Ronald C. Brown
Published: 1979
Total Pages: 248
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When the colorful western prospectors had made their strikes and moved on, they left behind them another, lesser known breed of men, the hard-rock miners. For six decades these men followed mining opportunities into the boom towns of the intermountain West and gouged from the depths of other men's wealth. In mines ranging from prospect holes to underground extractories, they picked and blasted, sometimes in shifts of twelve hours, and found not only ore and minerals but also lung-destroying dust. Working by candlelight in ill-ventilated, narrow, and often sweltering depths, they courted dangers from fire, gas, subterranean water, and cave-ins. Management's interest in high productivity and profits often jeopardized miners' needs for a living wage and job security. Above ground they lived in communities like Cripple Creek, Goldfield, Bisbee, and Leadville, communities that were western yet urban. There they faced the rigors of a rugged climate, frontier scarcities, and ramshackle housing. But they relieved their hardships with their own brand of entertainment: rock-drilling contests that were to the miner what rodeos were to the cowboys, practical jokes, traveling show troupes, and social gatherings.
