company town. In Saltville it produced chlorine and caustic soda, leaching a considerable amount of methylmercury (by the company's own estimates, up to 100 pounds per day) into the soils and the North fork of the Holston River. This site was declared a Superfund site in 1982. In 1952, the Mathieson Chemical Company, as it was known by then, acquired a controlling interest in the pharmaceutical firm of E. R. Squibb & Sons (now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb). Afterward, the corporation diversified its interests into a wide variety of businesses, including plastics, cellophane, bauxite mining, automotive specialties, powder actuated nailing tools, and home construction. The Olin Ski Company manufactured camping and skiing gear. Olin skis by 1997 were produced under a licensing agreement by K2 Sports. Olin Industries and Mathieson Chemical merged in 1954 to form the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation. The new company had 35,000 employees, 46 domestic and 17 foreign plants. The company manufactured phenoxy herbicides and anti-crop agents for Fort Detrick under contract to the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. The company also manufactured electric batteries, marketing them for use in flashlights. John Olin retired in 1963; the following year, the company brought in hardware experienced executives to run Winchester. The new management team introduced cheap, forged-metal parts into the Winchester line, which eventually damaged the quality reputation Winchester had previously enjoyed. 1924 "Muck Dam Collapse" Nearly 30 years prior to Olin acquiring Mathieson Chemical, a muck dam collapsed, sending a 30-foot wall of water, mud, mercury, and alkali down the Holston River valley into the company town of Palmertown, a community of Saltville, Virginia. Bodies, homes, and cars were washed as far as seven miles down the valley. In the aftermath of the flood, 19 people had died. Corporate reduction (1969-2010) The company became the Olin Corporation in 1969, and began to sell off many of its acquired businesses. Since then, the Olin Corporation has been shrinking (except for brief expansion in the early 1980s). In addition to the above-mentioned, Olin Corporation was the first U.S. corporation to be prosecuted for violations of the arms embargo, and eventually was convicted in the early 1978 for selling Winchester rifles to private dealers in South Africa. When charged, the Winchester Division of the Olin Corporation affirmed in a legal brief that: After ongoing declines in its business at Winchester, on December 12, 1980, Olin made the decision to sell