We proceeded with repairs fairly quickly after the bombing. We had a generous insurance settlement that came in short order, and we did raise additional funds that amounted to about $1200. We gave out a souvenier card with one of the original square cut nails from the building for donations of $5 or more. That is a slow way to raise money. And the balance came from the historical society's funds. Total rebuilding cost was around $12,000, which by today's standards was a bargain. Sundance Publications paid for the additional cost of a concrete floor in the baggage room that they then used as a press room. This left the society broke, and at one point the discussion on the board ranged from demolishing the remaining portion of the building to a truncated version less the baggage room, to a full rebuild. Those of us who thought it had to be rebuilt, and be done properly, prevailed. The society has prospered since then and we are now finishing a new display building costing about 3/4 million, and an $800,000 infrastructure project at the old powerhouse (actually substation) was just completed.
No one was arrested. The boys from the federal ATF bureau were on the spot within hours of the bombing and took over the front of my restaurant to interrogate suspects, all related to the Sunnyside mine in one way or another. The dynamite was stolen from the mine, and there was enough evidence from the paper wrappings that they traced the dates and lot numbers of the dynamite, and it was material sold to the mine, and they had reported it stolen. It was most likely a local, not some sort of conspiracy, or Bi-Centennial related terrorist act, which people were on the alert for at the time. I think they know who did it, but did not have any substantial evidence. There is a nice display in the baggage room today that covers the bombing.
Most of the structural elements, like the large roof brackets, were saved and reused, so what is there today is mostly original, salvaged material. The upstairs room was new after the rebuild, and was set up as the dark room and film processing area for Sundance, and remains in that configuration today. The D&S occasionally puts crew members for the night in the apartment that Dell McCoy made out of the attic space, complete with kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and a large living room on the North end.
