Mysterious Thursday blasts rattle the Mother Lode

Several loud explosions apparently originating from the Carson Hill area could be heard from Jamestown to Vallecito on Thursday.

At least 50 curious residents called the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office throughout the day inquiring about the noises, according to dispatchers, who had been told it was blasting at the Carson Hill open pit rock quarry near New Melones Reservoir.

 The quarry’s co-owner Brad Sutton, of Vallecito, said he thinks crews from the “Mythbusters,” a San Francisco-based Discovery Channel show that has performed outlandish experiments at the quarry in the past, may have been up to their old tricks again.

Sutton added that he was not at the quarry on Thursday, so he couldn’t confirm the show was behind explosions.
Sonora resident Mark Endicott said he heard what sounded like “sonic booms” going off throughout the day from his residence on Racetrack Road.

Endicott said the thunderous noises reminded him of the noises he heard while living in Eugene, Ore., when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980.

“That was going on for a long time though, where these were more like individuals booms,” he said.

The “Mythbusters” crew has taped several episodes at the quarry in the past, including a November shoot when they strapped an 8-foot-long rocket to a test dummy at the quarry and launched it 400 feet into the air.

Calaveras County Sheriff’s deputies and representatives from the Discovery Channel could not be reached for comment late Thursday evening.