On August 27, those living in Colorado’s 161,260-resident Mesa County received an emergency alert related to an explosion that was set to rock the area. Granted, that message was only meant to be sent to a smaller isolated area – not the entire county, but an explosion was indeed set to take place.

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, a Grand Junction family was clearing debris from their property on the 2500 block of Kenneth Court when they found a “large quantity” of dynamite and blasting caps on August 26.

The Grand Junction Police Department Bomb Squad was brought into the mix, with this team determining that the dynamite was too unstable to be moved for disposal. It was estimated that the explosives were more than 50 years old.

The team was able to remove the blasting caps so that the dynamite could be disposed of at a later date, though it was determined that the safest option was to detonate the dynamite on the property where it was found.

Impacted utilities were removed or shut off to make the detonation as safe as possible, with communication related to the situation delivered to those who may be impacted. There was a bit of confusion among the greater Mesa County community after an alert system failed to properly message only those in the immediate area, sending a county-wide alert instead.

That alert read: “This message is from your local 911 Communications Center. A planned controlled explosion is scheduled to take place in your area today. You may hear a loud noise. This event is not a danger to the public. Please do not call 911 regarding the noise.”

Some residents of neighboring Garfield County have made online claims that they received the message, as well.

The dynamite was detonated at about 11:45 a.m. on August 27. There were no injuries related to the detonation and there is no ongoing threat to the community. A video of that detonation has not yet been published online.

“We would like to thank the residents for their careful response when finding the explosives on the property,” read a press release on the matter. “Safety is always our first priority and we’re glad that the historic blasting caps and dynamite could be disposed of in a controlled manner.”

Why the dynamite was being stored on the property was not addressed in a press release on the matter. Given the suspected age of the dynamite and the extensive mining that has historically taken place in western Colorado, it may have been related to that.