And they weren't licensed for it? I'm stunned.

Sounds like a fishing trip, interrupted!

It says a small town. Good bet some farmer had it in an old shed for dislodging [polite term for blowing the hell out of] big stumps. We found some ourselves a couple of years ago that my husband's father had bought and never used. When the stuff is new, you go and pick it up at the depot and transport it in an OPEN pickup truck for safety sake. When it's old, there is no safety - unstable isn't the word.

Urbanites may find all this hard to believe, but old barns and sheds are filled from back to front as time passes. They can be excavated like rock layers containing fossils. One can date items with fair accuracy if you have the requisite local knowledge. Old saying: A farmer will keep an entire ancient combine out back in case he needs a ten cent washer.

What were they going to do with it? Are you kidding me? You ever see what a quarter stick does to a cow patty?

Let's not attribute malice where stupidity is much easier to believe...

Confession time. I did a similar stunt when I was 16. In our case we didn't find dynamite but made our own explosive by wrapping several fireworks and re-packing them in a piece of PVC pipe. I guess it was a pipe bomb.

Our motive? Small town and extreme boredom and a fair amount of stupid. That and a very testosterone driven urge to see things go BOOM.

We didn't want the blast to be too bad or spread shrapnel so we chose as our "bomb blast shelter" the hole in a really, reall old oak tree on the edge of town. Rumor was the tree was 300+ years old. We figured it was oak, therefore sturdy and blast proof. Right?

Remember, we were stupid. We pack the device in the tree, light the fuse and run like hell. 30 seconds later came a somewhat muffled BOOM and a very pleasent concussion from the hole. It was silent for about 2 seconds and then we started cheering and high-fiving...

Then we heard the first crack....like splintering wood. We stood in horror when in the next 45 seconds we watched as a crack spread from the hole up and down the trunk. The tree split in half with one half falling on to the road and the other half into the field behind it.

We were completly stunned and did the only thing we could think to do in that scenario. We ran like hell and swore never to tell anyone.

Local paper blamed juvenile delinquents and vandalism. Wasn't anything like that...well, it was vandalism but not intentional. We didn't think the tree would split in two, but like I said we weren't too bright.

A teenager isn't terribly bright about calculating consequences. The more teenagers you get together the lower the IQ and rational thought ceases to exist.

I actually lean more towards "stupid" in this case, although we might stick "really" in front of it.

Hey, casual rock excavation is an exhilirating hobby.

What were they going to do with it? Blow something up. What would any red-blooded American lad do with a few sticks of dynamite.
I'm not saying they weren't stupid, I'm saying they were teenagers.
"Males should be raised in a barrel and fed through the bung-hole until 21. At which time they are either let out or the bung is inserted."
R.A. Heinlein, paraphrased from memory.