Arriving at the mine by rail, we were met by a guide who had worked in the mines in his youth but as he said “I finally got smart and became a brick layer” to avoid the risks and back breaking life of a miner. A boy would start his mining career at 8 years old working 10 hours a day running errands, keeping the stove in the miner shack going and learning the trade.
Our guide showed us how early miners worked in teams of twos with one holding the drill bit and the other a sledge hammer pounding holes for dynamite sticks to blast the rock face loose. This was done by candlelight with the sledgehammer hitting the end of the bit just inches from the holder’s head. They would swap regularly so if one missed there would always be a chance for “pay back”. He showed us the tools used and focused on one long instrument with a small spoon like end. This was used to remove the dynamite sticks that had not exploded. This task was always assigned to the person who had set the charges. It was not unusual for an unexpected explosion to occur in this process. Add that to cave-ins, flooding, gas explosions, and damage to the lungs by breathing in silica dust and one could understand why unions and federal regulations developed. To get us interested in the types of ore, our guide showed us samples taken from the mine. The copper mixed with silver was our favorite.
Then we entered the mine. The temperature plunged about 20 degrees from temperatures in the nineties outside. We all donned hard hats, which were to become very useful. We walked on a narrow plank between the old rusted tracks used to haul the ore out occasionally whacking our hard hats on the low rock outcroppings overhead. We developed a hunch to avoid the overhead and wondered what 10 hours of this would be like. Alternately we would look up for obstructions and down to stay on the narrow, slippery and unstable walkway. One misstep and the waterlogged mud would suck off footwear. Water ran over the floor below the planks and dripped from fissures above our heads. We stopped at one of the intersecting mine shafts to see a vein of silver, which could go for miles through the rock. That is what the miners would follow for as long as it was profitable.
