PaulJ: yes, BFGoodrich bought Simmonds from Hercules in 1991 when Hercules decided to concentrate on flavorings and fragrances. Big change from gunpowder (sold to Alliant) and aerospace. Then they dropped the BF around 2000 in an attempt to distant their image as a tire company. Then United Technologies acquired Goodrich in 2012, I think it was. They had previously bought Hamilton Standard and Sundstrand, and combined them into Hamilton Sundstrand. Then they merged Goodrich with Hamilton to form UTC Aerospace Systems. They sold off Sikorsky a couple years later. Then most recently, they spun off Otis Elevator and Carrier Air Conditioner and simultaneously merged with Raytheon and so now we are a tiny little part of Raytheon Technologies. But we are still legally SPPI.
Hastings: yes, I work in Vergennes (or did, back when I used to go to the office, pre-COVID) and live about halfway between Vergennes and Middlebury. Not far from Dead Creek. If I need groceries and am starting from home, I go to the bigger stores in Middlebury since the one in Vergennes is kind of like a Soviet commissary - you just never know what they'll have on any given day - and now with social distancing, they sometimes make you stand in line just to get in to find out.
OVERLOADDED: In spite of the tragedy, there's just something amusing about the thought of a grenade factory burning down. When Hercules made black powder, that factory would burn down every few years. They'd slap it back up and carry on. I don't think it was much of a building. I remember that story from before my days at SPPI.
MikeJinVT: I am feeling a lot less certain that there were any made in Bellows Falls after all this info. The one old guy in particular that I remember telling that story retired about 15 years ago.
That logo on the left side of the mag plate is very similar to the SP logo, but it doesn't form the P the way the SP logo does: