Dupont: Named for the Powder That Blasted the Coal
Near Scranton, Pennsylvania
The borough of Dupont in Luzerne County takes its name from DuPont Explosives, the company that manufactured the blasting powder used to break anthracite coal from the seams beneath these hills. It was called Smithville first, after its earliest settlers, before being renamed for the company whose product defined the work of almost everyone who lived here.
Polish immigrants began arriving in the Pittston area coal fields in the late nineteenth century and became a dominant community in Dupont. They organized Sacred Heart Parish, raising it through bake sales and mutual aid.
The borough incorporated in nineteen seventeen. It is a small place, fewer than three thousand people today, hemmed between Pittston and the Lackawanna River. It is a town that carries the name of the company it depended on.
