Trust me, it was from the Tacoma Smelter. It only happened when there was a mild north wind, we were about a mile and a half due south of the stack. The pulp mill was almost due east of us and east winds were pretty rare. I definitely know the difference between the pulp mill smell and ASARCO! When it was really bad, in the late 50's, sometimes we would stay inside and skip school, if dad had the car (NP extra board).

One summer I worked relief for the NP billing job, which went to every industry on the tideflats that had an NP billed car. I got to know all the individual odors! Needless to say, the most distictive was St. Regis, followed by the aluminum plant, Certainteed (if I remember right, that made roofing) and a couple spots on the route that had strong dead fish odor. It was an interesting job, but a huge amount of paperwork and I hated it. I was real glad to go to college!

Steve