Photo courtesy Janet Wagner

A monument was placed at Spring Creek Park in 1966 to honor the site of the Tomball Confederate Powder Mill.

Along the northwestern edge of Spring Creek Park, the remnants and history of the Tomball Confederate Powder Mill dating back to the Civil War continue to be researched and preserved by descendants and local officials.

"There was [a powder mill] in most of the small towns in Texas that had a good creek at the time, and all of them have been blown up," said Janet Wagner, traveling national historian and chair of the Harris County Historical Commission.

The mill opened in 1861 and included a large wheel in the nearby Spring Creek used to generate electricity and help workers produce gear for the calvary and soldiers, blacksmith products and powder for guns during the Civil War. The operation of the mill was short-lived, however, when an explosion leveled the site and killed several employees a few years later.

In 1966, a monument was placed in Spring Creek Park to dedicate the site of the powder mill. The plaque honors three victims who are believed to have been killed in the explosion—Peter Wunderlich, William Bloecher and Adolph Hillegeist, a distant relative of Bruce Hillegeist, president of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce.

Though the plaque indicates the explosion occurred in 1863, recent evidence has been found to suggest the inscription on the monument is incorrect. After combing through period local newspaper clippings last year, Wagner found an article Wunderlich submitted in January 1864—months after he was allegedly killed.

Wagner now believes the explosion took place in March 1864 and is continuing to dig up evidence to determine the exact date. When researching powder mills, Wagner discovered several explosions took place across the country before and after the Civil War that had anywhere from three to 200 casualties.

Wagner has discovered several firsthand documents and letters from mill employees detailing the extent of the explosion, leading her to believe more than three people were killed in the Tomball incident.

"It's very difficult to know the amount of deaths [at the powder mill] unless we know how many they had in quantity in there," Wagner said. "But the three Germans [who were killed]—it looks like two of them were in another building, which also tells you how bad that explosion was."

Due to the high frequency of powder mill explosions at the time, Wagner said she suspects either Union soldiers or an anti-Civil War group, the Jayhawkers, may have been responsible for the explosion.

In 2013, Wagner and late historian Don Greene took a canoe along the junction of Spring Creek and nearby Powder Mill Gully to view the remnants of the original roadways and artifacts from the explosion still visible to passers-by today.

Since 1864, the site of the former powder mill has remained largely untouched and preserved by the Scherer family, who has owned the land for several years. The Harris County Precinct 4 commissioner's office has designated the site with a marker and continues to preserve its history.