American Tripoli INC.

FROM THIS CORNER
By
Glenna J. Wallace

AMERICAN TRIPOLI INC.

Recently the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma opened our Law Enforcement Training and Shooting Complex located on Stateline Road aka Cemetery Road just outside city limits of Seneca, MO. The Complex is located on 456 acres in Oklahoma we purchased from the Martin brothers who purchased the land from the Tripoli plant in Seneca. Many people don’t know that Tripoli is a soft type rock or mineral found in very few places in the world, with the area around Seneca, MO being one of those locations. Following are other Tripoli facts shared by Bruce Anderson, current owner of the Tripoli Plant located in Seneca, just a block from our Bluejacket Complex.

“Seneca Standard” Tripoli was first discovered in 1869 in the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri. This was one year after the town of Seneca was formed and two years before the arrival of the railroad.

Tripoli is an industrial mineral primarily used in buffing and polishing compounds designed to polish/shine metal. Tripoli primarily relies on two industries: construction and automotive. Many products used in the home or office building such as, door knobs, faucets, light fixtures, pots and pans, musical instruments, etc. are quite often polished with a compound made containing Tripoli. Other uses include the abrasive in brake pads and a filler/extender in paints and concrete.

Commercially valuable Tripoli is found only on the northern coast of Spain and in the vicinity of Seneca, Missouri. The Tripoli found in the Seneca area extends roughly eight miles into Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Our Tripoli is mined by pushing the overburden out of the way with a dozer. Then, the Tripoli is loaded into dump trucks and hauled to drying sheds where it will stay for 8-12 months. A drying shed is a building with a roof and no walls. This allows the wind and temperature to assist in drying out the Tripoli before it is hauled to the processing plant. When the crude Tripoli is adequately dried, it is hauled to the processing plant where it is crushed, dried, sized, and packaged (50 lb., 100 lb., 2000 lb. bags) so it can be shipped literally all over the world.

This shooting range is located in a 456 acre plot of land that included three Tripoli deposits. Mining was completed on this plot in the late 1980’s. American Tripoli has a very good reputation with the state of Oklahoma and the Federal authorities of restoring land, when the mining is completed, to its original state.

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe purchased this 456-acre tract in 2014 and opened the Training Center and Shooting Complex in 2018.

Bruce Anderson, Tripoli Owner, 2018
Feel free to visit the company’s website
at www.AmericanTripoli.com.