplan. "Employees can use the computer room at any time; it's open 24 hours a day."

The plant employs about 250 people and has three shifts a day, five days a week, said Caplan. Ninety-five percent of the facility's staff is from Illinois, and about half is from Union County, he said.

Ensign-Bickford likes to get involved in the community.

"During the 1993 flood, we provided about $6,000 to flood relief in this area," said Caplan. "The Ensign Foundation provided a $4,000 grant. Employees from here and our headquarters plant in Connecticut chipped in with individual donations that totaled $1,000, which was matched by the company.

"The major portion of the flood funds from employees came from the safety dollars," said Caplan.

The site at Wolf Lake has been known as a "powder plant, dynamite factory" or "ammo plant," since the early 1920s.

Atlas Co. first established a black-powder production facility here in 1923. Trojan Corp. purchased it in 1950 and continued producing black powder.

From 1950 to 1986, Trojan -- now a subsidiary of Ensign-Bickford -- which still owns the property, has had a number of different owners. The facility at Wolf Lake has been used in a number of capacities, from making ammunition to becoming a chemical operation.

Ensign-Bickford bought Trojan in December 1986, and spent more than a year cleaning up the property and making other preparations before opening here in 1988.

"At that time we employed about 25 people," said Caplan. "With the expansion of facilities we have steadily added to the employment."

Ensign-Bickford is the largest manufacturing company in Union County. It produces more than 350,000 detonators a week, using more than 10 million feet of detonator tubing a week.

"We use more than a billion pounds of explosives a year in our operation," said Caplan.

Turnover at the plant is infrequent, said Caplan. "Over the past year we have hired quite a few people who previously worked at Bunny Bread and Florsheim Shoe," said Caplan. The bakery and shoe factory closed operations in Anna in 1993.

Ensign-Bickford has an annual payroll of $5.5 million to $6 million at the Wolf Lake plant.

Ensign-Bickford Co. was founded more than 160 years ago, in 1836, in the copper mining country of central Connecticut, manufacturing initiation devices -- safety fuses -- for use in blasting while mining for copper.

Since that start, other divisions have been added to the company, resulting in a wide range of linear extrudable explosives for both the defense and commercial markets. Ensign-Bickford is a leading supplier of detonating cord and safety fuses to the U.S. military, and the leading manufacturer of specialty detonating cords for oil-wells.

For more than 35 years, Ensign Bickford Aerospace Co., a subsidiary of Ensign-Bickford Co., has produced laser-fiber optic initiation systems, plastic-bonded explosives and multipoint initiation systems for the nation's sophisticated space and defense programs.

These systems and components are used on strategic missiles including Trident, Peace Keeper and the smaller ICBM. The firm's products have also been used on space launch vehicles, including Centaur, Delta, Pegasus, Titan and Space Shuffle, and on tactical systems including SADARM, Sidewinder, Standard Missile II and Multiple Launch Rocket System.