.' .

I . .. .~

PIUTE COUNTY

MINING HERITAGE

ORAL HISTORIES

PartiCipants:
1. Jim Anderson (Hoover's)

- 2.
3.
4.
Rell Frederick (Marysvale)
Roger Howes (Marysvale)
Joel Johnson (Marysvale)
5. Bob Leonard (Monroe)
- 6.
7.
Bert Lund (Marysvale)
Atella Nilsson (Monroe)
8. Rollo Peterson (Marysvale)
- 9.
10.
11.
Gary Quinn (Richfield)
Pratt Seegmiller (Marysvale)
Richard Sylvester (Marysvale)

PIUTE COUNTY MINING HERITAGE, NO. 96-1

 South Sevier Jligh School
430 West 100 Soutlt -.Monroe, Utalt S4754 - (SOl) 527-4651- 'lax (SOl) 527-4653

March 4, 1996

To whom it may concern:

The Marysvale Oral History project began with a field trip to Bullion Canyon in
October, 1995. Students from my eleventh grade Honors English class were given the
opportunity to visit the Miners' Park and to also help clear a hiking trail near the park.
Bob Leonard, archeologist for the Fishlake National Forest, guided students in their
trail work and helped pique their interest in the mining history of the area. When the
students discovered that several miners were still availoble for interviews, the
students asked to conduct an oral history project instead of writing the traditional
research paper requi red of eleventh graders.

In January, 1996, students visited with miners in their homes in Marysvale. Tapes
were made of the intervi ews and were later transcri bed by the students. After the
miners had an opportunity to respond to the first drafts, students completed the
project by finaliZing their transcriptions, and also writing a summary of their
findings. The last step in the project involved a presentation to the entire class.

Although a someti mes tedi ous process, I be Ii eve students to have gai ned more
i nformat i on from their i ntervi ews than they woul d ever retai n from textbooks. Also,
the one common factor which emerged from the interviews was a new respect for
those individuals who worked so hard in the mines of Piute County. The health
problems which many of the miners face in their later years was especially striking
to the students.

Many individuals focilitated this project. Special thanks go to Bob Leonard of the U.S.
Forest Service, Dr. Allen Coryell, Principal of South Sevier High School, and most
importantly, those miners who allowed my students into their homes. and worked with
them on ~ transcript that was nnally ~cceptable as an:hive m~terial.

Sincerely,

Sharon K. Glenn
Honors English teacher
JIM ANDERSON'
------------------------------------

MINING HISTORY ORAL REPORT

INTERVIEWEE: Jim Anderson

INTERVIEWER: Kerry Greenhalgh and Jessica Abraham

DATE: January 18, 1996

PLACE: Hoover's Cafe

SUBJECT: Mining History in the Marysvale Area

The original transcript was altered, edited, clarified, and

enlarged upon on February 2, 1996, by Jim. Anderson.

KG: This is an interview with Jim Anderson. This interview is

being conducted on January 18, 1996, at Hoover's Cafe. My
name is Kerry Greenhalgh along with Jessica Abraham. The
subject is Mining History of the Marysvale Area.

KG: When did you first start mining?

JA: It was about 1956-57.

KG: Why did you start mining?

JA: Well, it was a good job and it was in the uranium mine.
Probably in this country then it was a better paying job than
most places.

JES: Where did you mine at?

JA: It was over on the uranium district on the mountain that's

behind this cafe here. It started in a Freedom Mine, the
Freedom Prospector.

JES: Could you tell us a little about the mine and what it was
like?

JA: The uranium was a mineral that comes down deep from the
earth and pushes up. Different volcanic eruptions caused the
mineral to settle in different places. But mostly when its
pushed up your earth opens up and these little captures, in
other words they were in vertical veins and the uranium was
there. Most of your uranium was mined in your Colorado
Plateau area. It was washed from this country over to there or
out along these different places and it was in a flat vein. A
sedimentary vein. These are all primary volcanic access veins.

JES: What was one of your typical days from starting to end?
What would you do?

JA: When I first started I was doing what they call tramming.
Now we would go in and the miners would work in the stopes,
which is on a vertical vein. You know and gonna have to dig a
drift that went down like this. And along this drift about every
10 feet there was a chute that came out of the bottom. Then on
the bottom on the drift there was a track and we had these mine
cars that we'd roll them under and open the chutes and fill
them. That's what I started to do. And then they would have to
pull the ore down enough so that the miner could get back up in
and drill his next round and shoot it. Most of them were 100
foot on 100 foot levels. When they get through this 100 to this
100 why then we'd pull the ore out in shifts. But that's basically
what we did. Just load those cars and we'd move 'em out and
then there would be a motor trammer or bucket trammer would
come along and hook on to them and take them out. In the main
shaft they would put them in a car, dump them in an ore bin
and then trucks hauled it down to the railroad station. But that
was baSically what I did to start with.

JES: So did you live close to the mine or did you have to travel a
long way to get there?

JA: The mine?

JES: Yeah.
JA: No, it was just the mine over here. Probably had 50 miles
of track in it but where you went to work it was only like 5-10
minutes from the time you got out there, went down the shaft,
went down 500 feet, then got in the car or else walk. You only
had 10 minutes at the very most, then you were to work.

2
KG: Did you work really long days or do really hard work?

JA: No, when I first stared they pretty much limited it to 8

hours. Towards the end there we cut it shorter. The mine safety
rules said that you can't be underground any more than 8 hours
at a time. From the time we started down in, till we come out at
the end of our shift that would be 8 hours or less.

KG: Do have any memorable experiences from mining that you

would like to share with us?

JA: Well, we had a few accidents. There was three of us and

we were finishing up the stope, pulling the ore out of it. In
between the shoots there's a bulkhead. The ore goes up about
SO to 100 ft. When you drill in that ground over there you have
to use water to keep the dust down, otherwise you get what they
used to call silicosis or the rocks and dust would get in your
lungs and set up like cement. There's lime and stuff in the
ground that form crystals and cut till your lungs start to bleed.
It got really solid and your lungs just.... that's what a lot of the
old timers got. They used to call it consumption working in the
coal mines. So they had to use water to drill with and in
between these shoots on those bulkheads the ore would build up
and we'd go up and we'd pull all we could out of the shoot. Then
we'd take a bomb and maybe a stick of dynamite on a long stick,
like 15 to 20 feet, long push it up in that shoot, and lay it
against that ore that was on the bulkhead and shoot it off. It
would knock down 5 or 6 cars at a time. This one time this guy
showed us how to do it easier and it did a better job. It looked
kinda scary to me but we did it anyway. We took a 2 ft. length
of pipe and we put 3 sticks of dynamite in it. We cut the
primers and then they put that on the end of a stope hammer. A
stope hammer is an air hammer. Air pressure pushes the
hammer up and then you got a hammer that beats it and it
rotates the drill. We put that bomb on the end of the stope
hammer and pushed it up on the bulkhead. We got it up in there
a couple of feet. We had four stopes and we were putting the
fourth one up in and I could smell powder burning. I got a little
bit scared. Just as I turned this kid that was in the mine told me
to go tum the air off we're through. I walked about 4 or 5 feet
and the bomb went off. I had to go down and tum the air off the
main valve. I came back and the bomb had went off. He still had
the pressure on the stope hammer. He was still controlling it

3
when it went off. There was three of us there, the one guy was
sitting down off the side the drift. He was taking his shoe off so
I figured he'd been hurt. With all the dust I really couldn't see
anything, but I finally saw the other ones light. It was about
that far off towards the drift and I figured he was probably
under about 20 ton of ore. He wasn't, it had just knocked his hat
off. He couldn't see, it had blinded him. Well he got his eyesight
back but just the dust and stuff had blinded him. So I got him
gathered up and put his hat back on and lead him to where I
could get him outside. I went back down to get the other guy out
and he'd got about half way down an incline and he threw his
boot up. He took it off and a piece of timber had come down and
the sharp end had hit his foot just like that and crushed it. We
had a doctor in Marysvale then. We sent Del Ray Epling down to
the doctor. I got the other guy and got another car and took him
down. We saw the x-ray, you know you got a bunch of little
bones in your fingers? Even this little bone out in here on the
fingernail of his hand had cracks in it. Imagine the power of
that stuff. That's probably one of the things that was really bad,
it took me awhile before I wanted to go back underground. Most
of the accidents that happened in the mine or do happen in the
mine are usually from getting in too big of a hurry or something
isn't exact. You fail to do something right. There's always times
when you get in a accident but its not really your fault. It is
safe and you should know when to get in and out. There was
another time that we didn't have a accident but, we were
helping a miner I was doing the timber in the mine. In other
words I was putting the, building the shoots and stuff, .... We'd
started this stope and when we put a set of timber in it would
be about every 4 ft. We would put 2 posts that was down on the
floor level and up to about 7 foot. Then we'd put a cap on it.
This particular stope we worked in our timbers were 12 inches
and the cap would set across them was about 18 inches. It was
about 6 ft across between the two walls and we had gone up in
about SO -60 ft. up in the stope. We went up in the one morning.
We'd take one-half of a stope this way and shoot around there,
and we'd move all our equipment over to this side. The next day
we'd drill this side and move our equipment over here. But this
morning there was about 15 ton of rock that had come down on
the drill and it was stuck like that. We had to bring that out.
They'd pull the ore down where we could put the hammer up
and drill the next round. When we got it pulled down there was
a little crack. They call it the footwall. Most of your vertical
veins actually tip like this, and this wall down here was called
the footwall. This one was called a hanger wall. This particular
one was tipped like that. It went almost the full length of that
stope. It folded up maybe a quarter inch to about that far and it
went back in a ways. So I was kinda new and I really didn't
know what was going on. The miner said, "Well I think I better
go get the boss and have him take a look at it." So he pulled us
out for a week. He said, "We better go out and work somewhere
else for a week. Then we'll go back and see what's it's done."
Well it had opened up about maybe double. "Well I guess we
better not take too much of a chance," he said. Well I went back
in about three months later. To show you how much pressure
was on this 12 inch round spruce timbers the weight of that rock
coming down pushed up that 12 inch timber clear through that
18 inch cap. Underground in one particular area out here has
clay in it. You know its really slick. They called it soap slick
and that's one of the things that caused your caves. You'd get a
little water running outa there. But to take a timber 12 inches
round and push it through one that's 18 inches its like you took
a piece of dough or something and pushed a hole in it. There's a
lot of pressure. A lot of things happened in the period of time
we were out there working in that mine. There were more
people killed on the highway from Richfield to Pangutich then
there were out in the mine. In the amount of time we spent it
was safer down there.

KG: Can you tell us about the changes from then til now.

JA: How what?

KG: Like the changes from when you first started mining til you
quit.

KG: How long did you mine?

JA: Well I worked out there for off and on for a little over 5
years. One of the changes in that particular mine was the use
of the dynamite. When I worked there they almost exclusively
used dynamite to do all their blasting and a soon after I quit out
there why a they started using fertilizer (ammonium nitrate). It
was more stable to handle. Other than that the old methods of
mining, the drilling and a shooting stuff like that were pretty
much the same. They're wasn't an awful lot of change in those

5
mines. Mostly your underground mines are pretty much the
same now, other than the type of explosives they used.

JES: Did you only mine one mine or did you mine quite a few?

JA: Just basically worked in the one. I have a little gold mine
that I've worked with but its really not that different. Ies in a
vertical vein.

JES: So gold and uranium are basically mined the same way?

JA: Most of your gold mines now, big gold mines that produce a
lot of gold, are the open pit type mines where they use a lot of
ore machinery. This is kinda interesting Kennecott copper up
there in Salt Lake is a the third largest producer of gold in the
United States, in the bigger mines.

JES: How do they get the uranium out, did trucks come and get
it or do you know about any of that, and where they took it?

JA: Most of the uranium ore from up here went to Salt Lake to
the Vitro Chemical Company. It was out on 33rd South in Salt
Lake. They ....... the ore ..... a tenth of a pound is packed with
uranium. Like when they used at the first ... was U308, or U238,
U23S., it ended up U238 what we produced here was U208. In
other words it was a some sort of uranium, trio three parts
uranium, and one part oxygen. What they did was concentrate it
and make it a U23S, take the part of oxygen out of it. It's like
taking a piece of metal that is rusty and getting rid of the rust.
That's basically the way it went after your layer down. The
plutonium stuff, ies a higher concentration. The plutonium
made uranium but that was the ore we sift here. It will
probably have a concentration like 1000 ton, at least, to get
down to their fuel. That's the same way with your plutonium.
It is what they use mostly in your power plants and stuff now.

KG: How did mining effect your life?

JA: How did if affect my life? Well it ruined it. No not really.
Without mining, without the desire and stuff years and years
ago to have something better you wouldn't of had mining. If
everybody stayed in the Garden of Eden I guess we would have
been perfect. But the desire to have something a little better to

6
find something good, gold and silver and platinum. They are
three minerals that are beauty .......... .It's just like you guys
wanting a new car or something like that, you want something a
little better, that's why I think people have the desire to do it.
You know, when they first started mining in this country? This
little gold mine we have up here, people that run it had farms
down, you know where Jerico is? Where Golden Obray lives?
That used to be called Jerico. They had the farm down there in
the summertime and they'd run sheep and cattle up there on the
mountain. When they found the mine they started and gold was
about four dollars an ounce right at the first but right now its
four hundred. Just that desire to work it. Then they eventually
got so they'd farm in the summer and run their cattle up there
like from November to the end of February, they spent the
whole winter mining. Guys would go home and they have 30-40
dollars cash. When they got home for summer and they'd have
to buy their seed and get their farm planted. When they were
bom you could buy a pair of shoes for a dollar and a quarter,
things have changed a little. The only things thats changed is
the dollar values. That four dollars and sixteen cents an ounce
of gold bought the samething that 400 dollars would buy now.
There's not really that much changed. There was not really that
much that changed my life. The first part of it was more of a
desire to have something a lot better. Then when I got older I
can see that I've got things a lot better than I did to start with,
but I've not got it any better that this guy down the street. Its
not changed and for him either. I'm not any better off than him,
but it's mostly just the desire to have something better.

KG: Well that's really all we have, but if you have more you'd
like to add.... Well thank you for your time, we really
appreciate it.
JA: If there hadn't been the desire to have something better we
would have been a pretty sad society. We wouldn't have roads
or freeways. My mother and father went to the Temple in SLC
to be married, it took them a week. Now you can make it in
three hours. Things have changed but they've gotten much
better.

JES: Did any of your ancestors mine?

JA: No, I'm pretty much the only one. I had one brother work,

-,
but he retired, he was working out in Kenocott. Other than that
I was the only one that mined. Once you find a chunk of gold
it's really neat. It's the thrill of getting in there and finding
something. There's a lot of good things you see in a mine. The
uranium mine had a lot of clay in it. It was really concentrated
and the only way we could tell how much was in it was to use a
?????? to count the amount of clay. This one place was about 7
ft. wide. You could see the prettiest green, yellow, purple, and
all these different colors. It was all different concentrations of
uranium and that was really interesting. It's kinda like when we
were little, working on the sugar beet farm. Most of them were
little, about that [shows size] but once in a while you get a big
one and it was quite a thrill. Its kind of the same thing with
your mining. You work all day and not see anything, then all
the sudden you'll find something pretty and good. Its quite a
thrill just to see the advances over the years. I got some drill
steel out here. It was hand steel they used in this mine up here.
It's about that long [shows length of steel]. When they were
drilling one guy would hold the steel and hit it with a hammer
and he'd turn it a quarter a tum each time it hit. These drills
rotate. If they don't why you got the bits. We used these sharp
edges, if you don't keep turning that why pretty soon it would
get stuck up in there. The wastes would come down and get
around the bottom of the bit, then you've lost your drift that's
why they had to tum them. We had another little deal they
couldn't figure out what it was. A piece of steel about that long[
shows length of steel] and on the end of it had a little curve on
it. They used it when they were drilling especially straight
down. There was a spoon. They would drill a while and they
would take this spoon and go down and get the waste out. Those
guys years ago when they were working up there all winter,
they spent a half a day or 12 hours down in the mine. They
might shoot two or three rounds. Some of the things you run into
when you use dynamite you've not got good ventilation.
Anytime you have combustion like when you bum wood you end
up with carbon monoxide. You can't keep that oxygen
circulating this is what happened in a lot of those stopes they'd
get up there to high and they would shoot a round and air
wouldn't circulate. It would let the carbon monoxide in it would
stay up in the mine. You'd get up there and you wouldn't have
any oxygen, your in trouble! That's what happened in a lot of
these old mines. This one over in Tooele, with this boy, one of
the reasons they can't go down in it there well its been there

8
quite awhile is that your carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide
both has a tendency to get heavier than the oxygen and it settles
down in the bottom. It displaces the oxygen and you can't live
without oxygen. Sometimes you get down in the mine and a lot
of the metal and stuff won't rust and that's the reason the
oxygen has been displaced by your carbon dioxide and carbon
monoxide. That's why you should never ever go into these old
mines. This uranium mine over here has got so much radon gas
in it that it is really dangerous.

JES: What is the mine like right now?

JA: It's mostly a gut mine. Its pretty much open. All the
entrances should be covered up so that people can't get in, but I
don't know that they are. They're putting doors on but they're
locked. Some of those mines over there would be okay to get in
but you really don't know which was which it would difficult.
You might just get in a place that is SO feet 10ng,10 feet wide
and no oxygen then your in trouble. You can't get through it and
you cant get out. There's a mine over by Monroe, I think the
shaft's about 80 feet down. I don't remember the peoples names
but I believe they were from Monroe. The man and his son went
down in it and never did come out. What it was is there was no
oxygen. Most of this mine I've got up here is one drift that goes
up. Most of the stopes are short, they went to open air. In the
summertime you go up in those mines and when its hot the air
comes down the shaft and out the drift. You get up there and
it's hot. You can feel in a hurry that its pretty cold. In the
winter the air goes the other way. It keeps the oxygen and stuff
in. Anytime you have an area where there's dead air, ......... .
back in and down and the ventilation down here and that's
where that kid in Tooele got in trouble.

JES: Did you work year round or just in the summer?

JA: I don't do very much work, I'm retired.

JES: I mean did you used to?

JA: Yeah.

JES: All year?

9
JA: Yeah. There was times when we'd have a lot of snow when
we'd get out there in the morning.

JES: Could you tell us about the long term physical effects of
working in the uranium mines?

JA: I had lung cancer. The doctors took the right upper lobe
out of me, with about 46 percent of lung capacity that I should
have.

JES: What was the uranium used for at the time you were
mining?

JA: Mostly for bombs.

JES: Well I think that's all we have.

JA: OK

KG: We would really like to thank you for your time, we really
appreciate it.

JA: OK, I hope that will tell you a little about mining.

Excerpts from post interview discussion.

One ounce of pure gold is used in every automobile.

Gold is used in electrical connections, without it we wouldn't

have color television or communication from satellites.

Even though gold is very pretty to look at, it's very useful.

There's nothing that you do at anytime during the day that

doesn't involve either raising something, like a farmer, or
somebody in a mine. These two things, farming and mining, are
basic things that have to be done.

Trees and things like mines should be harvested so they don't go

to waste.

10
 RELL FREDERICK:

-
INTERVIEW: ReI! Frederick
DATE: January 18, 1996
PLACE: Marysvale, Utah
INTERVIEWERS: Richard Hawley, Amanda Payne, and Alyssa Magleby
SUBJECT: Mining in Marysvale

AM- This is an interview with ReI! Frederick. This interview is being

conducted on January 18, 1996, in Marysvale, Utah by Richard Hawley,
Amanda Payne, and Alyssa Magleby. The subject is mining in Marysvale.

AP- You can just start with giving us a brief on what you did.

RF- I've worked in mines for about fifty years in Marysvale, Utah area and
several other states. I worked in the Deer Trail Mine, a base metal mine,
in the uranium mines, and in the gold mines. I worked in the Trona Mines in
Wyoming, and I was a Federal Mine Health and Safety Inspector.

AP- You've done a lot.

RF- It's taken a lifetime to do it all.

AM- How did you become interested and involved in mining, like when you
first started?

RF- When I was in high school in Marysvale, money was pretty tight. The
only summer jobs were in the mines so I started out mining when I was in
high school. That's where my work experience started and I stayed with
it.

AP- Could you just expand on these as much as you want. Just tell us
anything that comes to your mind. What do you remember about the areas
and what are some equipment and procedures you used?

RF- Well, we used the normal mining equipment: drills, dynamite for
blasting trees for ground support. I worked at the time they went from
using strictly dynamite to using ammonium nitrate compounds for blasting
 ----------------------- ------

agents. In my time in Marysvale we went from loading all the ore material
by hand to using mechanized equipment; air power, and diesel power. In
Marysvale we've got one aerial tramway that's quite unique to Southern
Utah.
Years ago, before my time, when the Mormon pioneers settled Utah, they
sent a crew down to Marysvale to check out gold on the Sevier River where
Pine Creek meets the Sevier River. They found a little gold and followed
it up Pine Creek to Bullion Canyon and made a settlement there. That
settlement is where they were at when they founded Piute County, and
Bullion City was the county seat of Piute County.

AM- Do you remember the dangers, the things they warned you about when
you were in the mines, or did they warn you about anything?

RF- When I started out mining, safety in this part of the country was not
taught as a way to act. Production was the name of the game but most men
learned safety just from knocks on the head and broken fingers. But later
that changed. After 1979 (later corrected as 1969) the Federal
Government could see that some areas of mining were not getting any
safety training or safety supervision, so they enacted a federal law that
federal inspectors would inspect mines and be sure that safety
requirements were met. That definitely helped the mining industry.

AM- Good. So did you like inspecting mines and bossing people around?

RF- When I was a young man, the thing I would have most wanted to do to
be fun in my life would be travel to different mines, and see them all; see
the mines, see how they mined, what they mined. So when I got a job as a
Federal Safety Inspector, I thought I had gone to heaven. I got to go to all
the mines and look, and besides that I got a good salary. So I was really
lucky

AP- What was the typical day in the life of the miner like?

RF- Well most mines in this area were fairly deep so you'd report to work,
get your light and the other equipment that you had to take, mine timber
 3

you expected to use that day, get on the mine train, work train, go into the
mine, and work drilling or loading or timbering, whatever your job
happened to be. Lunch would be eaten underground.
Everything worked out so it was an eight-hour day, but if your job
required excavating all the broken ore into the mine cars and drilling and
shooting again, it was a hectic day. You only had about seven hours to get
it done, with travel time and lunch time off. So you worked fast and
furious all day and when you thought it was about time for the ten 0' clock
break, it would be quitting time. That's why some people stayed with
mining. Time goes fast and climate's always the same.

RH- I guess that some days could be really grueling. What did you do for
recreation? Did you have any time off, your own free time? What did you
do then?

RF- Away from work? After we worked an eight-hour day, we had

sixteen hours a day to play. In Marysvale we always had either church or
town basketball teams and baseball teams. When I was younger,
swimming in the river was a neat sport. All of us did that in the summer
about sixteen hours a day (laugh). We had a roller skating rink. We had
movies. Before television we had movie houses. In this area of course,
picnicking, hunting, and hiking are big sports, and fishing too.

AM- Which activity that you did in your free time was your favorite? You
said in high school it was swimming and you did that constantly.

RF- Well in the summer we'd swim. In the fall and winter we'd hunt and
trap, ice skate on the river and the ponds. Horseback riding. Most of us
had at ,least one horse on the ranch.

AP- What is one of your most memorable experiences?

RF- I can't really think of anyone particular experience. One of the things
that I've enjoyed doing is myself, my brother, and another man leased the
Deer Trail Mine. We had our own crew to work. The mine that had been
shut down because the distance involved in selling the ore and the cost of
 4

getting it produced, excavated, outside, and loaded. When we took over, it

was a challenge to reopen the mine and make it pay. We worked the mine
for five years. We were forced to close when all of the companies shut
down their smelters. When the Kennecott Mine at Eureka closed down, that
was our last outlet for selling our ore without shipping to EI Paso, Texas.
Texas was just too far.

AM- Do you remember some of the most beautiful places you remember
working at?

RF- Well I suppose that Bullion Canyon Trail is one of the prettiest places
I've been. The city of Deadwood, South Dakota is a pretty place.

AM- What do you like the best about them?

RF- Well, in Deadwood the history of the Indians is terrific. Mining gold
in Leeds, South Dakota is what started the Indian wars that led to the
Little Bighorn Massacre. White men broke the Indian treaties, and went
into the Black Hills to get the gold with the U.S. government backing them.
There is a man in Deadwood that's building a statue to Crazy Horse, the
Indian chief, that fought the U.S. Army. He was building it while I was
there, and I was watching the progress.
Mount Rushmore is on the road that I traveled to and from the mine. It
was interesting to see that.

AP- You mentioned that you worked in other states. Can you tell what
that was like, the mining and the different things?

RF- Well, mining really is mining but it is more interesting to go to other

states. Some states enforce safety and environmental standards more
strict than others. Our enforcement of both safety and environment
standards have brought our state into a state that is one of the most
safety conscious and environmental sound states in the nation.

AM- Did you ever find any Spanish mining equipment hidden somewhere in
the brush or anything like that?
 5

RF- Well, really it's hard to say (laugh).It's hard to identify. I've found
markings on the trees on this mountain. By the Wedge Mine on Mount
Brigham there are marks on the trees and ground that don't fit anything
that , can make sense out of, except by comparing them with some of the
Spanish symbols I've seen.
When the first men went up Bullion Canyon looking for the gold that
they found in the Sevier River, they found an arastra that is different from
any I've seen at any of the other early mining camps in Utah. We claim
that the arastra here belonged to the Spaniards, but there's really no way
to prove it that I know of.

AM- Besides your brothers, did you have any other family here that you
worked with?

RF- 'came from a large family. I've one brother that worked in the mines
in Sigurd, the gypsum mines. My father worked in the mines. Of course I
had a brother that worked in the uranium mines, the same brother that I
was with when we leased the Deer Trail Mine. He worked in all the mines
around Marysvale. He worked with Barrick Gold Mining Company when they
found the gold in Tooele County and it is one of the very largest gold
producers (wife talking in background). Then I'm the youngest one of the
family so all my brothers have quit mining unless there's a big mine in the
sky.

RH- Approximately how old were you when you ...

RF- When I started? Probably about sixteen, mining in the summers.

RH- Was it a part-time job?

RF- Well, I knew the mine operators and when school was out in the
summer they'd give me work to give me a few dollars to go back to school
with in the fall.

AM- What were your living conditions like? Where did you live and how
 - -------------------------------------
6

was it? Was it warm all summer, were they really cold nights?

RF- We" most the time that I worked I lived in Marysvale. You can see
this morning it's two degrees below zero and (laugh) kind of windy so
it's very cold. Summers in Marysvale would probably beat most places in
the State of Utah because of the high mountains. The buildings that they
built were built mostly similar to ours. The people would remember the
boom and bust times of mining so they weren't constructed too well, most
of them.
I grew up in a house that was constructed with part stone walls, part
logs, part lumber. Not a very big house, but for those times we had to use
wood and coal to keep warm. As you can see this morning, we still use
wood. (Chuckle)
I worked in Nevada for a while, of course, Nevada is warm. The
recreation there amounted to, for me mostly, the company swimming pool.
It would stay warm till time to go to work the next morning so we'd stay
in the water most of the night.

AM- What kind of food did you eat while you were working, like lunch in
the mines?

RF- The basic food groups. Good, Sevier Valley potatoes and beef from
the Hawley Ranch.

RH- So he supplied some of the food, meat and stuff?

RF- Well yes, most of the time, I can remember we'd buy a half beef in the
fa". We hunted quite a bit so we'd have two or three venison. So our meat
supply was pretty well supplied by ourselves. The grocery stores were
about what they are now.

AP- What were the mines like?

RF- A mine is just a hole that goes back in one big rock and it's dusty in
there. You need water to keep the dust down. If you dig deep enough in the
mine you get to where water has collected, they caU it the water table.
 7

On all of the lower levels of the mine it's usually wet and sometimes it's
quite hot. At one mine I worked in, I worked in a place where it was 130
degrees, 100 percent humidity. I think at that temperature you can feel
the hot air in your lungs when you breath. I've worked in some cold mines.
You couldn't breathe and you couldn't see. Your eyes were watering too
badly to see and your nose was watering so bad you couldn't
breathe(chuckle). But really when you get in the deep, working part of the
mine, the temperature is normally around 68, 72 degrees. In the warmer
mines, or gassy mines ventilation is really careful. Fresh air has to be
pumped in to cool the mine or force the explosive gases out.

AP- How did mining change your life?

RF- Well, it didn't change my life because I mined all my life. Even
before, I was thinking that when I was in junior high school, one of my
friends and I knew about mining, but we hadn't been in a mine yet. So we
took a pick and shovel and in the regular, old dirt, we dug us a little mine
(laugh), just to practice. So I guess I was destined to mine from the time
I was born.
But mines do have hazards, occupational diseases. Silicosis was a
problem up until the safety requirements were enforced. Silica dust gets
in lungs and, can't be expelled, and cuts the lungs up eventually.
I've known people that have been hurt in the gassy mines in explosions
and fires. Fire is always a problem in the mine. If a fire starts, then if
the ventilation can't be quickly established to keep fire gases away from
where the miners were, then they get gassed from carbon monoxide and it
kills them. If they're three or four hours from medical help and need to be
transported to surface, it's quite deadly.
Federal and State law requires that anyone going underground have
what they call a self-rescuer. In the case of a fire, a self-rescuer will
change the carbon monoxide gas to carbon dioxide gas and give you an hour
or more time to escape the fire gases.
I noticed on the rescue they were just going to in Tooele County, I'm
sure you saw it on television where the boy fell down the shaft. Everyone
that went in the mines there was carrying a self-rescuer. Even though
there was no fire danger, the law has been in effect so long that it's a law
 8

that you do carry one. It's just an extra thing they do which would've
saved peoples lives if they'd had them in the early times I mined.

AP- Were there any fires while you were mining?

RF- I never worked trying to put out a fire. I was with the Federal Safety
people when they had the Sunshine Mine fire in Idaho. That killed ninety-
one people. Before I went to mining there was a mine fire in the Deer
Trail Mine that killed two people. The Wilburg Mine fire happened just
after I left the State Safety Enforcement Group. That killed 27 people.

AP- You've been very lucky, huh?

RF- Well, of the amount of people that mine, the fires haven't killed that
big a percentage, but they're really deadly when they do have a mine fire.
It's really easy to have a fire in a mine. It's dry, because of the
ventilation they put through, it dries the timber out and any little
mistake, electrical charge or something can start a fire. Then the air's
going enough to fan the flames. It happens real fast. Most mines have an
escape plan so that the workers know what to do when a fire does start.
In a mine a time or two there's been some work going on that I didn't know
they were doing. Cutting with the cutting torch or welding, and I have
smelled smoke caused by the work overheating the timber and the burning
of metal. We've evacuated places we didn't have to. There wasn't a fire
so we didn't lose anybody.

AP- How do you think your life would be if you hadn't mined?

RF- Well, you can dream up any kind of a scenario. I did go to schoof to be
an electrician, so probably I would work in the electrical or electronic
field. So I'd probably be in Marysvale repairing televisions and such.

AP- What made you decide not to be an electrician?

RF- I don't know. I can't answer.

 9

AM- How do you think the area around Marysvale changed from when you
began mining to when you quit mining, like what types of changes were
there?

RF- Well, as I was growing up and the mines were operating, Marysvale
had more people, more businesses operating in Marysvale. But as the
mines have been closed down for one reason or another people have had to
move so they could make a living. So from being a town of young, perky
people, now Marysvale is a town of retired people and, and not too many
children in Marysvale.

AM- Nice and calm (laugh) Any other changes?

RF- Well, if you go from a working type people to a retired type then you
can trust there's going to be less activity. Old people don't seem to get
out to social functions as much as younger people do. That's about the
only, the only difference I can see. When I was younger, we had an active
fire department. We were volunteers. We were all young people and
anxious to get something on fire so we could put it out (laugh). Now, if we
have a fire, we're lucky if the fire truck gets there before what's burning
burns down.

AM- What are any mistakes you made or anything you regretted that you
would've done differently, looking back?

RF- I can't think of anything. No, I wouldn't. I haven't done all I plan on
doing in this world, but what I have done, I am satisfied with it.

AP- What are some other things that you still plan on doing?

RF- Well, one of the things I plan on seeing concluded is our pioneer
museum in Bullion Canyon. Before I leave this world, I want to at least be
computer literate.

AM- What are you doing with the boiler to help the museum at Bullion
Canyon?
 ~---------------~-

18

RF- Well, the boiler is one thing we're working on now, but we've also
recovered a couple of buckets off the old tramway in Cottonwood Canyon.
We're going to put towers up and put the tramway buckets on it, hopefully
so people can tell how a tram works. People are still offering us other
pieces of equipment to put in the park. Eventually we hope to have a small
underground mine tour, and that will take the rest of my life.

AM- You've done a lot. A lot more than most people try to do. What were
some of the first things you were usually involved in? What type of work
did you do in the mine besides safety and inspection, when you were
actually working in them?

RF- Well I sort of did most jobs. In one of the mines I worked as an
electrician. I worked in one mine I can remember, drilling what we called
rings for test explosions. On the larger bomb tests, they made big
chambers to put the nuclear bombs in for testing and I worked in the big
chambers. I worked in tunnels. But most jobs are either drilling, blasting,
or timbering. Oh, and operating loading equipment. I've helped design
ventilation systems for mines, and fire plans and escape plans for some
mines I had my own mining company. I've done some rehabilitation
projects and reopened abandoned mines.

AP- Which type of mining did you like the best?

RF- Inspecting.

CAP and AM)- You'd get to travel a lot.

RF- One of the hardest parts of mining was having your work done in the
time allotted. All of the work crews had to blast their work area at the
same time so they could get on the train and out of the mine while the
gases from the explosions cleared. We were kind of nervous all the time.
It makes you think faster though, if a rock falls and you have to jump
before it hits you (chuckle).
 11

AM- SO, does mining take a lot of work?

RF- A lot of work. Mining is real hard work. Most miners, by the time
they're between sixty and sixty-two, or at a lower age than that, get out
of mining because their bodies are worn out.

AP- tn which ways was it hard and what do you think was the hardest
about mining?

RF- Well, different mines were different. When I first started out in
mining, in loading mine cars we used a round point shovel, we shoveled the
ore up over our backs and into the cars. We got air-powered equipment to
move ore in the bigger areas. Then the timbering became the hardest job,
carrying the heavy timbers and getting them up to fit in the back.

AP- Have you seen a lot of people getting hurt doing any hard thing like
hitting their feet while they were shoveling or getting hit by logs while
they were logging?

RF- Welt I've seen a lot of people hurt mostly from falling rocks or from
moving equipment. Very seldom did we hurt ourselves (laugh).

RH- What was one of the deepest mine shafts you went down?

RF- The deepest I've been underground was at the Homestake Mine. One
shaft will normally only go down 5000 feet vertically, then the weight of
the cable makes it restrictive, too restrictive to go deeper. At the
Homestake Mine they had a SOOO-foot shaft and then a 3000-foot shaft off
that. So that went down 8000 feet to the bottom of the mine.
In the Bergen shaft in Eureka, the water is still percolating through the
rocks, and the water temperature is somewhere between 1 50 and 180
degrees. So it's hot in that mine all the time. I've seen people work there
when one man would work and another miner would stand back and hold the
water hose on the miner to keep him cooled off while he was working.
People have stepped in the water at the bottom of the shaft before it's had
a chance to cool. It went over their boots and scalded the skin off their
feet. That should scare anyone out of the mines.
 12

(everyone laughs)

AM- Did you often come upon people who were claustrophobic?

RF- I've only seen two or three. My wife is. She won't go underground. She
can't stand it. One of the kids I went to school with can't go underground.
Then I got a job as mining superintendent. The mine manager hired a man
that was supposed to be an experienced miner. We started in the mine and
the guy couldn't stand it and said, "Let me outfIt He stood up in the mine
car, a timber hit him, knocked his hard hat off, and knocked him down.
Before I got the train stopped, he stood up again without a hat on, and that
time the timber knocked him down. He stayed down 'til we got stopped and
he got out of the train. So his job lasted five minutes.
A lot of people, when they kind of get deeper in the mine, past where
any light penetrates, and everyone turns their light out, can't stand it
because you simply cannot see. There's no light. You can hit yourself in
the eye with your finger and, and you'll never see your finger. See stars
maybe (chuckle) But it's really hard to picture what really black is, really
dark.
AM- What type of clothes did you wear in the mine?

RF- Depending on which mine, but if it was a wet mine and you went down
in the lower levels, water was dripping everywhere. You'd wear rain gear,
and mostly you wear rubber boots in the mine because you use water all
the time for dust control. Depending on the job that you were working in,
an area like Marysvale where the winters are cold and the summers are
hot. In the winter, if your job is outside, you have to dress really warm,
and protect your face from the wind. Then when you get in the mine, ready
to load your train, the air's warm so you wear what you can, and strip the
outer layers of clothes off. Then if you're working in a mine, you have to
have a hard hat on, safety glasses are required, you always wear gloves,
no rings are allowed. Some people wear rings. There is not a law against
them but it's one of the safety rules that rings are real dangerous. In
most mines you're not aHowed to carry matches or cigarettes or any
smoking material into the mine.
 13

AP- Which one did you like best, the night shift or the day shift?

RF- When I was younger, I liked the night shift the best, but as I got older
I probably liked the swing shift, afternoon until midnight.

AP- How many shifts did they have in a day?

RF- Three eight-hour shifts.

AP- How much did you work in the uranium mines?

RF- I worked in Moab for a year or two in the deepest mine there, the Rio
Algom, which is on the east side of the Lisbon Fault near Moab. That's the
only mine that was on the deep side of the fault. The mine had ore that
was SO percent uranium in some places. When I did that, the Federal
Safety Standards were in effect and they ventilated that mine a little
over 100,000 cubic feet of air per minute. So radiation wasn't near the
problem there as it was in the smaller Marysvale mines that were closer
to the surface.

AM- Did they ever give you any warning whatsoever before you started
working the uranium mines so you had any clue what the dangers were?

RF- I didn't until after 1969. Then the Federal Safety Act took effect. Up
until that time the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of
Energy had a policy of not warning miners about the radiation because they
were afraid no one would mine the uranium.

RH- There were some coal and uranium mines in the east end of Utah,
down by Hanksville. Did you ever work in those mines?

RF- I inspected some of those mines. I didn't work in them. The Ekker
family owned the one mine. 1 can't remember the name of it but it was
one of the highest uranium producers in Hanksville ---I guess after that
they opened up the little town there called Tickaboo. We built a mill but I
don't believe they produced any uranjum before the bottom fell out of the
 14

- uranium market and before they got the whole operation running.
When I was younger, they had company owned towns at most mines.

It[ ~lmr~(~ r~'~ (~,; ;~rvffr~~ffj (gvtivrV I Vue ~u~p to

I

Blue

O\amond, Nevada and \ didn't have a nick.e\ left \n my pock.et, but l'd worked
in the mines and I told them I had, so they hired me. After being hired they
.. gave me a scrip book worth so much money at the company store. They had
a boarding house to eat in and rooms to sleep in. They also furnished me a
hard hat so all I needed was a body. I worked there quite a while and I
liked it.
. The U.S. Lark Mine that Kennecott runs now had a boarding house they
operated the same way. You could show up broke and they would give you
.. a meal, send you to work, give you a place to sleep, then take the cost of it
all out of your pay, of course. Then on payday you'd get a slip of paper

.. showing what you owed the company store .

They had a boarding house at the Cardiff Mine in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

. When I worked there, we'd go up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta and go

in the mine and go through the mountain in the mine tunnel to Big
Cottonwood Canyon to the boarding house.
.. We worked on that side of the mountain and that was another wet mine
where pumping was a problem. When I went to work there, I was the
youngest man. All the old men knew aU about mining and they new the
company we were working for didn't have any money. The company needed

.. somebody to watch the pumps through the night while the work crew was
off, so I offered to do that. I worked eight hours on the regular shifts and
then watched the pumps for the next eight hours. --- That's the first
.. time I ever worked all alone underground with no way to get out if
something would've gone wrong. Luckily nothing ever went wrong. That is
II one way to get the feeling of being all alone.
That's a bad thing about a mine, they don't allow men to go in the mines
. alone where there are dangerous conditions. That covers most places in a
mine. You have to have at least two people if you're in there working and

.. you also have to have communications with the outside .

In the Deer Trail we worked a mile and a half underground and we put

.. telephones in the mine work areas. One day the phone rang. I answered it
and it was a little girl's voice on the phone. I thought I had the long
distance operator with this telephone, like maybe the operator out of
..
 15

Richfield (laughing) but it was just a girl, a friend of the boss' daughter.
She was there playing games with me.

AM- Kids wilt be kids (laughing)

RF- Yes. Well all miners are like kids, they play all the time. Kind of a
happy, go lucky bunch. I guess if you work hard, you play hard.

AP- Do you regret any of the work you did in the uranium mines or in any
of the other mines you did?

RF- Well, it is hard to answer that question, the way things worked out.
But no, I don't feel the government didn't warn the uranium miners about
the danger and didn't make sure the corrections were made so there
wouldn't be a danger. But things have changed now so there's really no
problem. The other mines were the same way. Some guys went to work
blasting without knowing the dangers of blasting equipment. All that's
been corrected. Now you cannot go to work unless you've been schooled in
the dangers of what to do in the mines.

AM- Did you know anybody that mined in the winter and farmed during the
summer? Did you have any friends that did that? Was it hard on them?
How did it affect them?

RF- Well some of them handled it and some of them didn't. Some of them
would farm all day for themselves, and then rest all night in the mine.
Some of them would rest all day in the mine then farm at night. I mean
some of them would mine all day and spend all night in the bars. It
depended on what a person wanted to do. But some people in Marysvale had
a farm on the side. I didn't, I don't like to farm (laughs). Oh , back before
they had hay haulers, I hauled a lot of hay so that's why I didn't like
farming.

AM- How exactly did they lower you into the mine shafts, I mean, what
kind of things did they use?
 16

RF- Well the shaft, they call a tunnel going in, they call that a horizontal
shaft. So you go into the work area using a diesel-powered or electric-
powered train. Then you have a vertical shaft either outside or in the
mine. They have skips that were somewhat like an elevator. They had
cages that you loaded up like in an elevator, ride down, then they'd open
the doors and head you out.

AM- Did you like those? Were they fun to ride on?

RF- They're just like an elevator, after you made one trip on it. There was
a good one in the Grand Canyon (Little Orphan Mine). It was a fifteen
hundred foot shaft. The skips go down in two minutes, and when they'd
stop it at the landing, you go way below the landing then back up to the
landing. It takes a little while for the cable to settle down so you could
get out at the landing. That's an inch and a half of diameter cable on the
hoist, quite a bounce to it. It isn't an operating mine now. The "Grand
Canyons" got the only operating mine in a national park.
Western Gold and Uranium had a mine just outside the Grand Canyon
park boundary. When they got the mine close to being mined out, they
knew there was uranium back under the park. They were fifteen-hundred
feet down under the ground so they made an arrangement with the Park
Service. They could mine for five years back under the park, then they
would pull out and turn over the ground that they owned to the Park
Service. So they did mine in the Grand Canyon. The mine is closed but
there is a sign saying where it was.
One other thing about the Grand Canyon mine is that when I went to
work there they didn't have the shaft down and all the people that were
working had to go down over the canyon edge in a little skip. It was just
like a roller coaster (laughing). To get down fifteen hundred feet
vertically it went about four thousand feet with twists and turns in it.
There was only one little cable holding the skip and no safety devices.
One guy that lives in Monroe went to work with me when I was still
young but he was only nineteen. I got us the job at the Grand Canyon mine.
We went out to go to work, he put one foot in the skip and said, "Oh, no
way'" I got him in by me, laid him down on the bottom of the skip, and I
held my feet on him so he couldn't (laughing) get up. We made the trip
 17

down over the side of the Grand Canyon and went to work, and after the
one trip he was all right.

AM- So were you the daring one who usually got people going?

RF- No, it's just a long way from here to Grand Canyon and I wasn't going
to quit the job the very first day. (laughing) It was one of the first
patented mine claims in Arizona and was named the Little Orphan Mine. A
senator from Arizona state owned it. His name was Hayden. but he's gone
now and so is his mine. There are not too many of us left who even
remember the mine. They had a company area in the park and the Park
Service let the mining company use it for a bunkhouse and a cook house.
We had a horse that would pull the cars out of the Deer Trail Mine and
could count the cars. When that horse started out it would pull nine cars
out of the mine. It would count the nine cars and if we tried to put ten on
it, it wouldn't pull them (laughing). When the tenth car chain tightened it
would stop and wait for you to take one car off. Every time the person
that was working with him quit, and a new man would take the job, the
horse would know it was a new guy, and it'd stop one car quicker than he
did before.
By the time I went to work with it, it would only pull five cars. So I
didn't like the horse and I wasn't used to mines. I was still just a kid. I
was fifteen years old. We started out with this train of ore one day and
the last car had a brake on the back. You sat on the little stool on the back
of the last car with your foot on the brake so you could push down and it'd
lock the wheels.
One day the miner that operated the brake didn't show up. We had
another miner, but he didn't understand the brake any better than I did, so
we hooked it up and started out. Then one of the chains fell off the brake,
so the brake couldn't work. The mine was downhill going out, it was just
about level, just barely downhill, and if the mine cars are working
perfectly, the mine cars will go down this hill pretty fast.
This particular day the track was clean and the cars had just been
oiled, so when we went to put on the brakes, the chain fell off and we
didn't have any brakes at aU. The cars rolled up and hit the horse and the
horse (laughing) would just go faster. The cars would go faster and hit
 18

the horse again. The horse was pretty smart. It kept in front the whole
way out, but when we got out of the mine, I jumped off. It didn't hurt me.
The horse stepped to the side of the track, pulled the first car off the
train track, and wrecked all five cars to stop them. But the horse didn't
get hurt. I figure that horse is a little smarter than me about mine cars.

AM- Probably more used to it too.

RF- Oh, he knew exactly what to do. The horse out ran the mine cars and
wrecked them so they wouldn't take him over the end of the dump and kill
him (laughing).
ROGER HOWES
MINING IN THE MARYSVALE AREA

rNTERVIEWEE: ROGER HOWES

rNTERVIEWERS: Lloyd Gleave, Bradley Winegar

DATE: I anuary 18, 1996

PLACE: Marysvale, Utah

SUBJECT: Mining in the Marysvale area

BW: On January 18, 1996. We're here at Roger Howes house interviewing
him on mining in the Marysvale area.

What got you started in mining?

RH: Well when I graduated from high school there was a lot of mining
activity in the area. I just went to work at the uranium mines. Started out on
the surface out there, then eventually ended up underground in the uranium
mine. It was the only work in the county, and if you wanted to live in the
area you went to work in the mines.

LG: What year was that?

RH: It would have been in 1960. I graduated from high school in 1959.

LG: Was anyone else in your family a miner?

RH: No.

LG: lust you.

RH: Mya father was a bookkeeper for the Vanadium Cooperation (V.C.A),
that was the corporation that had the uranium mines.

BW: Did you get paid a lot or how much did you get paid?
RH: When [ went to work at the uranium mines [ got a $1.99 an hour. and
we worked six days a wee~ and Saturdays was time and a half and the
money went along ways. I think I got by better on that $1.99 back then than
I do on $20.00 an hour now.

BW: What was a typical day like?

RH: Well a typical day, especially when we got underground we would

remove the blasting material. We would bring it outside because they would
shoot. They would do the blasting right at quiting time so that all that muc~
as it's called, would be sitting there come the next morning and you would
move that out and get ready to setup and drill and then blast again at quiting
time, so a lot of it back then was done by hand. I've done a lot of hand
mucking. You'd put down slick sheets which would be a like a piece of plate
steel, and the muck would fall on that and it's easier to shovel on that plate
steel then it is to shovel on the ground, but I can remember a lot of days when
we'd mucked 20,25 ton by hand. They had some mucking machines that
they'd move around to different sites of the mine; and if you was lucky
enough to be where there was a mucking machine then you didn't have to
hand muck. It was hard work.

LG: How big was the mine?

RH: There's about 17 miles of track underground out there now. At that
time when I was out there, there was probably 50 to 60 employees.

BW: What did you do on your free time, if you had any?

RH: A local boy and I did a lot of hunting and fishing in the river.

BW: Did you have a lot of free time then?

RH: Just Sunday's usually would be your only day off. I did a lot of
picnicking.

LG: How many hours did you work a day?

RH: Eight. The federal law says that you can only spend 8 hours a day
underground, so you get to eat on company time and everything. They, (the

Page 2
working conditions underground) are dangerous enough that they know if
you get extra tired you're an accident waiting to happen. So you can only
spend up to eight hours underground. Your shift starts as soon as you start in
and you got to be back outside when eight hours is up.

LG: Could they punish you if you weren't?

RH: No the M.SHA and the State Mine Inspectors note if they fmd a
company that is working guys more than 8 hours; (they're the governing
bodies) they cite them or give them tickets which costs them money. Some
of them add up to be big fmes if they keep violating the rules.

LG: Did you ever experience anything like that? Any bad experiences?

RH: Yeah I've had a lot close calls. I've been with men that have been
killed undergroun<L accidents that possibly could have been avoided. For
years we had what was called, State Mine Inspectors. Each state was in
control of the mines. When that big fIre happened in Kelloge, Idaho and
killed those 75 miners up there, The federal government come in and started
what was called M.S.H.A., that stands for the mine safety health act. They
instituted a lot of rules and regulations that they were going to enforce. Then
things got better for the miner, when that happened. M. SHA is still in charge
and most states still have there mine inspectors too, so you're kind of
governed in two different directions. You got people watching to make sure
everything is done the right way. Some of the M.SHA fmes (or citation) that
they write are up around $5,000 so a company makes sure that there working
inside the M. SHA guidelines, and it makes it better for the workers.

BW: When was the fire?

RH: That was up in Kelloge, Idaho. That would have been in the late 60's.
The Sunshine Mine up there, that fIre started underground and burnt the
oxygen up that was underground so there wasn't enough breathable oxygen
and everybody suffocated that was in there. We had three men out at the old
Deer Trail Mine here in Marysvale years ago. In the old Deer Trail Mine one
of the carbine lamps started the timber on fIre and then the fIre bums the
oxygen up or depletes it enough so there's not enough oxygen to keep the men
alive. Three men went in the next day and it killed all three of them. That's
one of the things that people should be very much aware of that don t know

Page 3
anything about underground. That's one of the few things that scares me
underground is walking into an area where there's not enough breathable air,
because you can't tell~ your lungs keep exchanging, you keep breathing but
there's not enough oxygen there, you get very- little warning, you get some
confusion just a few seconds before you go down, if you've got enough sense
when you get confused to break and run back in the direction that you come
you might possibly save yourself. As a general, rule you just fall over and die
from lack of oxygen. That always scares me, people go underground
exploring and messing around that don't know anything about what they
might get into. They're always worried about something falling on them,
When in reality the real danger is not enough air to support life.

LG: I've heard that they used to take canaries down there. Is that true?

RH: That's true. The old timers would take a canary down in the mine with
them, and a canary would fall off his perch and go unconscious or die at
about 13% oxygen. And that is borderline of what will sustain human life.
Nonnally we breath in and out 15 to 16% and when you get down to 13%
that canary will die or falloff the perch, that will still give the miners time to
get out of the area cause they know there isn't enough air to sustain life. But
if it gets down to around 12% they're in trouble too. 12%) is not hardly
enough to sustain life.

BW: What inspired you to become a miner?

RH: Mostly it was just the need for work. After I got into it and got
knowing what I was doing, it was interesting work, and it was a challenge
because it was the type of job that a lot of men couldn't do. I like the
challenge of it.

LG: So you did like to do it?

RH: I did like to do it, still do.

LG: When did you retire?

RH: I haven't.

LG: You haven't yet?

Page 4
RH: No. I'm milling foreman for a company called SLC Environmental
now. Next week I'm going back to the job. We've got one job down in
Arizona where we've got a little gold mine, there's a mill set up. The
company that owns this mine also owns this Deer Trail Mine. We've got
another project coming up in Oregon. I've worked enough years that now I
usually end up with one of the better jobs. [am the superintendent of this job
that's going on so I just oversee and try to keep the younger guys safe.

LG: Well so can you tell us some of the comparisons with now days and
back then? What's better and what's not.

RH: There's been so many changes that it's hard to talk about them all.
Like I said, way back the work was done by hand with shovels. Very little is
done by hand now. There is rubber tired mucking machines, overshot
muckers, and the muck is all moved mechanically. The blasting has changed
so much. We used to use just dynamite to blast with, and dynamite has a
glycerin in it, nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin penetrates the skin and gets in your
system and gives you a terrific headache, just a terrific headache. People
that take nitroglycerin for a bad heart, one of the side affects is usually a
tremendous headache. I used to be one that was extra sensitive to that, I was
sick all the time with a headache. We use very little dynamite anymore.
Underground we use newer explosives, plastic detonator. It's called a data
prime, and then we use ammonium nitrate with that. Ammonium nitrate is
what was used to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building. It's just fertilizer,
and when you put diesel fuel in it makes a carbon base and then if you have a
detonator to set that off, its highly explosive. But all the explosives, the way
you blast and everything, has changed underground. The rules and
regulations have changed too. Way back in the 60's, we'd work in areas
where the air was terrible, you'd get sick from the bad air all the time and the
working conditions weren't good. Now there's enough inspectors that that's
not allowed to happen. You've got a better working area to work in, in fact if
its not kept the way its suppose to they shut you down. So the rules and
regulations have made the mining better for the miner.

LG: What do you mine now?

RH: There is a gold mine that we're mining down there now. When I left
the uranium mine, out here in Marysvale, [went to the Deer Trail Mine,

Page 5
worked several years. I worked 8 to 10 years out there probably, off and on.
That was a lead zinc and silver in the lower deer trail. The old Deer Trail, up
higher on the hill, was high grade gold. It was good high grade lead zinc and
silver, in the lower workings. I've worked a little bit of all the metals. I
enjoy working gold the most, I don't know why, Ijust do.

LG: Do you get to pocket some of it?

RH: Well they have what they call high graders its not the right thing to do.
A lot of companies, a lot of mines, when and if we hit a little high grade
pocket down in the mine where I'm at, I'll tell the guys to take themselves a
little sample, you know for there own collection, and then to leave it alone
after that. If they get packing it off in the lunch box full why it's costing lots
of money.

LG: Couldn't you make up for a years worth of work just by taking one
little nugget?

RH: You could pick a lot of money up by doing that. I know a guy who
packed $20,000 out in his lunch box in 6 or 8 weeks in a high grade stope,
but its stealing you know, you're stealing from the company.

LG: We've been told that most of the people that worked the uranium
mines, have lung cancer now. Do you have any side affect or anything from
working there?

RH: I haven t had any trouble yet but it's been a terrific worry in my mind
that eventually I will have problems. Out of a hundred of us that worked out
there 66 are dead of cancer and several others that are still alive have had
one lung removed. My last partner was my uncle by marriage, he still lives
here in town (Tommy Higgens). He's a Monroe man originally. He's had one
lung removed. It seemed like it takes 20 to 30 years before the effects of the
uranium manifest themselves in your body, so in reality, everybody that
worked out there is just a walking time bomb, and it wasn't done right
because the government new that there would be a high rate of cancer, and a
lot of the men that worked there would die, our government knew that and
they wrote a letter to the companies telling the companies not to tell the men
because it was a matter of national security that we had, the uranium, so the
government didn't do right by the miners. Years later when the Freedom of

Page 6
[nformation Act came out, Congressman Wayne Owens got a copy of that
letter, telling the companies not to tell the men there was a good chance they
were going to die of cancer, and he represented the widows of the men, here
in to~ that had died of cancer, and he got a settlement from the
government for each family that had lost their loved ones and for the men
that had lost lungs. It was bad in the respect the government, in reality, was
responsible for a lot of deaths cause a lot of those men would've chosen not
to work there had they been told that it could cost them their lives at an early
age.

BW: Couldn't they have found a way to prevent that like they do now?

RH: They found out that what was causing the cancer was a gas, and the
gas is called Radon, and it s a highly radioactive gas that, you breath it in an
it implants particles on your lung, and then over a period of time that
gestates into cancer. They've found out years later that a fresh air flow (if
you had a lot a air in the uranium mine), it would disperse the Radon so that
when there was high concentrations of it, it would break it down into a
susceptible level, but they didn't learn that for several years while we were
working out there. There wasn't any air flow anywhere in the mine. No fans
or anything. We even worked in areas were we had to crack the compressed
air to have enough to breath where we were working so the areas we were
working in were extremely, what we call, "hot", real "hot" areas.

BW: Did they use fans in that one?

RH: The uranium mines now with the new M.SHA regulations make them
ventilate them. You're still getting small doses of the radon, but nothing
compared to what we were getting in the old days.

LG: Did the government make up for it afterwards? Pay you more money,
give you benefits, or anything?

RH: I've never received anything yet. AIl I've ever had was a worry and a
concern that some day it will get me. The families that lost loved ones, the
government did make a settlement with them.

BW: Can you tell us some experiences that you've had personally in the
mines?

Page 7
LG: Good or Bad.

RH: Well I've had a lot of close calls underground. I've been working in the
stope when it started to cave in. One of the neatest experiences I ever had
was up on the Lark Mine. Lark Mine is a big old mine and it's up underneath
the Kennecot Copper pit. [was working up there in 1968 when a man by the
name of Buck Jones got caved in on. The stope he was in caved in on him.
His partner got out and said that if there was one place in that stope he could
have got to he might still be alive. So we set up underneath him and drilled a
hole up into the stope, a two inch hole where we figured that he might be.
He was in there alive, and he didn't even have enough room to take his boots
off. It took us nine days to get him out of there and we had ABC, CBS,
NBC, and broadcasting companies from allover the world were there cause it
was such a big news story. We kept enlarging the hole we drilled up to him.
We started with a 2 inch hole and went to 3, and to 4, and 5, and kept
making it bigger in circumference. If I remember right when we had it up to
either 19 or 20 inches we greased the hole and had him tie a nylon rope
around both his wrists and start down the hole with his arms out in front of
him. It was 47 feet up to were he was and we pulled him down that hole to
safety. I was on that rescue team. It was really an event news wise. That
was one of the neatest things that happened to me.

LG: So how long have you worked in mines?

RH: Close to 30 years.

LG: And you still enjoy it.

RH: Yeah.

BW: How old were you when you started?

RH: I was 17 when I graduated from high school and I started the next
year, so I would have been 18 when I started.

BW: Were you married before you started mining?

RH: I got married at 18, out of high school.

Page 8
LG: Still married?

RH: Still married.

BW: What did your wife do while you were gone mining?

RH: She was a homemaker. She raised our four daughters.

BW: Did you have a lot of time to spend with your family?

RH: Yeah. It was an 8 hour job and it was close. It was only 6 miles away.
Now I use Marysvale as a base, and I work out of Marysvale. I like the small
town living. I can't take the big cities. I keep my wife and family here and I
go to my job's in the surrounding states.

LG: How many different mines have you worked in?

RH: I've worked ... I can't count them all. I've worked all the Western
States. here is a funny story, out in Death Valley there's a mountain range
called the Funeral Mountains. I worked in a mine out there called Coffm
Mine, and I worked graveyard shift. Now if you were superstitious you'd
have a hard time going in there.

LG: Nobody worked on Friday the thirteenth?

RH: I'll bet

BW: What were some of the conditions? What would you do in there?
Would you just go in there and pick out the rock after you got the muck out?

RH: You'd have to drill after you get the rock or the muck removed, then
you'd drill with machines. You drill 6, 8, 10, 12 foot holes, and you have to
know how to drill them. you have to drill them in a pattern and then you load
them with explosives and then you shoot. If there not in the right pattern they
don't break the rock, so you have to know what your doing, you have to
know how to drill what's called a cut, how to start it all breaking an then you
blast after you've set up an drilled. There's a lot of different kinds of drills;
there's a jackleg which is for a smaller operation, there's two machine

Page 9
jumbo's for a big, big operation, and they're mounted on a mobile unit, one
guy's drilling with two machines at the same time. They're usually used in
tunnels and in larger operations.

LG: When you frrst start mining do you do the same thing as the guy that's
been there for twenty years does?

RH: No, it's pretty much traditional when you start out, you start out as
what's called a mucker, and you're the miner's helper. The miner teaches
you as you go along. You do every thing he's doing except he's in charge and
he's teaching you. It's kind of like an apprenticeship. When you get good
enough the superintendent simply asks the miner if he thinks you're good
enough to take your own heading. Miners always watch out for each other,
and if the younger guy's good enough, the miner will tell the superintendent,
'yeah he's turned into a good miner', and then they put you in your own
heading and give you a helper, and then it's your responsibility to teach the
younger guy what you know. Always underground, it's just an unwritten law
that, anybody will help anytime. If there's something that doesn't look safe
and you don't know quite how to handle it, you go to one of the older miners
and they try to figure it out, and if they can't figure it out they'll get two or
three more guys together an' everybody gets their heads together. You work
for the safety and well-being of each other, till you've figured out a safe way
to do something.

LG: Does the apprentice, or whatever you call him, get paid as much as the
older guy?

RH: He usually gets paid just a little bit less. He'll get up to journeymen's
pay when he's a miner.

LG: How long does that usually take?

RH: Usually some where around a year sometimes two years.

LG: It just depends on the miner?

RH: Yes.

LG: Now they use cars and stuff to go in the mine right.

Page 10
RH: Yes, they use a lot of rubber-tired equipment now.

LG: What did you use back when you started?

RH: We used railroad track only smaller. Air is what drove the motors that
were on them. They were air powered.

LG: Did you use the railroad to move your stuff or did you have trucks?

RH: No, we used the railroad in the uranium, we used the railroad out the
deer Trail. I've worked a lot of jobs that were rubber-tired. I was a shift
foreman down on a big spiral decline down in Larsburgh, New Mexico, and
it was all rubber-tired. We had rubber-tired four-wheel drive diesel trucks.
You can't have gasoline underground because it gives off carbon monoxide,
it all has to be diesel. If you take a chainsaw underground and start it, you'll
get carbon monoxide, and if you're back in far enough it will kill you. It all
has to be diesel-powered equipment. Then the diesel has to go through
what's called a scrubber that eliminates the smoke and makes it a quality that
you can breath. We had those trucks that could haul twelve ton at a time up
there, and every time that we'd drill and blast we'd make close to 400 ton.
That's a big, big blast. A lot of material for underground.

LG: What would you say would be the best job? The actual picking of the
rock, driving the trucks, or watching the guys doing it?

RH: Well you get to so you have to do it all. In a lot of occupations, guys
get so they specialize in something. Like a carpenter, he might be just a
framer. He doesn't know how to build a whole house, but in underground
mining you get so that you can do it all. Certain guys enjoy doing one thing
underground where another guy enjoys doing something else. I always
enjoyed running the mucking machine underground. Scooping the muck up
and loading it into the trucks. I enjoy the drilling and the blasting too.

BW: How much do you get paid now?

RH: Well it depends on what state your in, Utah is still one of the poorest
r
paying states around for whatever job you're on. I'm a Democrat so blame

Page 11
it on the Republicans. Most states, if your a miner, you can earn between 20-
25 dollars an hour, if your a good miner.

BW: How do they start the mines? How do they know where to start the
mine at. Where there's gold?

RH: The geologists come in and they pick an area because of the texture in
the area, or the conformation of the area then they do a lot of sampling and
and-when they pinpoint an area they will usually come in and they will drill.
They'll have it drilled form the surface and then they'll retrieve core samples,
so that they actually know what s down in the earth there~ four, five hundred,
a thousand, two thousand what ever the length of their holes are. When they
enter the area, that is showing veins of ore or large blowouts of ore, then
they devise a mine plan, what's going to be the best way to get it~ to go
straight down with a shaft to get it, or go down on the side of the mountain
and come in horizontally with a tunnel to get it. When that's all figured, the
miners are hired and they'll tell you that in there a thousand feet, we'll hit that
first drill hole. So you run the hole, in each tunnel, in until you get into the
area that's been drilled, and proven to be ore. Then after you get into the ore,
then you've got a lot of options cause you can prove a lot more underground
then you can from the surface with a drill. The drill hole can go right down
along side of a large deposit and not show anything, but when you get under-
ground where you can actually see what's, going on, and what the trend is
(trend means the general direction everything s running), you just get up an
go.

LG: How much of the mountain has to be the ore you're mining before
you'll mine for it?

RH: It depends the grade of the ore, underground anymore, it takes about
300 dollars a ton to make money on. On the surface you can do it a whole lot
cheaper.

BW: So ifit costs more to drill and make the tunnel then what you get out of
the ore, then you just wont drill the tunnel at all.

RH: If it doesn't show that it's good grade, then no, they wouldn't even try
to mine it.

Page l2
--------------------------------------

LG: Do you have anything you want to just share?

RH: Well yeah I would share this, if I was young and had it all to do over
again I would certainly get an education.

BW: You wouldn't choose mining?

RH: [might. I would have liked to have made it in to mining, but [ would
have liked to have been a geologist or a mining engineer or that end of it.

LG: Because of the money or why?

RH: Because of the money and the better working conditions. I've been
broke all up over the years. I got hurt in 1980 quite bad. I had a couple of
surgeries, pins in my bones. Three months ago I got hurt. I had surgery on
this right arm (shows us arm). I had 300 stitches in it. Its a tough
occupation.

BW: Did you get hurt in mining?

RH: Yes

BW: How do they happen?

RH: Usually ground falls.

BW: Just cave inns.

RH: Yeah. I fell in 1980, but this last one was lifting. I busted a tendon
right in two.

LG: Have you had an experience in the mine where you thought, this is it,
and you were just going to go?

RH: 0 yeah. I've had a lot of close calls. I've had adrenaline rushes so bad,
a time or two, when something starts falling in, you feel like you could
squeeze water out of a rock, you've got so much adrenaline running. You get
hooked on that after awhile, and it's funny the excitement and the adrenaline
and the different things that get going and you get so you like that.

Page 13
LG: Have you done anything else other than mining?

RH: I bought a semi-truck for a year, well I ran it for two years in the late
seventy's. I always end up back in mining, cause it's all I know and it's all I've
ever really done.
LG: Does the government treat you well?

RH: Yeah

LG: Do you get benefits?

RH: You don't work for the government. You usually work for a company,
You know, or an individual has usually bankrolled the mining operation.

LG: How did this Bullion mine start up here?

RH: It started with the old timers and the early guy's coming in. That's a
picture of the old mill that's up Bullion right there (point's to picture on the
Wall). It would be my great grand-daddy's side of the family that came in
when the telegraph lines came into Utah. There were three brother's that
helped bring the telegraph lines in. They came down to this end of the state
prospecting and the flout that had came down the crick showed that there
was good ore up there, and there was, so they just followed the float up till
they found where the ore was coming from and that got Bullion started. That
was the frrst mining district in this end of the state.

BW: Did you live close to the mines, or where did you live when you first
started mining?

RH: I lived here in Marysvale and started in the uranium. It was only about
a six mile drive out to the mine.

LG: Is that why Marysvale is here, because of the mine?

RH: Mostly, It's pretty much died out now, but Marysvale usually had one
or two small operation's with fifteen, twenty guy's working.

BW: Are the majority of the people in Marysvale still mining like you are?

Page 14
RH: No, mining is getting to be a lost occupation. Very few miners any-
more. They're hard to fmd.

LG: My brother's a miner.

RH: Is he?

LG: He mines coal up in Emery.

RH: Yeah.

LG: Have you ever mined coal?

RH: I never have mined coal.

LG: Yeah, he took me through there once, it was pretty neat. It's a lot
different than I thought.

RH: Yeah, it's a lot different than hard rock too. There's a big difference.

LG: Do they set up the mines pretty much the same?

RH: Well the tunnel's look the same, but the ground control is a lot
different. You use a lot of timber in hard rock operations. In the coal mine
they use a lot of rock bolts and thing's like that, so there's a big difference.

BW: When you said they drill down and look at the ore samples to fmd out
where the mine is, do they follow a certain pattern so they know, cause the
odds are you won't really hit a big pocket, will you?

RH: No, they have it figured where the most logical place is going to be,
and that they have determined from the surface. Then they drill, usually on a
grid. Yeah, they have a pattern and each hole is logged and mapped. When
they get enough holes drilled it gives them a pretty general picture of what's
underneath them.

BW: O~ so they drill a series of hole's to get the picture of what's

underground?

Page 15
RH: Yes.

LG: Have you ever wanted to do anything other than mining?

RH: Not really.

LG: When you were in high school, you didn't think of becoming anything
other than a miner?

RH: Well yeah I did, but I got started in the mines, had a family young and
was pretty much obligated then just to stay wherever the work was.

LG: You were a rebel?

RH: Kind of, yeah.

LG: So what kept you going? Just the challenge and the hard work, you
just liked the hard work?

RH: And the job. For a lot of years if you were a miner you could go to
work anywhere. There was enough mining going o~ that you got mad or
upset at one place, that wasn't paying you enough money, you could get on
the telephone and you had a job to go to the next day. So there was an
advantage in it that way.

BW: Big supply and demand for it?

RH: Yeah.

BW: Can you think of any other experiences you'd like to share?

LG: Legend's, stories. Anything that's related?

RH: There's a lot of legends with mining.

LG: We've got time.

Page 16
RH: But I can't think of a good one right now. I'll tell you ajoke about
mining, how's that?

BW: That'll work.

RH: Two guy's walked up to a big mine shaft (a mine shaft means it's
vertical, it goes straight down). They picked a rock up and they threw it
down the mine shaft and they never heard it hit the bottom. So the one guy
said, 'we need to fmd something bigger to throw down there'. So they
walked up the hill a little ways and found a big railroad tie. So they packed
that down there and threw that railroad tie down. Just a few minutes later
here comes a goat, just going like 01' billy-be-hell, a goat just going 90 miles
an hour and he jumped down the mine shaft. The one guy says, 'boy I've
never seen anything like that, have you ever seen any thing like that?' And the
other guy says, 'no I never have.' A few minutes later here comes a guy that
lived up in an old cabin and he asks those two guys 'you guys seen my goat?'
One guy says, 'well there was goat that come running down here just a few
minutes a go an' jumped down this hole.' Then the guy that lived at the cabin
say's, 'well that can't be my goat', he says, 'my goat was tied to a railroad tie.'

BW: How long before you retire from mining?

RH: Well usually you associate it with your social security years, when you
get so old and you can't do it anymore. I have got some stocks, and different
things, that I have picked up along the ways as fringe benefits, shares of
stock, and this, and that, and the other, that I'm holding on to and hoping it
will help me when I get to retirement age.

LG: How old are you now?

RH: I'm fifty-four.

BW: So is it cold in the mines?

RH: It depends on the mine; some of them are real wet, some of them are
dry, some of them are hot, and some of them are cold. The Deer Trail Mine
out here was ideal. It was dry and it was 64 degrees year-round in there. I
worked Park City years ago and it was wet. It had more water running out,
than runs down the Sevier River when it's clear full. But it was miserable.

Page 17
 --------------------------

Up in Eureka I worked in the Burgen Mine. It was about a \ \ 0 in there all

the time, it was wet, lot's of humidity, terrible to work in.

BW: Do you go in there in shorts?

RH: Most guy's did just wear shorts and rubber boots.

LG: So you work in a gold mine right now?

RH: Yes.

LG: How much gold do you think you haul out of there every day?

RH: This is a lower grade mine. It's only running about a quarter ounce to
the to~ that means it takes 4 ton to retrieve an ounce. And we've got a little
mill set up and we're running about 30 to 40 ton a day through it.

LG: What do you do with it?

RH: We just concentrate it into what's called a black sand. That's just the
heavy metals is all that's left, and then we ship it to a Sarco down in Tucson
and they Finish reftning it, and ftnish pulling the gold out of it.

LG: Then they sell it to a jeweler, or what?

RH: Then they sell it, yeah they do whatever they want to with it They buy
it from the mine and then they, put it on the market wherever they want to.

LG: How long have you been working down here and where's it at?

RH: It's 50 miles south of Prescott, down in the Brad Shaw Mountains. It's
a little mine called, The Gold Button. There's an old mining district just
fourteen miles away called Crown King, there's still a few people that live
there but it's quite remote where we're at there. I've been there two years
now.

BW: They say deer mining trail, what's that mean, like what's the difference
between deer mining trail and something else?

Page 18
 -- ---~-----------------------

RH: That's just the name they picked for it, usually when they locate the
mining claims they'll give it a name.

BW: Oh, so that's just the name of the mine?

RH: Yeah, the Deer Trail Mine. When they located that there must of been
a deer trail coming around the side of the hill or something, that's why they
named the claims the Deer Trail claims.

LG: When you got to work what did you look least forward to?

RH: I hated laying track in water. Every time you'd have to pound the
spikes down, into the ties to hold the railroad track down, the water, cold
water, would splash up in your face.

BW: You know how you said that you laid a thin sheet of steel, or
something for the mucking machine?

RH: Slick sheet, yeah.

BW: Yeah, would that be on the side of the track, or could you have a track
and a slick sheet in one mine?

RH: You could but if you've got a track you usually use a mucking
machine, it's called an over-shot mucker, it works out on the track. You
drive it in and pick the muck up and then it throw's it over and back into the
car. But slick sheet's are usually just used for hand mucking, when you're
doing something by hand.

BW: There's no slick sheet mucking machines now is there?

RH: Very, very few. If you had a real high grade gold vain they might want
to work it by hand because you're got more control.

BW: But they still do use those by hand then?

RH: occasionally.

Page 19
LG: Why would you use cement beam's in the coal mines and wood in the
hard metal mines? Hard rock mines.

RH: They use a lot a rock bolts in coal just to hold the flap back up. Hard
rock mines are so much heavier, there's so much more weight in the hard
rock mine, that you have to use timber to support it. You put a lot of: eight
by eight's, ten by ten's, twelve by twelve's, and the ground will settle on it.
There's so much weight that you can see the bend even in the timber.

LG: So timber's stronger.

RH: Yeah, and it's used just because you have to support more weight.
Another difference in coal mining too, they do no drilling or blasting. In a
coal mine, they use a continuous miner that cuts the coal and sends it out on
the conveyer. Big difference between hard rock mining and coal mining.

LG: Are there more cave inns in a hard rock mine?

RH: More cave inn's, I'd guess, in a coal mine.

BW: Is that why you don't do coal mines?

RH: No, I just never ended up in one. I would of tried it when I was
younger if an opportunity presented itself and I needed a job and went to
work somewhere in one.

LG: What kinds of mines are around here in Utah?

RH: There's almost every known metal and mineral in Utah. Utah is a
highly mineralized state.

LG: And they still pay less than any other state?

RH: Yeah.

LG: Why?

RH: Well, Utah's a Republican state and anytime you get a bunch of
Republicans in charge they're for the rich and to hell with the poor. They

Page 20
want to make all the money and pay the "peon", so to speak, as little as they
can. I hate to say it that way but it's the truth. You can work here in Utah
and make one third of the money that you can make if you go to one of the
surrounding states.

LG: Then what's keeping you here?

RH: I don't stay here. I keep home here cause this is home, but I work in
the other states.

LG: Oh, so you travel a lot?

RH: I do.

BW: Where do you stay when you travel?

RH: We always have a camp set up at the different mines, a nice camp,
trailers. Company usually buys all your groceries and pays all your expenses.
There'll be 6, 8, 10, 12 guy's living in the camp. It's kind of fun.

BW: So you don't have to pay for food or anything, all you do is just get the
money?

RH: From the working? Yeah.

BW: No expenses for other things?

RH: No expenses.

BW: So you could make quite a bit of money just by that, can't you?

RH: Yeah.

LG: Do they give you bonuses like TV s and stuff, cause my brother gets
TVs and guns every now and then, cause he's got the most years up there.

RH: Yeah, if your working for a bigger company, especially, and if you can
go a year with out a lost time accident, for instance, they'll give you a bonus
of some kind. If your working for the right company.

Page 21
LG: So how many mines did you work in before the conditions improved?

RH: I probably worked five or six years before the conditions started
getting better.

LG: Did they make you carry those pouches they make you carry now?

RH: Self-rescuer?

LG: Yeah.

RH: Yeah they do. That all came about after that big fITe up in Kelloge.
Now everybody has to pack a self-rescuer with them and all that does is
change carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, if you do
your chemistry, is breathable for a short term, supposedly it gives you enough
time to get out of the mine or get to a rescue chamber. The bigger mines
have what they call~ a rescue chamber, were everybody will head to, if any
thing bad happens underground. Usually water and air is piped in there.
There's a telephone in there and they'll seal their self in the rescue chamber
till the rescue team can get in and fmd them.

LG: So mining's pretty safe now?

RH: It's a lot safer now then it ever was. It's still one of the most dangerous
occupations there is.

BW: Do people wear headphones and stuff down there, or listen to music?

LG: Ear plugs~ cause it's kind of noisy, isn't it?

RH: They use ear plugs. M.SHA makes you use ear plugs cause there is a
lot of noise. Ye~ no music or head phones. You got to keep your mind on
what your doing.

LG: How big is this mine you work in down here, right now?

RH: It's fairly new. We're only back in there 300 to 400 feet. We're just
getting it developed now.

Page 22
LG: How much longer do you think you'll be there?

RH: I think the mine will run for quite awhile, but I'm looking to leave there
and go to Oregon and start another project in Oregon for the same company.

LG: You're still going to live here though?

RH: Still live here. Yup.

LG: Come home every weekend?

RH: Come home every two weeks.

LG: Does the mine pay for your gas or anything like that.

RH: They do.

LG: They do, really. cool!

RH: Or airplane tickets, whatever it takes.

BW: That's good. How many feet a day do you go through, about?

RH: A small operation a round in and a round out is usually considered a

days pay. A round is usually 6 feet. That's a 5 by 7 drift, so 6 foot advance
everyday in and out is usually a day's pay.

BW: You probably couldn't mine if you were claustrophobic.

RH: No, and a lot of people are.

LG: And they mine still?

RH: No they don't mine, they don't even make it in. They just make it a
little ways in and change their mind and go back out.

LG: How big are your tunnels, how wide?

Page 23
RH: The ones around this area, most of them, are 5 by 7,6 by 8, but the big
tunnels are, oh, 14 by 18.

LG: Is that the size of the one you work in?

RH: That's the size of the one I was in down at Lordsburg. The one we're
in down here now is a smaller operation cause it's vertical veins, and the
veins are only about 6 feet wide, so we're about 6 by 8 which makes it easy to
stand up in.

LG: And you walk in, you don't have any cars or anything?

RH: We got rubber-tired muckers.

LG: You still do?

RH: Yeah.

B W: What are veins, when you were saying veins?

RH: A vein is what the material is made in. How the material fonned and
made. It can be laying on a 45 degree angle, laying vertical, or it can be
laying flat. It's where the ore is actually formed.

BW: And that's where you take the ore from is the vein?

RH: Yeah that's where you get the ore from.

BW: All right. Well I think we're done, unless there's anything else you
want to talk about.

RH: Don't believe fellows, I enjoyed it though.

LG: Have we covered everything you wanted to cover?

RH: Yeah. The frrst thing 1'd do after hitting a big lotto is become a
Republican.

LG: All right. Thanks.

Page 24
-- -- -- -- -- - --- -- - -----

BW: Thanks for your time.

RH: You're welcome guys. Come back again.

Page 25
 JOEL JOHNSON:

-
----------------------------------------------------------------

I NTERV I EWEE: JOEL JOHNSON

INTERVIEWER MELISSA GRAMSE AND SAMANTHA STILLMAN

DATE: JANUARY 18TH 1996

PLACE: MARYS V ALE, UTAH

SUBJECT: THE MINING HISTORY OF MARYSVALE AREA

MG: This is an interview with Joel Johnson. This interview is being

conducted on January 18, 1996 in Marysvale, Utah. Samantha

Stillman and I, Melissa Gramse are interviewing him on the mining

hi story in the Marysval e area.

MG: Our first question is, how did you get started mining?

JJ: Well, I've always had a love for the minerals that come out of
the earth. The crystals and ores that come from deep inside the

earth are rare and beautiful.

I guess I started to mine because I needed to make a living,
besides, I wanted to see what it was 1ike underground.. I had read
books on minerals, crystals, and ores.
A company from Delaware had leased the old Deer Trail properties
and were hiring men to work and mine. So around 1957 is when I went
to work, Rundell Mining ran the old tunnel, "Rundell Tunnel" back into
the mountain a lot farther than anyone else had ever, This company
was financed by the Dupont people from Delaware, I started to work
for them as a mine helper After I worked for them for a few years
then they put me on as a miner,
We drove the tunnel back into the mountain two miles, Into the
mountain at the 34 hundred level in the Deer Trail Mine, we found
some are, We drove a shaft down 200 feet below the main level and
took some real good ore out, but it was never very big, We mined the
area for quite some time before we drove the Rundell Tunnel back
into the mountaln to a total of 2 miles, When we got back there we
hit quartzite-lime contact. That's a contact between the lime and
the quartz ite, They had us run a tunne 1 to the ri ght and run a tunne 1
to the left on this contact. My job was to run the tunnel to the left,
to the south at that part i cular time, and some other guys started off
to the ri ght. They went about 400 feet to the right and one morning
they come back and they'd shot into a full face of spalerite zinc.
Spa10rite Zinc with lead, a little gold, some silver, all mixed through
it. You couldn't see the gold but it assayed gold and some rarer
metals that was in the ore too, So this was quite fascinating to me
and all the other miners because we hadn't really seen anything big
1ike this, There was a full face of it in the drift. When I say a full
face of ore it would be the end of just like looking at that wall there
and hav i ng' ita 11 ore, So they started to work on it and th i s ore body
was about forty to sixty feet wide and forty feet high of solid are,
We went to work on this and we made what they call stopes. You go
up there then you'd mine this are up along the contact. Then we had

2
~~-------~-------------------------------

to put in timber to be able to do this so that the top of the stopes

didn't fall in on us then we'd work between the timbers and pull the
ores down out and drop them into the drift and the chutes to be able
to load em into cars and bring it outside. I worked there a total of
fifteen years underground. There was danger at times. We had to
learn what was danger and we had to take care of it and watch out
for our own safety. The Rundell Mining Company decided to go down.
We ran a shaft down two hundred feet. Now, I want you kids to know
and everybody that reads this to know that all of this was done by
hand. We'd drill it with an automatic drill then all of it was shoveled
by hand. We went down two hundred, well, actually two hundred and
fifty feet and the shaft went down on a ninety degree angle. The
miners and the miners' helpers that were there - there were
probably three guys in there at a time working - and the ore was all
shoveled into a skip, and it would come up and dump up on the upper
level where they had it fixed. They'd haul all the muck outside and
dump it come back with there ore trains. Sometimes the shaft went
down in solid rock so you can understand that was really quite hard
work. We mined on these ore bodies for quite a few years and
finally, at the last of it, the ore body, was still going down into the
earth at the three hundred level. But we found a lot of water.
They're going to have to pump water to be able to mine that ore body
which I think someone will probably do within the next few years.
Now what other quest ions did you have there?

MG: Let's see, what are some of you're most memorab 1e experi ences
mining?

3
JJ: Well, (he laughed) actually working with the guys, being friends
with the other miners, and laughing and eating our dinner, having
our lunch. One fellow in particular, he always had lots of good jokes
to te 11 me. They sent us up on the side of the mountain outs i de to
run a tunnel into the mountain up there. A different tunnel than the
one we were in. As we ate our lunch he would always have some
jokes to tell. He had a way with animals and there was always some
squirrels there and he would coax these squirrels over and they'd
have some of his lunch plus they would actually get them to come
right over and sit on his knee and eat out of his hand. I always
thought that was a lot of fun, you know and just being acquainted
and working with the other fellows was probably my best
experiences.

SS: Where were you married? Did you have a family? Did anyone in
your family mine with you at all?

JJ: Not any, well yes I guess you might say my son Randy. Okay at
that time he was going to college so I got him a job mining with me
in the summertime so he could make some money to go to college.
Randy Johnson my oldest son here on the wall (points to pictures).
He would go out and the Runde 11 Mining Company gave him a job so
he could make some extra money to go to schoo 1 and that's kind of
how he helped himself through college at BYU. Now, after he got his
education he's a Superintendent of School's in Piute County. He was
a coach at South Sevier and he was a middle school principle so,

4
we're pretty proud of him. He worked his own way through school.
Maybe we could go back a lot of years and my wife's grandfather,
Frank Dalton, found a mine, a gold mine up on the mountain here
which was called the old Dalton Mine. It produced quite a lot of high
grade gold in a certain amount of time and that's always been kind of
fun for the fam i ly to tal k about that and have that as kind of a
hi story too. It te 11 s about it in some of these papers that have been
wri tten about Marysva 1e. I thi nk your teacher has one of those. It
would help you kind of research that a little bit. There is a lot of
history about Marysvale we could get into but, I think she has that
paper that is wri tten about it. It'd probab 1y exp 1ain it better than I
could.

55: Now when you were actually down in the mine, or even maybe
when you were out of the mines, what were some of the scariest
experi ences that you had?

JJ: Well, like I said before, we always had to watch out for danger
because there is dangers in mines, a lot of danger. There's certain
places you have to learn the rock the way it acts and some of it has
to be timbered to be able to hold it so you can work under it. Well,
one fellow and myself; I was the miner and he was the helper, we
were running what they call a raise straight up into the are body.
We had timbered it with square sets and we got up to dri 11 one day
and the whole back was drummy. That's how you told if it was
dangerous because it sound 1ike a drum if you hit it: kind of bounce
back at you. The noise would sound kind of like you were hitting on a

5
drum you know. We had to dri 11 strai ght up on thi s thing: its what
we call a stoper machine and he and I were there. We worked with
bars to try and pull the slabs dow n and make it safe so it wasn't
still drummy. No matter what we did we couldn't seem to get the
slabs to come down and satisfy ourselves that it was completely
safe. Finally we decided we were gonna get the round in and get the
work done. We had to do it in a way that we could. I said, "You better
move Wayne!" His name was Wayne. He moved over into the middle of
the stope and there was an ei ght by ei ght timber there and he sat on
this timber. I didn't like where he was at, (He laughs) so I said,
"Wayne, I think you better move over and under." This wall was going
up on about a ninety degree angle. If you got your back against this
wall, if something fell, it was gonna miss you and not hit you. He
got back against there and I did too. I completely got my back
against this ninety degree angle and put the steel up against that and
started to drill. That whole thing fell out of there and fell right
where he had sat down on that eight by eight timber. Completely
broke the timber and it probably would of killed that man if we
hadn't got him to move. That was a scary experience. Then I was
working with this other fellow, his name was Jimmy Davenport, and
he's the one that was good with the squirrels and animals when we
ate our lunch and he was a hard worker, a real hard worker. He'd
work fast and hard all the time. That'd give him a tendency to
sometimes slip when he shouldn't be slippin around. His feet fell out
from under him and he slipped and fell down the raise we were
working in and rolled about three sets. That was real scary for me
because I thought he'd gone clear to the bottom. He'd caught himself

6
down there on a timber. I was rea lly thank ful that he di dn't get hurt
because I just loved the guy. I'd worked wlth him all the time. So
that was another scary experience. Another time we were back in
there two miles into the tunnels. This wasn't too scary because we
knew we could get out; but the tunnel caved in between us and the
daylight. Well it caved in probably a total of twenty-five feet. They
had to come in and di g from the one end and we had to di g from the
other end to be ab 1e to get ourse 1ves out of there. That day was kind
of a scary experience. Another time, a fellow was standing on a set
of timbers and drilling. The timber came loose underneath him and
he fell down, but he was lucky. He only fell fourteen feet and got out
of It without being hurt so that was a scary experience. There was a
another thing that happened, actually the only time I ever got hurt
in the mine. I was running a raise, another fellow and myself
straight up. We always had to bring the timber up the raise wlth a
cable and a little box tied on to the cable to put the timber in and
bring it up. We always drilled a hole in the top of the raise to have a
pulley so the cable can run up over there and bring the timber up the
raise. Well, sometimes you kind of had to guide that cable with your
hand to get the lltt le car or the box up the raise. I had forgotten
that I had cl imbed up to the very top set of the timber and was
pushing on the cable and ran my finger right into the pulley
underneath the cable so it actually flattened out my finger. The
doctor just took it and molded it together like this. I went to the
doctor in Pangutich, at the time a Dr. Dougins, and this is how my
fi nger turned out. I t turned out pretty good really from the way it
looked to start with. It was just a flat mess there. I got big tears in

7
my eyes cause I thought I was gonna loose my finger. That was
probab ly the most scary experience because I thought I was gonna
loose my finger.

MG: Yeah, and it happened to you.

JJ: I think that's pretty much the scary experiences. Well, another
time I was standing by a man and a rock fell. I seen it miss him and
it missed me too. It went right between both of us (we all laughed)
and that was Re11 Fredericks. Maybe you met Rell. I don't know if
you met him yet or not. He's the one that's helping Mr. Leonard get
this park done up here. Now Mrs. Leonard is your teacher isn't she?

MG: Do you have any funny experiences?

55: BeSides your squirrel.

JJ: I had a partner, I just love the guy. His name was Greg Price. He
works for Robinson's Trucking down in 5al ina. He drives a truck to
the coal. He was a lot of fun. We were running this one drift
together and he was always playing jokes on me. He'd come up, you
know and stand there while you was drilling. Your drill was making
lots of noise and whi 1e you were dri 11 ing he would stand there and
he'd always reach around and tap you on the other shoulder. You'd
turn around thinking somebody was there and it was just him
standing there being innocent. We got a lot of laughs this man and I.
We'd laugh a lot about that and then he always would wanna wrestle

8
with me, Sometimes when we had a little time we would wrestle,
Actually get ri ght down and wrest 1e in the dri ft. He was a lot
smaller than me and he could handle me sometimes too. That was
probably the funniest thing, I'm sure there was a times when we had
lots of laughs but just to remember them right now; I can't give you
anyth i ng else other than that.

55: What did you do in you're in your free time when you had any?

JJ: When we were working and we had free time?

55: Yeah,

JJ: Mostly that was just lunch you know, You'd sit around and just
visit and talk, This one guy was always telling jokes, or somebody
else that had a good joke, Probably, tell old stories, just some of
the dreams that we all had that maybe we wanted to do in our 1i fe.
That was probably taken up our free time I guess, Once in awhile you
could sit down and shut your eyes, Put your back against a rock and
sleep f or a few minutes to you know, and rest.

MG: What were some of the dreams you had?

JJ: 50me of those dreams, well I've always like I said to start with
I've always loved the minerals and mining, I've just got it in my
blood, Although I'm a dairy farmer. Right now I'm a dairy farmer so
you have to make a living, Sometimes mining won't make you a

9
living you just could lose your shirt. I've always said mining is just
like drinking whiskey, you have to learn to control it or you spend
everything you got doin' it. I do have a prospect of my own that I'm
act ive ly work ing ri ght now. It's up here at about 9000 feet on the
mounta in in Beaver Creek. I've dri lled it, blasted it, and mucked it
with a shove 1 and a whee 1 barrow and I'm back into the mountai n 1SO
feet. I t's been a lot of hard work but I've got a dream that there's a
gold mine there. So I'm pursuing this dream. Some of the geology
that's there shows that there could be. I'm headin' for a certain
contact in the mountain where the two come together, there might
be some gold there. So your always dreaming that you might see a
big chunk of gold in the quartz there which would be just beautiful.
I'll show you what I mean in a minute with a magazine I got here.

S5: You were saying that you still mining now. How have some of
the procedures and some of the too 1s changed from when you were
mining before to now?

JJ: They've changed a lot. They've got a lot better dri 11 s to dri 11
with that are run by air. The compressors that are used now are a lot
more quiet to make the air. The steel and the bits that they have to
drill the hard rock with are a lot better. To start out with, you
know, they used to do what they called hand steel. They'd hit the
steel with the sledge hammer and one man would hold that steel
while the other would hit it with the sledge hammer. If he missed,
look out, there went a arm or a hand or something broken you know.
tri ed that once just one day for awhile. He wanted me to dri 11 some
J

10
holes for him and I got 2, 6" holes in the rock. And I'll tell you, it's
something else. I'm glad I wasn't in on some of that hand steeling
cause a lot of those fellows, they didn't use water. It was all dry.
Everyt i me they woul d hit that stee 1 and turn it into the rock it
would make a dry dust that would come back and this is how come so
many old time miners died with silicosis. They had hand steel and
they didn't use the water as they drill ed. Now, we drill with the ai r
that turns the mach i ne by itse If and the water goes through the
machine as you drill. So when the materials are coming out of the
ho 1e, they're a 11 wet so you don't get the sil ica that you used to get
in the olden days. Did that kind of explain it?

MG: Where did you live while you were mining? Cause you say that
in your free time you had, you just ate lunch and sat around there;
did you 1ive up on the mountain?

JJ: At this particular mine it was close enough. It's only out here
seven miles and I lived right here. We just drove out there. We did
work shift work quite a lot of the time. We'd work swing shift and a
graveyard shi ft and a day shi ft. We'd drive out there and go to work
and put our shift in and then come back home here. They didn't really
have a boarding house or anything 1ike some mines have.

MG: So you just worked and then you'd go home and just sleep and
rest up for the next day?

11
JJ: Well actually I would come home and work another job too
sometimes. Then I got a little farm and I started to taking care of
the farm and still work at the mine. So like all people have to do,
seems like nowadays, unless they get lots of money, we tried to
work as many jobs as we could to keep food on the table.

MG: So a typical day would be waking up, going to the mine,

working, eating your lunch, probably dinner, and then coming home
and doing your little job?

JJ: And take care of whatever you had to take care of and have your
supper and enjoy your family. Yah.

55: So you, while you were mining, you were having your family at
home. Were you married whi Ie you were mining?

JJ: Oh yes. I married a girl from Marysvale here. Her family had
quite a history of mining, that's the one that found the Dalton mine.
In fact, she lost a uncle in the Deer Trail Mine, in the old Deer Trai1
Mine they had a fire and it burned up all the oxygen and two people
died in that particular fire. It was her uncle that died in that fire.

MG: Did you make enough to support you family while you were
mining?

JJ: We made 3 & 1/2 dollars an hour (laughs). At that time we were
able to support everybody and we got along alright.

12
55: How were you treated when you were mining?

JJ: How were we treated?

55: Yes.

JJ: I think we were treated good. At Christmas time they used to

give us a hundred and fifty dollar bonus. Always a really nice five
pound box of candy. Whi 1e we were work ing they tried to keep us
with all materials we needed. They didn't use whips on us if you
mean something like that. As a general rule our bosses were always
good guys and we enjoyed working with them. Yeah.

55: That's good.

MG: 50 the way you were treated affected you're personal ity
towards others in a good way then?

JJ: Well, I've always had a good personality towards others myself.
Once in a while, in the mine, you could get you're feelings hurt a
little bit if you thought you were working harder and doing a better
job taking care of you're job then. 50metimes they'd put somebody
ahead of you. Let them be the bosses, you know, once in awhile.
There was a time or two when I think I got my feelings hurt a little
bit that way.

13
55: How does mining affect you and you're 1ife physica11y and
emot iona lly?

JJ: How has mining affected me as what now?

55,and MG: Physically and emotionally.

JJ: Physically. The on ly physical defect I 'ye got from mining is this
finger. My health seems to be real good. I'm still a good hard
worker, I'm sixty six years old now. I even worked in the uranium
mine for a few months at one time when this mine was closed down
because they couldn't get rid of their ore. I t closed down for a few
months. I've been real fortunate, some of the fellows that worked in
the uranium were heavy smokers and they've si nce died from cancer
in their lungs and different things. I've been fortunate that way. As
far as I know right now I'm still healthy and the only defect I've got
is my finger.

MG: (Laughs) That's great.

55: What about emotionally, how did it affect you emotIonally?

JJ: Emotionally. The only way it affected me emotionally is when I

would see the ore body and see the ores and the crystals and the
things that come from underground that are beautiful. I would get
built up and want to find more of those kinds of things.

14
55 What kind of freedoms and how much freedom di d you have
while you were mining? Were you specifically told where to go and
what to do?

JJ: We had a certain job to do and if we went in and we got that job
done then we could explore a little bit if we wanted to walk around.
I guess thi sis kind of going back to the other quest j on you; had what
were we doing when we had some free time. Well we could go off
and visit with another miner in another place where he was working
or we could go look at some of the old diggings that had already been
dug out and explore a little bit like that. There was a crystal room
that was found out there. See this crystal on the fire place? Here
on the front of the fire place right over here. On this, what am I
trying to say,?

SS: P1 anter?

JJ: Planter that's what I was trying to say. Now that's a fluoride

crystal. This particular crystal room was just full of those things.
Then they changed to a different kind. Those particular ones there
are square and then it changed to a particular crystal that had 14
sides on It. I don't have any of those right here. They were just
beautiful and very rare. Since then, people have come into that mine
and got them right from the people that own the mine, to mine those
out. They've taken them to rock shows a 11 over the wor1 d. They
made a lot of big money off of them. That's some of what we would

15
do. We would go and dig in these crystal rooms and I brought these
large crystals out just to make this planter with.

MG: Neat!

JJ: Those are f 1uori de crysta 1s there.

MG: So you worked for a company, but in your free time you could go
and wander. If you ever found anything, could you keep it for
yourself?

JJ: Oh no. We were in their mine and as long as we got our work
done, then we could do about what we wanted to in the mine.

MG: But you could everkeep anything?

JJ: We couldn't Oh, let me tell you a funny experience (We all laugh)
one comes to me now. I was working on a vein of ore it was just
beautiful tetraheride ore. I took two pieces out of the mine. I twas
just beautiful ore and put it in my lunch bucket to take home. The
boss, his name was Jay Sylvester and he lifted my lunch. He knew I
was. crazy about rocks anyway and he 1if ted my lunch bucket up and
felt it in there one day so he took the lunch bucket, opened it, and
took the pieces of ore out and put two big rocks in there. They all
had a big laugh about that because when I got outside I was gonna
show the pi eces to everybody. I opened up the 1unch bucket and there
was these two big rocks in there. All the guys were standing around

16
and they'd already been to1d what was g01ng on they all 1aughed and
thought that was pretty funny. That was probab ly one of the times
we really had a good laugh. (We all laugh) Anyway he gave me the
ore back, the two pieces of ore and I brought them home as I started
to do. No they give those to us. All through hi story thi sis one thing
that has happened in the crysta 1 worl d. Speci mens that come out of
the mines the miners have run into these things and been very
attracted to them and brought them home with them. Sometimes
maybe the bosses didn't even know it. That's how there's samples of
this, it's out in the world now. There's lots and lots of collectors
that collect these gemstones and rare minerals that come out of the
earth. There are pri ze co 11 ect ions there worth m i 11 ions of do 11 ars.
I n fact, I had one of those people come right here to my house and try
to buy one of the fourteen - sided crystals from me that I had
brought home. Just a few days before, I gave it to my aunt and she'd
taken it to California. She lived in California and so I lost a few
dollars there by giving it to my aunt. It finally ended up in the
1awyers hands when she died and I wasn't ever ab 1e to get it back. It
was a great crystal which could have been worth quite a few hundred
dollars.

MG: What did the mines look like and what were the conditions
inside and out the mines?

JJ: Outside this particular mine they had a good railroad track going
into it. They had electric cars to pull the mine cars that were run
by batteries, so they were pretty modern. They had everyth ing that

17
was to make the work the best they could. I think the one worst
thing we had in the mine was when we had to saw a lot of timbers
sometime, eight by eight timber. That timber was green that they
used in the mine and for a lot of years, all we had was the big old
crosscut handsaw. That was very hard work sawing those timbers.
Finally they started inventing an airsaw that was run with air and
that was a whole lot easier. We could hook the air on to that and cut
through one of these timbers in just a matter of a few minutes then.
The other way, gosh sometimes you'd work for thirty minutes
cutt ing through one. That saved the company money when they
finally got something like that it saved us a lot of hard work.

MG: What did you learn most while mining?

JJ: I think what I learned most whi le I was mining was that I had
good friends and that I had to take care of what I was doing in order
to protect my 1ife. I had to make sure that everything was correct
with the timber. I had to protect my own self and know how much
time I could spend at a certain thing. What I'm refering to there; one
fellow and I were running down an incline only on about a thirty
degree incline. We drilled this round, at that particular time they
had only the fuses. You had to split the end of the fuse and light it
with you're carbide light. It was quite wet conditions and we loaded
the holes and the fuse would stick out of the hole and then you'd take
your sharp pocket knife and this was one thing you always saw to
that you had a sharp pocket knife all the time. It coul d save your
1if e. We'd cut the end of these fuses and then fo 1d them back just a

18
1i tt 1 bit. The powder that's in the fuses, you coul d hi t it with the
end of you're carbide light and it immediatly started to burning. You
dri 11 ed, then you load the ho 1es and you ca 11 that a round. You have so
many holes to shoot that's loaded with powder. We'd split all the
ends and the carbide 1ight would 1ight some of them, some of them
wouldn't light. Before we spent more time there some of them were
burning while we were trying to light the others. You're wondering
how far that ones burning into the hole while you're lighting the
others. It's very ,very dangerous. Now they've got what you call a
spiter that you put on the end of those fuses and you run a wire that
burns rea 1 fast and you can time that so that each one of those 11 ghts
itself and you're not even standing there watching it. This
particular time I'm telling you about, we stayed way too long. We
just barely got to the top of the incline when they started going off
and that works on your emotions.

MG: Yeah.

JJ Yeah.

MG: You'd have to run real fast.

JJ: And that's very dangerous. Very dangerous.

MG: There's a lot of dangerous things in mining.

55: What was a typical day while you were mining?

19
JJ: A typical day was to (laughs) get up have you're breakfast. You
a1ways 1i ked to have a decent lunch and put your lunch in your out f 1t
and away you'd head out to the mine, Well, there was times in the
winter time when there could be 4 feet of snow on that Deer Trai 1
road down in the cedar trees just above the highway out here, You
girls have probably been by and looked up that way at it. You know,
Roger Howes has the key now and I'm sure he'd go out with the whole
bus load and just let you see it after hearin' my stories, So we'd go
out and sometimes we'd fight to get up the mountain in the mornings
in the winter time. As a general rule, the roads were pretty good and
we left to work and we'd get our light all ready and and the supplies
that we thought we had to have that day ready and they'd have a train
sitting there that we would ride into the mine, Quite a ways back,
you know. It's darn near 2 miles in there, They had little seats in
the cars. We'd cl imb into the cars and away we'd go a bouncing back
along the railroad track into the mine. You'd go in there about 1500
feet straight in and then the tunnel would turn at the end of that
1500 feet. We called that the Daylight Tunnel because you can see
daylight back at the end of the tunnel all the way in until you made
that one turn. Then after that you never saw daylight again all day
long, when you're back in there. I f your 1i ght burned out it's dark, I
mean pitch dark. For a lot of years we used the old Carbide lights.
carbide is a material that fits in the bottom of the light and you
have a little bowl on the end of your light. This carbide, you put it in
there; oh it's little pieces that are about half as big as my finger
nail and it's very explosive. You'd spit in there and that immediately

20
starts that gas to work ing. Then the carbi de 1i ghts a lso had water
in it. It dri ps, drips, dri ps into th i s bow 1 and mak es the gas come
out. You have a flint there that you'd go like this (strikes his hands
together), you coul d just make it pop because of the gas that's
coming out. That lights it. Then that'll burn for a certain amount of
time. They used carbide light for a lot of years until they finally got
battery operated 1ights for us that we could use. So there was quite
a lot of experience with the carbide lights and at times they'd plug
off and go out. You'd be in total darkness; have to feel, feel your way
to get that thi ng work i ng again. A lot of time you had to have just a
little tiny fine wire that you'd have to stick in the hole of the
carbide light to get the gas coming out again, Then you could light it
again and get to working (laughs). I'm reminded of a joke but I don't
know (laugh) about an old mine, This old miner come down from
Idaho and was working with me, He told me about the mine they
worked at in Idaho that had the bunkhouses and everything. This one
miner got married so they fixed up a special little cabin for him and
his bride. They were there and all they had for a light was this
carbide, and they had a bathroom too, One of the miners, I guess,
thought this was a real joke, you know so he took a handful of
carbide and threw it into where she went the bathroom. Kind of a
pot you know, that they had. She got up in the night and went and sat
on the pot and peed on the carbide (laughter), Then that immediately
started the carb ide to work in' and that started a bubb 1in' up around
her hind end and she started to screamin' (laughter). Her husband,
her new husband run in and struck a match to give some 1ight and
that blew up,

21
SS & MG: Wow' oh no!

JJ: 5he got burned real bad. That was quite a story that this old
miner had told me. He was a lot older than me and he'd come down
and to 1d that story. 50 I don't know if you'll want to use that or not
I thought that was real funny. That was another time when I laughed
pretty hard you know. Everyone else did because he'd told it to all
the miners.

MG: Oh my gosh, that would hurt! But it was funny

55: What are some of the changes that have taken place today in the
area where you mined?

JJ: The area where I mined) another company has 1eased that
property and they've come out there and they did quite a lot of work
on the road. They built a great big place where they were going to
build a mill. A mill on the old Deer Trail tailings that's out there.
The ta i 1i ngs that I understand there was a thousand tons of mill
tailings there that run about fifteen hundreds of an ounce of gold per
ton in gold. This outfit eventually wants to run those tailings but
we've been hearing this for about three years now. I t's never
happened so I don't know whether it w ill or not. They st ill have the
property leased. Other than that its pretty much the same old
dumps, the old buildings everything is there but you you could all go
actually go see you know. I know at one time they used to take some

22
of the students that wanted to go in the mine, they'd actually put
them in the cars and take them back and 1et them see some of the
mine. I t's Mr. Howes, Roger Howes might do it for some of you if you
really got serious about it. That particular place is pretty much the
same. It really hasn't changed a whole lot. Does that kind of give
that quest ion to you ... is that what you wanted there?

SS: Is there anything else that you wanted to tell us, explain about
anything?

JJ: As a miner, I don't think there's anything else I could really

explain to ya. We would timber this are body, like I said it was forty
feet high and forty to seventy feet wide sometimes we'd have square
sets of timber in there and then we had slushers. It was run on
cables. We'd drill a pin hole way back in the face and then we'd pull
this heavy kind of 1ike a scraper into the face then we we were down
here and we had a little place built where it was safe to be in, We'd
run this thing that had handles on it, it was run by air and the
slusher would go back and pull all that ore out bring it down and it
would drop into a raise go down into the drift where they loaded up
the cars and took it out into the bottom of th j s shaft that we run by
hand I was te 11 i ng you about. And then they had sk i p pockets so that
all that stuff could be handled without having to do it all by hand all
of the time. Otherwards you dump it in or draw it in to a car and
U)en go up and dump it into another pocket way up at the main level
and then draw it into more cars take those cars outside and dump
them in the ore pile and they haul that ore. Some of it went to

23
Tooele. Tooele they had smelters up there at the time to melt it up
there. Some of it I think went to Eureka over in the Tintic District.
They had ami 11 there that they took the ore to at one time. I f you
need any figures on in some of the amount of dollars that was taken
out of these mines I've got a paper in here I'll give that to ya.

MG: You do, that would be interesting.

MG: How did mining get started in this area?

JJ: Well, it tells it right in there that the prospectors came here and

some of the first gold that was found out here in these clay hills.
They were panning a lot of the prospectors from the country. That's
about all they did, they panned for gold. Find it free in the gravels
and that's the way. Then I guess this old fellow that found it out
here decided he was going to find the source of it. He went up Pine
Creek, it's what they call Bullion Canyon now, and he went up,Pine
Creek; found what they call the old Bully Boy up there. That's a big,
huge, black vein that runs into the mountain and it tells, , think it
tells about that in here. I tells about the Dalton Mine; the one my
wife's grandfather found. I think it tells about the Wedge Mine in
there. Urn, the Wedge Mine had beautiful gold nuggets in it. And I've
seen some of the gold come out of there. A lady here in town, well a
man come back here years later and went up there with a cement
mixer. He run the dump through the cement mixer then dump it out in
a big screen. Then he found some beautiful, beautiful pieces of
quartz with stringers of gold as wide as my finger runnin' down

24
 -------~------------------~

through the quartz. He come to town down here and he'd pay the

store bill with those pieces of gold. The people accepted them cause
they were really nice samples, you know. He would pay his store bill

that way. Th i s 1ady had some down here. She was an old schoo 1

teacher here in town. Had those f or years and now she has passed
away and her son, Mike Gibbs has those. I f your gonna have any
pictures in your story, your gonna write, you know you could
probably get some of these things together to put in your story and
have some pictures in there of some of these gold samples. It might
helpya.

MG: Well, we should be going, heading back. Shouldn't we, what time
is it? Thanks for having us over and letting us listen to your mining
stories. We appreciate i t...Bye.

25
BOB LEONARD:
INTERVIEWEE: Bob Leonard

INTER VIEWER: Sharon Glenn

DATE: January 18, 1996

PLACE: Marysvale, Utah

SUBJECT: Mining history of Marysvale

The original transcription was altered, edited, clarified, and enlarged upon on January 22,
1996, by Bob Leonard.

G. Mr. Leonard, we're happy you could speak with us today. We would like to know a few
things about mining in the Marysvale area and we understand that you have quite a direct
involvement there. Would you explain your interest with mining in Bullion Canyon and also your
involvement with the Miner's Park.

L. Well in a past life I was Ben Rumpson from Paint Your Wa20n and Thad a mule named
Sharon and I used to wander the hills of California looking for gold and I eventually met this
fellow who looked a lot like Clint Eastwood. We did a lot of mining and made some money, but
that was one of my past lives and Treally enjoyed it because Tjust got to live out all of my
fantasies that Twanted to do; drank lots and caroused and did everything that was socially
unacceptable that I could. So when this project came up I just had a real empathy for the people
that used to live in Bullion Canyon and worked there. They're interesting people. The American
miners that came into Bullion Canyon in the 1860's probably weren't the first. When the first
miners came up the canyon back in 1860's that is like the dark ages in Utah history. You know
Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and down here there is absolutely nothing.
Richfield had been abandoned because of the Indian problem and this is like being on the moon.
When the miners went up Bullion Canyon thinking that they were the first, they went up the creek
and looked and low and behold they found an arrastra. An arrastra is a Spanish ore crushing
devise where you put ore in it and crush it. You got to crush the ore to extract the gold, and at
 2

the base of this arrastra they found rotted sacks of gold ore. This is according to the folklore
down in the Marysvale area. So apparently the American miners are not the first. The history of
Bullion Canyon goes back perhaps hundreds of years to maybe the 1600's or maybe the 1700's to
the Spanish Conquistadors. They were riding north out of New Spain and Santa Fe looking for
gold, for slaves, so the history of the canyon was really quite unique. Of course the Native
American people were probably in the canyon thousands of years before the Spanish. But the
American miners were there, they were picking gold out of the creek, knee deep in water, ice
cold water ten, twelve hours a day, mining was tough work. It was back breaking work. The
first guys that went into that canyon barely made enough money to feed themselves or their
mules. Most miners did not get rich, but mining made most men poor. The people that make
money belonged to organized mining companies. Claims were bought from placer miners for a
small amount of money. Then these big companies came in, these big companies that had capital,
money, resources to go in and dig deep mines and shafts that could take the ore out of the inside
of the mountain in great quantities. Those are the people, the companies that made money, not
the guys that go up the creek with their mules, the Ben Rumpsons, if you will. I kind of
appreciate the lifestyle. Tthink Thave a lot of respect for the miners because they were hard
workers and it was a very tough existence. Tmean if you think about working underground all
day long, knee deep in ice cold water and you were numb from head to toe; pulling out tons upon
tons upon tons of rock ten to twelve hours a day; but generally they had Saturdays off. It was a
tough life and these guys, the workers that lived up in Bullion City made about four dollars a day.
Now the boarding house where they lived can still be seen. The foundation is the only part that
still survives. They usually charged about, oh eleven to twelve dollars a week to stay there. So
these guys would make four dollars a day, they're paying eleven to twelve dollars a week to stay
in a boarding house with fifty cents to a dollar for each meal that they ate. Pretty quick you can
see that they weren't making any great sums of money. It's just enough to keep a roof over their
heads and some food in their stomach. Probably lots of food. Anybody ever done any logging or
really heavy, heavy duty work? Most of us eat about 0, two thousand to twenty-five hundred
calories a day, but miners and loggers and people that work under those kind of conditions, those
hours, can bum six to eight thousand calories a day. They, didn't eat any light meals you know,
 3

like an English muffin for breakfast, they'd really woof it down so, they spent a lot to keep
themselves going. I guess I just appreciate the fact that people knew what work was and could
work hard. 'Cause I enjoy doing that. I mean if you grow up in this modern world, I have a
computer sitting on my desk and paper surrounding me all over the place. To go out and build a
trail or build something like Bullion Canyon [Miners' Park] and use your back is really kind ofa
nice break for me to get away form the electronic world and computers.

G. Could we ask you a question too about your creation of the Miners' Park in Bullion
Canyon if, when you were working up there were there any particular episodes that are
memorable anything interesting in the creation of the park that you could tell us about?

L. Well T remember back in the summer of'94 T found this English teacher. She kind of
became my buddy and she cooked for me and she kept my tent and supervised my crew for me.

G. Were there any disasters during that summer that you can remember? Any disasters or
things that were just really fun? Apart from the English teacher?

L [chuckles] We, the Forest Service, have a program called Passport-In-Time. There's a
catalog that goes out coast to coast and people pick up the catalog and it's volunteer
opportunities from Alaska to New Hampshire and you can apply to came and work. So the crew
that I had up there was from, I think that year it was eight or nine different states and I had people
ranging form fourteen years old to seventy-four years old. So you have all these volunteers and
people of all different ages but that year we took down a cabin that was way up on the mountain,
up on Mt. Brigham. Up about ten thousand feet, there was an old cabin falling apart and we
labeled it and took it apart and brought it down to the park and put it back together. But all the
bottom logs were rotten and so we had to go and had to log about ten or eleven good sized
spruce logs, you know big trees to replace those bottom logs. One of my volunteers, a sweet,
older, grandmotherly type lady, gray haired, that was a really good worker but she wasn't very
fast on her feet and we, we dropped one of those trees and she didn't get out of the way. And it
 4

just nailed her- it squashed her like a bug and it I would have to say that was probably memorable.

G. Well, thank you. We appreciate your time at Bullion Canyon and also your commentary
of some of the tragedies that occurred during as well. One more time we do appreciate
everything that you have done for us in terms of the recording and if there is anything else that
you can think we haven't covered, we would appreciate hearing form you as well about that

L. I was gonna tell you about how this lady looked like my grandmother. You know how this

lady that got squashed.

G. The squashed lady, yes.

L MyoId grandmother, Grandmother Matilda and how she used to bake me fTesh bread
every morning when I went off to school.

G. Oh, your grandma did that for you.

L. Yah, and this lady that got squished reminded me of that.

G. Did she. Well that's, that's really interesting how people remind you of others. I think that
at a future time it would be really important for us to discuss your own family history. Maybe we
could schedule that for a future time.

L. Well, I would really like to talk about my grandmother.

G. I know you would. Let's try that at another time. We certainly appreciate your help in
your own family history. Thank you again Mr. Leonard.
 BERT LUND'

-
INTERVIEWEE: BERT LUND

INTERVIEWER: Erin Cottle, Jay Brewer, Matt Jenkins; Roberta

Seaton

DATE: January 18, 1996

LOCATION: Marysvale

SUBJECT: Mining

The original trancsript was chosen not to be edited by Bert

Lund. All alterations were made by the interviewers.

E: This is an interview on January 18, 1996 with Erin Cottle, Jay

Brewer, Matt Jenkins, and Roberta Seaton. We're interviewing Bert
Lund about mining in the Maryvale area.

E: Okay, what was a typical day like in your mining experiences, like
what kinds of things did you do on a regular day?

B: We would leave Marysvale, and I was working in the Deer Trail

Mine right after my high school graduation at the first of the year
and I would leave Marysvale and go south of Marysvale about seven
miles up in the mountains and we would go to the shop, and pick us
up a hard hat and at that particular time, we didn't have any electric
lights. So we picked up a carbide light and we got on a man train and
went back in the mine, which at that time was about 2, 500 feet
back in the mountain and the tunnel was approximately 7 foot high
and 5 foot wide and we would go back in the back and we would
shovel out what we called the round that had been blasted the night
before. And we would shovel this into mine cars, we drove a mine
car back to the, what we called a face, that's where the blast was.
And we would take shovels, scoop shovels, we used to ca11 them
banjos. And we would shovel, we would push 2 mine cars right up
close and we would shovel into the second mine car and we'd shovel
and fill the first mine car and then we'd push them out and up to a
little siding where it was, where there was enough room for two
mine cars to pass which would be about every five hundred feet. And
then after we got all that shoveled into the mine cars, there would
be what we called a trammer. And he would tram all the ore cars
outside and he used a mule to pull the mine cars out and pull them
back in. And the trammer would take the mine cars out, and as he
got out, there would be an engineer there to look the material over
and find out if it was waste material or if it was a are of a high
grade. Which would have either gOld, copper, silver, lead, or zinc.
And depending on the material he would dump that into a prescribed
bin, which would contain the different types of material, different
types of ore, was waste then he'd just take it over on the end of the
dump, and dump it. And after we'd got all the material shoveled in
and got out of the way then we'd take jackhammers and they was, we
would mount them on a bar and this jackhammer would jackhammer
holes in what we called the face in the end of the of the tunnel of
the mine, and usually it would take up to approximately 27 holes and
that would usually take about four hours to do that drill ing and at
the end of the day just before we'd come back out. We'd take
probably half hour for lunch and after lunch would be about the time
to start drilling while we'd load up these holes with dynamite and
put a blasting cap and a fuse and then we'd set them off but the
holes were drilled in such a way that there was, they wasn't just
straight in, you'd have to drill two center holes either pointing them,
ya know in a V-shape, either V-shaped, either flat or up and down.
And so that you would shoot them and the holes would be shot at
different intervals, you would shoot the center holes, that's your
breaking holes, first. Then you'd shoot your top holes second, and
then the holes that we drilled underneath, you'd call them lifters,
and they would 1ift the rock, after everything that was shot down,
they'd 1i ft It back out onto what we would cal1 51 ick sheets. We'd
put, they would be a a sheet of steel about a quarter inch thick, and
probably 4 by 8 feet that we would put down on the floor so that the

2
_. -- -----------------

blast, that would put all that material on top of those slick sheets
so we could shovel it easier,

M: I see,

B: And then after that, a coup le years after that, then we got new
material. We went up to Kennecot in Salt Lake got some, we had
electricity run up to the mines, and then we got electric motor cars,
with an e1ectri c motor that would take the cars in and out. Then we
a had a thing, a machine that was called a mucking machine and that
was just like an automatic scoop shovel you might say. I don't know
what you wanna call it, it's called a mucking machine and it would
scoop up the material and then load it back in the cars right behind
it , and there's one you can see on in Lucy's (Deluke] yard back here I
can show to ya. [Paints to his back window.] But it was, the motor
was operated on a series of batteries. There was a hundred
batteri es in each motor and there was about 16 inches hi gh and about
6 inches square and we'd run that motor all day long and then at
night we'd plug it into a charger. There was a 6 inch pipe under the
mine that was an air pipe and it run the mucking machine, it run the
dri 11 sand everythi ng.

M: With electrical wires?

B: No, we had electrcal wires running in at the top of the mine and
for lights and stuff 1ike that. But but one thing about the carbide
light it would tell us if there was bad air, carbon monoxide. My
father was killed in the same or in another mine right in the same
area because of carbon monox j de. They had carb i de 1i ghts and there
was a bunch of them working and what happens is the light requires
oxygen to burn right, and all the oxygen, they had quite a few lights
in there for 1ight and the 1ights apparently had burned all the oxygen
out of the the area where they was working and they didn't have any
air running in. They [the early miners] would drill by hand they
would take a like a, a long peice of steel and just hit it with a
sledge hammer and just turn it and turn it and turn it and hit it, and
3
that was the way that they'd drill the holes. That was in 1938 but
the Deer Trai 1 Mine which is the same area I was working south of
western Marysva le, and it produced go 1d that set records till 1941
that produced more gold than any other mine in the state of Utah.

E: Really?

B: But anyway, that's about what the work considered of, consisted
of was just going there.

E: When did you mine?

B: That was in, well I graduated high school in 1948 so that was the
summer of 1948.

E: How long did you do it?

B: I worked out there in that part of the mines for three years, or
for two years, then I went on a mission, then I come back and I
worked up there about two more years and then I was transfered. I
quit up there and I went to work. I worked on the eastside where
they was mining uranium. And uranium is what they make atomic
bombs out of and I worked up there for a year and a half, and I smelt
something wrong because a lot of the guys would get sick, and the
bosses says that everything was alright. But it contained what they
call U238 and it's a uranium oxide and it's very, very, very toxic and
very, very hard on your lungs. It's what I call 'hot rocks' and you'd go
down there and work and in the evening, man it would just tear you
up, you just couldn't do anything; you couldn't hardly do anything
neat. And I could smell, "Hey that there's something wrong here," so
I says, "Hey I can't, I can't handle this." And that was in 1954.

E: Did you continue to do any mining?

B: And then I said, 'well uh ... mining is not for me, I'm not bullt to
work underground.' And so I went in, it was in January, I went down
4
to California where my sister lived. The people down there was
working in their short shirt sleeves and I was up here in Marysvale
and there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground and I said,
"Hey, I'm gonna go to California where the sun's shining and I don't
have to work underground," and so I left and I spent about thirty
years in California working for division highways on the roads.
Well, first I worked the division of water resources and I worked for
the Army Engineers and we'd test dri 11 ho les and bui ldings and put in
structures or dams. I had to get a securi ty clearance because we
was going in an area where they was storing atomic bombs and they
didn't let anybody in there, just anybody, so we had to have a
clearance to get in there cause we was digging a, a deep, deep pit. I
mean a deep bunker where they were going to store these atomic
bombs and that was quite interesting because testing the foundation
ground and the thing about it too was getting the security clearance.
They would call and find out if everyplace wherever I was, or you
know, where I lived and when I went on my mission. I was drafted
into the Army and I got out of the Army and I was, I was only in the
Army, or Air Force, for three weeks and I was, I was picked up in
Denver, Colorado. I had a Class A uniform on and I was coming home,
but somebody had stolen my luggage and I didn't have any papers to
show that I was in the Army and so the MP's picked me up in Denver
and slapped me in jail. Some time later when I was getting my
security clearance and hey, it come right back and this person in the
Air Force security knocked on my door and he said "Where was you on
August the 13th, 1955?" and I sa; d, "I don't remember," and he says,
"Well," he says, "will this tell us anything about you?" And it
showed where I'd been incarcerated in the Denver city jail overnight
and I'd put on my report that I'd never been incarcerated, never had
anything against me that I could remember. But anyway I worked
there with the Army Engineers and then the State of California.

E: In your mining did you guys, did you all just do the same job or did
you have different positions?

5
B: Well, we had seven men when 1 was working up there. We had a
mechanic, and we had two mechanics, one would take care of the
equipment that we used in the mine, and we had a maintenance man
that took care of the compressor and seen that we had air going back
in there to run the jackhammers, stuff 1ike that. And we had a a
foreman that was in charge of everybody and there was four of us
usually that worked. Sometimes there'd be two of us work ing in one
area and the mine would branch off, and, and they would go this way
or this way. (pointing). They had three or four branches in there,
there'd be a pair of two miners, wherever, there was always two
men. Mostly, it took two men, but a lot of the time it was for
safety's sake. In case there was ... for instance one time I was
working over in Nevada at a mine and in that condition, where we
was working, they worked the mines around the clock, and these
people that we was replacing that was coming off shift, was a little
bit late coming off shift and they was a little bit late blasting and
we was coming down and going back into the tunnel where we was
supposed to work, clean up the mess, clean up the blast. Well, they
come out of a different area and we was going in this area and all at
once we heard, we heard the blast. And, hey had we been just about
5 minutes earlier, we would have went back into that face where
they had blasted, and we wouldn't have been. You know what I mean,
because of the time they set the blast off we'd been right there.
Cause they come out at different times. But that gives you an idea
of what there was, of fear.

M: Was it, was working in the gold mine dangerous? Was it,could
you get like health problems from it?

B: When we would, there was times, when we would drill the rock ...
and it's quartz and limestone. Okay, quartz is like glass. And
sometimes, we would run out of water, we could still run the
machines to drill the hole with just plain air. Well, that would
create a dust. Well, quartz and glass is just about the same. And
you would be breathing that and that would go into your lungs and I
have a little bit of quartz dust in my left lower lobe. (Showing dust
6
placement in 1ung). And they ca 11 it, the miners ca 11 that 'rocks in
the box', It's just quartz dust. And I've had it and I'll always have it.
And when I when I have a chest X-ray it shows up. There's a 1ittle
spot right there and it just affects the lungs and it's 'rocks in the
box', Every time I'd catch a cold in the morning or something, well, it
settles in that part of your lungs, So it, it does affect, I mean it
does affect. You can understand that's why they made a law that you
cannot dri 11 in mines without water, Because of the dust.

M: So the drills operated with air and water pressure?

B: Yes, the water was not so much pressure as it was just, just a
little bit of water to wash the the cuttings away from the bit.

E: So your dad mined, right?

B: Yes,

E: Did any other of your family do it?

B: Well, my dad and my dad's brother, Well, and my dad had two
brothers and three half-brothers and they all mined, It was my
great-grandfather that rea 11y di scovered the Deer Trai 1 Mi ne.

M: What was his name?

B: Well, John William Lund. There was a couple other guys that was
just prospecting.

E: How did the whole mining experience affect your life, the rest of
your 1ife?

B: Well, that's tough, In the beginning it give me a job, to earn

money. And I was interested in materials and in metals and
materials and mining and the way that it went, the smelting of it.
was interested in rocks in general,
7
M: Geology?

B: And into geology, yes. I didn't go off to college, that wasn't...

E: What are some of the too ls you used, you said just 1ike hammer
and the stee 1 bar?

B: Yes, well, jack, mostly the jackhammers and the mucking

machines and any air driven equipment that we had. The battery
operated trammer, shovels and picks, that's about all.

M: Was there ever any aCCidents, 1ike with that epuipment?

B: No, there was no accidents in that line. One time we went back
there and was mining and taking all the stuff out and when you'd go
and do that you'd go and you have a small pick and make sure there
was nothing hanging on the walls or up in the ceiling. And this one
time we we didn't recognize that there was one little crack left up
here in the ceiling or in the roof of the mine. We went and got all
the stuff out and we set up the machines too, to drill the round out
and all at once there was a big old slab, we'd call a big slab,
probably a bunch of rocks came out of the ceiling. Maybe a ton and a
half and part of it hit my partner and part of it hit me, but that's
that's the only accident I have had underground.

E: What happened after you got hit?

B: Well, we just cleaned up the mess. We really didn't get hurt bad,
but we coulda done if it had been more. Well there's what they call
state mine inspectors that come in there twice a year and inspect
the mine for gas or anything that's bad in there or conditions of the
mine.

E: Were there any specific procedures you had to go through?

8
B: Every year we had a first aid course which was sponsored by the
by the Bureau of Mines and we had to take the first aid course and
just other than, just to have a a know 1edge of the of mini ng
conditions and what, what to look for.

M: Were the uranium mines really bad? When did they start taking
safety precautions on that? Tell us a little more about that.

B: Well I was never involved in too many safety precautions. They

did have state mine mine inspectors come down and they inspected
the mines and we'd have to go through tests you might say, but they
never ever told us that the mines was gassy and we never had
anybody explain what U238 was and we never had anybody explain
how they made atomi c bombs or what they used, how they used the
uranium. All of that seemed like to me it was Top Secret But it's
been well, that was about '55 ... '56 about '55.

M: About 40 years ago?

B: Yes and all the 55 guys that I worked with in the uranium mines,
the first one died when he was, I think he was 26. He worked in
there 6 years and he got lung cancer and died, and they've all died of
either heart attacks or lung cancer. My neighbor across the street
died of 1ung cancer. It was all up the street} thi s town is full of
widows from working in the uranium mines.

M: What does urani um look 1ike?

B: Uranium} a rock here in this area is a bright yellow rock, and you
can take what they call a black light, which is a flourescent light,
and you can shi ne that flourescent 1i ght over the uranium and it
shines a beautiful purple, flourescent beautiful purple. It's
fantast i c. I f you can ever go to a rock shop so you can look under the
black light and and look at the flourescent and it gives off a
radiation.

9
E: Is there anything you would do differently?

B: No I'd still go back and work in the mines. 1'1l go back in as far as
the next guy, but I think it's just as safe there as it is driving down
the streets, down the main interstate in downtown Los Angeles.

E: That's true.

M: You used to live in Ca11fornia, huh ... (to Erin).

E: Yes.

B: Where did you 1ive?

E: San Diego.

B: San Diego. Well I worked on what is it, 805 Freeway?

E: Yes.

B: And 5 Freeway going east. I mean 8 going east and there was,
where it comes into 5, Interstate 5 goes up through that little valley
up there.

E: Yes. What was your most enjoyab le experience that you can
remember?

B: Well, I don't know, probably when we was working in one area in

the Deer Trail Mine and there had been a, what you call an air fisher
come through. It's where air comes through the mine cracks where
you have a joint of limestone and quartz. And we was following that
and all at once there was these cracks underground and there's air.
Little old crack probably a half inch wide and you could take your
carbide 1ight which puts out a flame, okay, and there's a disk behind
it shining in the light. Well, you could take that light and put it up
10
 ------------------ --

where this crack was in the ceiling and it was interesting because
in the morning when you'd go there, it would, the flame would go up,
the air would be sucking it up and if you'd put it up there in the
evening when we'd go home from work, it would blow it down, so
there was fresh air coming in the morning, It would come from from
the surface somewhere, Well, at that point it was like 2,000 feet at
1east, strai ght up to go to the surface, But in that area, we
uncovered quartz crystals, some long quartz crystals that was in a
cluster, 1ike there'd be 5 or 6 quartz crystals in there and we
uncovered about I would say,S or 6 of those in that area. Well, there
just happened to be a professor with a group of geology students
from Columbia UnIversity in New York touring a mine and they was
mapping the mine, I had brought a couple of those clusters here and I
had two of them and my boss that I ives across the street, he has a
couple and somebody else, and we didn't think too much about them,
but I can't remember that guy's name now, But anyway, he was a
professor and he come and he ta lked me out of mine and he took them
back and they're sitting now in the Smithsonian Institute,

E: Really?

B: Because they were the most, well the one that he had and one of
the ones that I had was clear quartz crystal, Mostly all quartz
crystals are smoky, and that was interesting to me to see some of
the are that we brought out, some of the gold rock, I don't have any
of it left, but samples, I think that's interesting, we called that the
the Crystal Room. We worked on that, there was no monitary value
then, for that, just research.

E: Can you think of a really scary experience ... frightening?

Anything like that?

B: Well, yes and no .. , at times, it's like an earthquake but during the
hours of about 2 in the morning .. between 1 and 2 ... there's always
a... it's a pressure release in the mountains, There's just a 'BOOM',
it's just kinda like thunder,
11
E: Everyday?

B: Just about every day, just about every night and morning in the
early hours of the morning, And you can hear it. There's movement
somewhere and along that track there would be a piece of rock come
out. But, no I haven't.

E: Not really one major experience,

M: So what were your usual work shifts, 1ike the hours that you
worked?

B: We usually, sometimes we worked 10 hours a day and some just

8. And in the winter when we worked up there 10 hours a day, we'd
go in before sunrise and we'd come out after sunrise, So it was
always dark, Underground, if you go underground and make 2 turns, a
little bit of a turn, it's dark,

E: Rea lly?

B: I mean, it's black", you cannot see ahead of you if you go in and
make 2 turns. I mean, we went straight in the tunnel for 1,200 feet,
then it breaks 2 directions, but if you go past where you can see the
other end of the tunnel, it's black and it's dark and you cannot see
without alight. And there was a lot of times when we first started
work, that mule, his light might go out, and you could take and send
that mule in the tunnel and he would follow the tracks, If you was
working over here, the tracks would be switched and that the mule
would go that way, And where the cars was sitting on the main
track, he would turn around where he could and he would back up to
where the cars were, And he'd do it on his own, and that was
interesting, Cause the tunnel was so narrow, he couldn't turn around,
See it was only like 5 foot and he was like a horse or a mule) about 7
foot and they just can't turn around, He would back up 2-300 feet
where the cars was on the main track,
12
--------------------------------

E: Did you have any free time?

B: No.

E: During your working?

B: No, we'd go up there and you'd pick up whatever you got to take
with ya and mine and we'd have a lunch break and that would be it.

E: Did you 1ive here in Marysvale?

B: Yes.

E: Where were the uranium mines?

B: What?

E: Where were the uranium mines?

B: The uranium mines was out this way.

E: So you st ill 1ived here though?

B: Yes. I would say that there's 60 miles or 70 miles of tunnels dug

over here on the northeast portion of this mountain. You can see
from here where some of it is, but they they shipped out lots and
lots of uranium from Marysvale. And they shipped out lots and lots
of gold, silver, and lead from this other side of the mountain. Up
until 19 probably, into 1960 I guess, there was three main areas
where they was mining gold. The Deer Trail Mine, they was mining
up to Klmberly, right straight west of Marysvale, there was Bully
Boy. Some of you said that you went up there last summer.

M: Yes we did, earl ier this year. We went up there and we helped
build the trai ls around there.
13
B: So you understand.

M: Yes, we 1earned all about Bully Boy.

B: About Bully Boy and how it operated and the m 111 operated and
they had a stamp machine and they stamped gold.

M: Oh, I didn't know that Tell us some something about that

E: I didn't go up, I don't know anything about that

B: Well, when they mined the gold and they brought the gold out of
the mine, they brought the ore through a crushing machine, and then
they sent the the material over across a shaker table which is
approximately 5 feet wide and 12 feet long and it has ripples then.
Well, the uh ... waste goes off at the lower side and the ore goes off
the upper side. And it ripples like that and the heavier the material,
the higher up on the tab 1e it goes. The tab 1e iss loped and it has
ridges in it, okay? And they would take the gold which had probably
come off from the first two or three ripples and they'd put it in
canvas bags and then they'd take it down to where they had a furnace
and they would smelt it down and they would smelt it down to
approximately 90 ounce bars of gOld. And then they'd put that into
some more canvas bags and they'd bring it down to the railroad and
then they'd ship it by railroad with top secret stuff. They didn't
know for sure what they was, I mean the rai lroad people didn't know
for sure what they's shipping, was not supposed to know, but they
knew what it was, but to keep the, the, I can't remember him, but
anyway, the bandits from steal ing, and robbing the trains ... Butch
Cassidy

M: Yes.

14
8: From robbing the trains and picking up the gold which he did quite
a bit, but they'd me lt down and they had a stamp and then they called
it the stamp mill and stamp the go 1d.

M: Is that what that big building is, the building at the hill?

8: Yes, yes that was that was the mill [Bul1y Boy] where they had
the shaker tab1es,to get the high grade gOld.

M: Okay, I've been there. Are the uranium mines south of Monroe and
by Poverty Flats up there?

B: Yes, up by Poverty Flats, from Poverty Flats up over the top, and
between, I would say just most of them was just west and south of
Poverty F1 ats.

M: Oh.

B: But there's a lot of them and they've, I think they've tried to seal
off as many as they can.

M: Cause they're really dangerous?

B: Yes, because there's no, they haven't had any air pumped into them
and a lot of them, have the air, 1s what you call 'dead air' and it don't
move, we 11 the oxygen goes out of them.

M: Oh.

B: And so, well there's tales about every 2 or 3 or 4 years when, for
just 1ike the one that's up there now, that 18 year old went into that
mine up there by Eureka and it was a shaft that went straight down
and he took a rope. I understand tha t he took a rope and repe lled
down.

M: Itfellontopofhim.
1S
B: And then the material fell down on top of him, They've tried to
seal the mine but curious people are gonna try to get in no matter
what.

M: Did you ever work in vertical shafts?

B: Yes,

M: Tell us a little about about those,

B: I went in one down in Texas, I was working, but I went down in

this with some people owning it and it was just a old silver mine,
But their's had been abandoned and the woodwork in it was still
good, and so we went down in there and it was llke new, okay and we
went down 1,000 feet, and it was dark, It was so dark, and gospel
truth, you could look straight up and it looked dark and you could see
stars, at midday

E: You could see stars?

B: Yes, you could see stars, you could see stars, but then I worked
over in Pioche, Nevada in a shaft, vertical shaft. I worked over there
for just a little while, and that mine was 2,700 feet straight down,
I was work ing over there about 2 or 3 months and they had what you
call a Skip. That's just a box where they haul the are out and the
materials out, and a man cage, what they call a man cage, and they
put you in this man cage and drop you down and and we was working
one time and their power went off but their cage and their hoist was
operated by diesel engines. But they had a pipe that's a one foot
diameter pipe coming out of there, and it was full of water. It was a
wet mine, and where the bottom of it is, that's where all the water
collected and that's where they had to pump it out. And we'd just
barely got to work this one day and the power went off and so they
come down and told us that we could have a shift if we wanted to
walk out. I was up working on the twenty-two hundred foot level,
16
Twenty-two hundred feet don't sound like you're far, you know, cause
5,000 foot is a mile, and I says, "Hey, at 2,200 feet, I can do that"
But there was some others, quite a few of them, quite a number of
others that decided to do the same thing and in order to get out.
You'd climb a ladder, and you'd climb 12 feet and you'd turn a quarter
of a turn, and you'd c 1i mb twe lve more feet and it's just a".

E: A circle.

B: Circular going out. Two hours and twenty minutes it took me to

climb that. These mines around here in Marysvale except
for , most of them
are about a 1% grade, when, when they start moving the cars out,
cars would rollout and sit on the back end of the back car and it's
got a brake on it. But, there's a lot of them that has shafts and
inclines in where they've followed the seams. And they have what
they call a tugger. It's a hoist and they'd put the mine cars on this
incline and they rode them down. If it's straight down, then they
used the 50 gallon drum barrels to hoist that stuff [ore] up and hoist
the stuff up and down, you know.

E: So was the only effect that you suffered from the working was
that, just the quartz dust?

B: Yes, just the dust in my lungs.

E: That's it, from working in the mines?

M: So is that just because you worked only about a year and a half?

B: Yes.

M: So if you would have worked in that mine longer, you would have
had ita 11 over?

17
B: Oh yah, if I would have worked out in the Deer Trail longer, I
woul d probab ly have 1ung cancer.

E: From the quartz dust '7

B: What?

E: From the quartz dust?

B: Oh yes ... oh yes, oh yes.

M: Are all the mines still existing where you worked in?

B: Yes, but most all of them is shut down, all the mines is shut
down. They're supposed to open up the Deer Trail, next year again, I
guess, but there's a Canadian outfit that's supposed to come down
and open it up. The mine, I think they got a couple mines working
over in Kimberly, not the winter though.

M: I've seen a vertical shaft out south of Poverty Flat Are there
lots of them 1ike that?

B: Yes, there's quite a few.

M: Those are kind of scary.

B: Most most of them are probab ly 10 to 12 feet squared, but maybe

15 foot squared. Or they might be 15 by 8 where they have an area
for the materials that come out and they have a man-way going right
to the side of where they were timbered off.

M: Yes, it's [the vertical shaft in Poverty Flat] so wide and it kind of
sloped a little bit, you couldn't even see down into it, it's so big, you
can see the side down into it

B: Yes.
18
M: I t's dangerous.

B: Yes, they are dangerous, they are dangerous.

M: That's interesting. I've walked back into a shaft [aditJ, we didn't

go very far back,

E: Where at?

M: Just south of Poverty Flat...

8: There's a lot of 'em that's st i 11 open and they try to close 'em all
off or dynami te 'em so that they're covered up because there's too
many people that's, well, hey, I'm curious, and I don't mind, I like
going in caves and places like that.

E: Yes.

8: It's just like well, I don't know if you've ever been over here to
Lehman Caves over on, by the other side of Delta, and it's like the
caves in New Mexico, they've never found all of the the gOld.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of feet.

E: Do you know if there's any in Sal ina?

B: The only thing they have in Salina that I know of is is coal mines.

E: Coal mines? I know there's coal mines.

B: And there's clay mines over there, but not any mineral mines that
I know of

E: Yes. Some of my friends, we used to go and just walk through

them and stuff but, it's just dirt and stuff, so \ wondered if they
were mines or whatever.
19
B: I don't think there's any open mines anymore. I don't think Bully
Boy's open, I think they're all caved off.

M: There's st ill some open shafts up there. You can bare ly see them,
you have to look cause you can see on the hi 11, and it's just 1ike pine
trees and you can see this big pile of rubble, and you can see where
the shafts are.

B: Yes.

M: Those are probably pretty dangerous aren't they, with the dirt?

B: Yes, hey if they haven't had any oxygen pumped into 'em, or air
pumped into 'em, then there's carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide gas
is odorless. You can't smell it and it's clear. You'll know in about 5
minutes if you start getting weak and pretty soon you can't raise
your arms but if you ever get in a place like that you always want to
get down on the bottom and crawl because that's the only place
there's any air. Up high, oxygen is heavy and it stays down at the
bottom.

E: What's in furnaces that puts out carbon monox1de?

B: I t burns out, the furnace just burns out all the oxygen. I f we
didn't have air in here, that little stove (pointing to the stove) would
burn out all the oxygen in the air because it takes oxygen to burn and
it would leave, it would leave just carbon monoxide in here.

M: Just like when they, just like how the wood rotted?

B: Yes.

M: Okay, I see.

20
M: There's these cement buildings that are all gone. Do you know
what those are? Were they just old mine buildings or something?

B: Probably, I don't know. I haven't been down across Poverty Flats

so I don't know) but theres a tunne 1 down here at Rock Candy
Mountain. Across the river you can see an old mine over there that
goes back in about a thousand feet.

M: Does anybody explore these mines?

B: Well I don't

M: Professionally? You have to have oxygen masks don't you?

B: Yes, 1ike the Deer Trai 1 Mine up here they can pump air into that
now. Theres geologists and engineers that go in there and map it to
see what it looks like. But as I understand it theres alot of cave ins.

E: There was never an earthquake or anything 1ike that in all the

years that you di d it?

B: No, there was cave ins a little bit but not serious.

M: You always drill into solid rock right?

B: Yes, we tried to. We went through an area that was PorphorYJ it

was a clay it was twenty oh no I guess about forty feet thick. It
was what we called a dike. I t was just a soft material that was
different all together. It was soft like clay, and it was damp.

M: So you had to lay rail tracks to?

B: Yes.

E: What was that 1ike?

21
 ------------------------------------------------

B: Well its just like a train track, except that they are little tiny.
They weigh twelve pounds to the foot, where these big train tracks
weigh ninty pounds to the foot. When you'd use the machine to muck
it up you'd take a rail and lay it on its side and you could slide it
right against a clamp that goes underneath them that clamps right to
the other rail. Then just sl ide it ahead as you're running that
machine to load up the cars, Then when you got length enough you
could put another track down, The tracks were twenty feet long.

M: Have you been to the the thing up Bullion Canyon? And looked at
it.

B: Yes, my sister worked up there last summer. Delma Jukes- she

worked up there a little bit.

M: That was interesting, we got to go build a trail then we got to go

look at that.

B: Did you walk up to the falls to?

M: Yes.

B: Boy thats pretty.

M: Yes it is, its sure neat.

B: But its amazing that all that material thats around that)
especially around that old mill came out of the ground. They got a
pile of material that's yardS and yards thick. So there's lots of
tunnels.

M: I don't think I've ever been in a really big mine. I've been in that
little shaft but it only went back like three feet.

B: There's another mine up there thats open. I know its open and its
got good air in it. It has an air fisher, like I was telling you the one
22
 -- --- -- --------~.

that would blow the lights out. That's up to The Wedge, you go on up
switch back trails and go just about to the top, There's a mine up
there called The Wedge and its open, I know its open, There's just a
little pile of dirt you have to step over, You need an electric 1ight,
some kind of light or you can't go back in very far, and see anything,

M: Interest i ng,

E: Do you have any stori es that you rem ember that you can te 11 us?

B: Oh not too many. I got some information right over here you might
want to look at.

E: Ok,

B: (Showing us some pictures) Thats an old old picture of the the

Deer Trail Mine and this was the foreman's home, See there was over
a hundred houses up to the Deer Trai 1 Mine, There was another mine
called the Alunite which is out there (Pointing in a direction),
There was about twelve hundred people out there, This old house
right here (Pointing to an old house) came from the Alunite, We had
another home there, it was a great big frame house, it burned. So
they brought that in from out here at the Alunite.

E: How long has the Deer Trai 1 Mine been around? When was that
first started?

B: It was probab ly starte d about 1869.

E: Was that when?

B: I remember this building there it was called the Dew Drop Inn, its
up there across the creek. Across the creek just below the .. ,

M: The Bullion?

23
8: The 8ully 80y.

M: Yeh, we saw that.

8: Do you remember this one.

M: Yes.

8: This is the old Joetat Cabin thats all fallen down, its just this
side of the Dew Drop Inn.

M: All that wood on the ground?

B: Yes] where them logs are.

M: Yes, seen that one.

8: See thi s is another p lace that they brought the ore out.

M: Is that one the mill up in Bullion Canyon (Asking about a picture)?

B: No.

M: Ok.

8: This was out to the Deer Trail Mine.

M: Oh wow.

R: So how did you get from here up to the mines?

B: We had four-wheel drive vehicles, and before that they had big
old trucks. When I was a kid we built bobsleds and we'd have them
pull us up there, up to the Deer Trail. Well they had just one road
and we'd take that bobsled up on top up where they have the dumps.
We'd take that bobsled over there and then about five to ten of us
24
would get on it and go down, At the bottom of it we could get on the
road and then we'd come back down, Sometimes we'd be up to the
Bully Boy, we'd get somebody to pull us up there with a truck, Then
we'd get up on a big hi 11 and get on that bobsled and come down, and
hope that no cars were coming, cause if one did it was either
curtains or we'd hit the ditch, We'd go into the creek,

R So what kind of house did you live in? A cabin?

B: Yes, we lived in that house right there, thats the house (Pointing
to an old house out the window),

R How many of you 1ived there?

B: Well I had six sisters, My mother was a mid-wife, she probably

del ivered 150 babi es,

R 50 was it a big town back then?

B: Yes, there were probab ly about seven or ei ght hundred peop 1e,

E: How big is it now?

B: There's about five hundred people now. There's an old building, a

rug shop down here. I t was the third JC Penny bui lding in the state of
Utah. At one time there was eight-teen JC Penny bui ldings in Utah,
but it was the third JC Penny building.

E: I n Marysvale?

B: Yes, it was the third one in the state. This here is a picture of an
old diamond drill (Talking about pictures that he showed to us).

E: Did you have any certain uniforms or did you just where your
normal clothes?

25
B: No, we just wore a pair of coveralls, inside of the mine was
always about sixty degrees. There are mines that are hot mines, and
there are mines that are probably colder then that. Down in Bisby,
Arizona, I was down there, a frlend of mine worked down there.
They can only work twenty minutes at a time because the
temperature, it's a hundred and twenty degrees.

P: Its 1ike that in Phoeni x.

B: Yes it is.

M: I couldn't stand that, being in a dark hot place.

B: No, it's dark and its hot in the mine. It's also wet and it's
dripping with hot steam. It's just like hot steam all the time.

M: My uncle sells diamond drills in Jordan, or Saudi Arabia.

E: Really, cool.

M: Diamonds, diamonds to cut diamonds.

B: (Showing us some of the stuff from mining that he had,) Here's an

old clay pot they used in the furnaces. They'd put a little bit of gold
ore in that and then they would put it in the furnace, and it would
melt the the gold down to the bottom. This is an old old ball they
had that they used to crush the ore. They would have them ina
cylinder that was about five feet in diameter and probably twelve
feet long and they would have this size of ban in the cylinder.
They would run a material that was maybe up to a quarter of an inch
and they would run this material into this ball mill and it would
pulverize it.

M: I bet.

B: Then they would run it across the shaker tables.

26
M: I see.

8: This ball mill would turn, it was a great big old barrel, it would
turn and they would keep feeding this stuff in. Then it would come
back out in a slurry and go on to the tab 1e,

E: What's that bottle for?

B: That's an old acid bottle. They used acid to take some of the
material away from the ore.

M: To seperate it?

B: To seperate it. Here's a piece of copper ore. Heres a piece of

diamond core (Showing us a piece of diamond core).

M: Whats this?

B: Just diamond core, that's granite. Then this is iron.

E: Was this just cut right out?

8: I cut a piece, yes.

E: Out of the mine?

8: Yes, that came out of the mine but I took a saw and cut it off just
to see what it would look like,

E: Did you do this or was it 1ike that?

B: No, I cut that with a saw (Talking about the end of the diamond
core).

E: Oh, that's from a saw?

27
---------------------------------------------

J: The stuff you shoveled was it this heavy (Talking about a big,
heavy piece of iron)?

8: When we were mining in iron it was.

E: Oh my gosh.

M: Whoa, that's so heavy.

E: You'd just shovel it out? That would be hard to shovel out.

M: That's fools gold?

B: Yes, this is fools gold but the black is magnetite iron. Thats what
is really heavy.

M: I can not believe how heavy this is (Talking about the piece of
iron).

E: I can't even hold it up with one hand.

8: Take both hands.

E: You'd just shovel this out?

M: This is pretty (Talking about fools gold),

E: I know.

M: So if you found this and melted it down it would turn?

B: It would turn into copper.

M: That's copper?

28
B: That's copper.

E: I s that 1ike copper that was green?

B: Yes, 1ike when you get a copper ring and your finger turns green.

E Cool.

M: That's interesting how it looks totally different.

B: Yes.

M: To think that the Statue of Liberty is just one big thing of copper.
That is so heavy.

B: Here's a carbide 1i ght (Show i ng us a carbi de light),

E: Really?

B: This is an old one (takes the light apart and shows us the carbide
inside). You put the carbide in that and put it together. Then you put
water in the top of it, and this thing is a little valve. When the
water touches the carbide it gives off a gas. The little light comes
out ri ght here. That will run probab ly about four hours then you got
to fill it up again.

M: Interesting.

E: Where did you put them?

B: What.

E: Where did you put them?

B: We had a hard hat that mounted on our heads. After the carbide
light they had electrlca1lights, battery lights, and you had a battery
29
pack that you would pack on your back ri ght here on your be 1t. I twas
a little box and you could run that all day long. Then when you came
out at night then you would put it on the charger and charge it up. It
was fantastic but it wouldn't tell you if you had any bad air. The
flame on this when there's bad air the flame would be out a half inch
away from the burner if there was bad air then it would turn red.

E: Really

B: Otherwise it's white and it'll glow. I don't know if you've been
around welding, you know your gas wel ding you can start your torch
just on acetylene and it just burns bright red or yellow you know
orange but if you put a little bit of oxygen to it then it turns white
and you can cut iron with it. But without the oxygen it just burns
yellow.

M: Same principle?

B: Yes, same principle it burns when you got, well it picks up its
own oxygen but when there isn't any oxygen then it just burns a
little bit red and it doesn't get away from the burner.

J: I s that pretty bri ght, that 1i ght?

B: Yes, that will be about as bright as probably a forty watt light

bulb.

M: Whoa, thats pretty bright.

B: It's not awfully bright.

M: So is this when your dad died?

B: Yes thats when my father died. This is a picture of my mother,

my uncle, that was in 1938. This is the entrance of the tunnel. It
goes staight in about three thousand feet then theres a slope that
30
goes down then it comes back up and it goes back down. They were
down at the bottom of the ladder.

E: 50 how did it happen?

B: Well they didn't have air back in there. One of the miner's lamps
caught onto some timber back in another area and he left the area
and the timber burned. When the timber burned all the oxygen out it
left a gas. You can't smell it, you can't feel it, or anything. Well one
of the guys passed out, there were four guys working in there. My
dad and another guy, a young kid he was about twenty one that had
just got married. He had passed out and my dad had him on his
shoulder, they were climbing up the ladder about fifty feet up. He
had got just about to the top and feel back down. (Bert was now
showing us a small shovel with a head about six by eight inches big).
This is one of those littles shovels that they used. They used this
shovel because it has a little old pocket and if they're working and
getting bits in a small area they used small shovels.

M: So is that called a banjo shovel?

B: Yes, this is a baby banjo. Usually the big one is about this wide
and about that long (Indicating with his hands).

M: So the big banjo you used to get this (Indicating a big piece of
iron rock weighing about twenty to thirty pounds)?

B: Yes.

M: That is heavy!

E: No kidding!

B: Yes, but you only shoveled a little tiny bit of that. This is a
diamond drill rig (Showing a picture of a diamond drill rig). You can
see the angle that we were drilling. With that you can drill any
31
angle you want to. Here we dri lled one ho le straight down and one
ho le into the top of the mountai n. We dri 11 ed a tota 1 depth of 780
feet. See this stuff? It will tell you if there's any ore, or any
minerals in it.

M: Does it take out this? CLooking at a cylinder piece of rock about

two inches in diameter)

B: Yes, that's the core.

M: I see. So it'll tell you if you want to mine there?

B: Yes.

M: Its almost like a profile of the soil.

B: Yes, a profi le of the area. I worked in Nevada in an area where

there was an alluvial fan. Alluvial fans are where the gravel and the
dirt come out of the mountain and on out. There was an area there
that was about three miles square. We dri lied through what you
would call an overburden, which is when you get to solid rOCk, and it
was about 250 feet of solid rock that was nothing but iron. Here's a
piece of iron, and here's a piece of lead and it's got a little tiny bit
of fools gold on it (Showing pieces of iron and lead).

M: Is this what it looks like when you pan it (Meaning gold flakes
floating in a small beaker of water)?

B: Yes.

M: It looks almost light.

B: It is. That is Colorado River gold and it is very light. Most gold
is a lot heavier than that. (Bert leaves and brings back a pan with
some sand in it, which is used for finding gold in rivers and creeks).
I went and got some sand. This is a gold pan. What they do is they
32
take that sand and water and swish it all around, 1'11 go put some
water on it and show you,

E: Were you guys married while he was mining, No? So you didn't
live any of his""

Doris (Bert's wife): No, I just 10ve to go up there and you can just
almost smell the history of it. And then they moved that old cabin
down from up in the".

M: Brigham Mountain?

Doris: No, it was one that was way up on one of the mining areas up
in the mountains and they moved it down log by log and put it down
by the Bully Boy,

R Is that the Dalton cabin?

DL: Yes, they moved it down from there, My girlfriend and I used to
go up there and say "One of these days we are going to come up here
and we're going to fix this all up so we can camp up here"; but it
never did happen, There was a stream beside it and was just a
wonderful place to just sit. And then they moved it down where it is
now, it's fine where it is, A lot of other people can enjoy it. You
never know how much of this old mining stuff you have around until
something like this when you need to gather it all up, Because it's
laying all over and you don't pay any attention to it until you want
to gather it all up to show it off. That's when you real ize how much
of thi s stuff you've got. I have some pictures of some of the old
mines up there, but I didn't have time to get them out.

B: (Bringing out a black gold pan with sand and water in it), This
takes a lot more time, You can't do much of a demonstration here,
Just shake ita 1i tt 1e bit, turn it, then 1et your water go over it. See,
the heavy material will stay up in the corner. You keep shaking and
moving it a little bit. I didn't wash this gOOd enough,
33
- - --~~----------------------

E: So that's how you pan it? The go 1d surfaces?

B: That's how you pan gOld. If there's any gold in it, it'll come up.

E: Coo 11

B: I'm going to get a little more of that water (He leaves to get
more water).

DL: I promised your teacher I'd take pictures (She takes some
pictures of the students with Burt).

B: I tried to find my lens. See the black sand?

M: Yeah.

B: In the black sand there's gold. And if you have a lens, you can
look at it close and you'll see a little bit of gold. 1 don't know what
ever happened to my lens.

DL: I have a magnifying glass if you want to see that.

B: I don't know if you'll be able to see it or not.

R: So what were your wages when you were working.

B: When I worked up to the mines I was makin $2.10 an hour in 1950.

DL: See how strong this is (Bringing a magnifying glass). Check it

out and see if you can see the gold. My grandson came up one time
and he found one little fleck of gold and he didn't even want to leave
Bul1ion Canyon. He was about ten, I think.

M: Bu11ion was the county seat of Piute CLooking at a mining history

book)?
34
B: Yes,it was once. It tells you that in there doesn't it?

M: Yes, it says right here. So Marysvale became the new county

seat?

B: Yes, it was. When they first originally made it, Circleville was
the county seat. And then it moved to Marysvale, then it moved back
to Junct ion.

DL: I think then it was called Circle City wasn't it?

B: Yes. (pause) This doesn't show it. But anyway that's what they
do when they pan for gold. They used to take just an old skillet or a
frying pan. Is there any other questions that I might be able to
answer?

E: That's all. We've covered pretty much all of our questions.

B: Sometimes you take a diamond drill rig that'll drill 500 feet in a
tunnel straight ahead.

E: 500 feet in?

B: Yea, and It'll give you a core like this. And then you drill at an
angle and that'll tell you what kind of minerals it is. That whole
mountain has been drl1led quite a bit.

M: So Kimberly's nearby here too isn't it?

B: Kimberly is. You can get to Kimberly from here, or you can go up
by the Indian museum [Fremont Indian State Park] and go up the
canyon that way.

M: I see.

35
B: Kimberly's population was about 1,500 people; but there were two
towns in Kimberly. There was an upper Kimberly and a lower
Kimberly and they were about a mile apart. The lower Kimberly had
a lot safer area to build houses. Where the upper Kimberly was right
on the steep mountain face.

R: What kind of hard hats did you have?

B: It's just like hard plastic. They didn't used to have to use hard
hats. They used to use just a plain cap which had a piece of metal
that was down on the cap part.

R: Is that where you put this on (An old carbide light he had)?

B: Yes, you hook that right onto a clip on the hard hat.

E: So you had to screw it to here somewhere? That's cool.

R: Did you put up lamps all the way or did you just use those?

B: No, just those. Each man had a lamp and the mule or the horse
that we used also had one that hung on to the bottom of its harness.
We used a mule first then we later got a horse.

E: So you had enough 1i ght?

B: Yes.

E: Was it pretty bright with everybodys lights?

B: No, it wasn't that bright. Just enough so you could see. Each light
was about a forty watt light. It really wasn't that bright. Once you
got used to it, it was enough. But I don't want to go back to carbide
lights. I really don't want to go back to mining.

J: Did your flame ever blowout and you have to rel ight it?
36
----------~----------------------------------------------------~---

B: Yes, it would blowout, especially when we started using the air.

Just a gust of ai r and it woul d blowout The 1ater ones had the lens
that was like this. Then we put kind of a shield on it around the edge
so that the air couldn't get to it direct

E: Anything else you can think of to finish it off?

B: No, but it's something that's been going on for hundreds of years.
See in Middle America the Aztecs used to mine gold. The bible tells
us they had gold and gold and gold and gold, And the bible tells us, so
it's a precious metal.

E: Well thanks for doing this. We got lots of information down, It

was really interesting.

37
 ATELLA NILSSON'

-
 MARYSVALE ORAL HISTORY/MINING REPORT

INTERVIEWEE: ATELLA NILSSON

INTERVIEWERS: Joe Boucher and KC. Nilsson

DATE: January 18, 1996

PLACE: Monroe, Utah

SUBJECT: Early history of Marysvale, Utah

JB: This is an interview with Atella Nilsson. This interview is

being conducted on January 18, 1996 in Monroe, Utah. My name is
Joe Boucher and here is K.C. Nilsson. This interview is about the
history of Marysvale.

This transcription was edited and modified from it's original version
on February 13, 1996.

KN: How old were you when you went to Marysvale and why did you
go there?

AN: I was about 18 years old. I had a friend Hazel Anderson Taylor.
She and her husband owned a store. I t was call ed The Marysval e
Forwarding Store, and in this store we sold more in bulk and in case
goods because the train just came to Marysvale. We would sell bulk
and case goods and things like that to communities south of
Marysvale. So that was what most of our business consisted of at
that time. Marysvale at that time was really a busy community and
they had several stores, they had a clothing store, a grocery store, a
picture show house, a drug store and all kinds. I t was really a busy
place at that time, and mining was good. There was the Alunite
Mine, the Deer Trail Mine, and several smaller ones. Bullion Canyon

1
Mine and other places at that time, Deer Trail Mine was largest and
they even had a schoo 1 there at that time. My ne i ghbor Margaret
Quinn said her father worked there and she went to school there at
the Deer Trail. While the mines were going Marysvale was the
busiest place ever. People lived in every house and building was
going on) it was really a thriving community at that time.

KN: How long did you live there?

AN: About two years and we were kept very busy. There wasn't very
many cars at that time. Very few people) only those quite wealthy
owned cars at that time, but there was enough so there was
occasionally a truck would come from Circlevil1e, Escalante, or
some other communities to pick up their goods.

JB: Where di d you 1ive?

AN: I lived right with the people who owned the store. I had my own
quarters in their home and they were really congenial and good to me
and I stayed with them for about two years.

KN: Did you do anything besides work in the store while you were
there?

AN: No, I just worked in the store and helped them and a felt like
one of their family. They were nice to me and I enjoyed it and there
were so much going on in the town. It was really a fun place to live
at that time.

JB: Did you do any kinds of things for fun?

AN: Oh, yes we did, They had a cabaret at that time, I don't know if
you know what a cabaret is but it was played with a jukebox and we
had a lot of good times and lots of parties. There wasn't too many
young people there, but it was really a fun place to be at that time
for those that were there,

2
KN: Do you remember any particular experiences? Parties,
particular parties you went to or anything?

AN: The Paces had a store who moved their store to Richfield later,
owned the clothing store and Verda Pace was about my age and we
had lots of parties and good times there at her home.

KN: Did you ever go up in the hills or anything up to Bullion to see

what it was I ike or anything?

AN: I never had the privi lege of going up to the mines. I wanted to
but I didn't. I felt I ike at times I would have I iked to have done, but
I never did.

JB: Did you know very many of the miners up there?

AN: No, I didn't know people that worked there. My father-in-law did
a lot of prospecting up there in various places and started a mine up
in that direction that never did materialize or amount to anything.

KN: Do you know what the population was, a guess or anything?

AN: I would guess that the population at that time counting the
Alunite and Deer Trail would be in the neighborhood of what Monroe
is at this time (about 1,500}.

KN: They also had their own bank there at that time?

AN: uh huh.

KN: Did you stay there the whole two years or did you come back to
Annabella and Monroe?

AN: I stayed right there most of the time.

3
KN: You just stayed right there?

AN: And helped them and we've always been good friends through the
years.

KN: Do you have any fri ends st ill alive today that you knew then?

AN: No, I don't have many friends left in Marysvale or anywhere else
at my age, but we did have two friends and their names were laughed
at sometimes because they were good friends. Edna Crowe her
sister had a similar name but I can't remember it. We would go
visit them quite a lot of the time. Maude Snow and Edna Crowe were
the names of the two ladies, they were sisters, and at one time they
had a hotel here in Monroe.

KN: Did they ever bring the uranium and the ore down from the mines
when they were taking it to Salt Lake or anywhere? Did you ever see
them in the trucks bring it down?

AN: I don't know, I've always, I've heard that some of the mining
material was used during the war time because this was the World
War I time, 1918, and it seems that I've been told that they would
use some of the mining materials for some reason during the war
time and that was one reason that the mines didn't do so we 11 after
the war.

KN: So they were really doing we 11 at the time when you were there,
the mines were?

AN: They were really doing well, but I don't know any of the people
that worked there.

KN: Did you go up by yourself when you went or were there quite a
few of you that went? Did you go by yourself?

4
AN: In those days, things were quite different. There were very few
cars, very few people that had cars to commute so that was the
reason that the store that I was in was quite a drawing card, you
know} for the people in the southern part of Utah. We had quite a big
business, but we had local bUSiness too. We had supplies for the
town as well as the people that came to get the merchandise in bulk.

KN: Did they have a church there?

AN: Yes, they had a church and every Sunday I would go to church
with the fam i ly I 1ived with and it was very enjoyab le time in my
1He.

JB: What was the dominant religion down there?

KN: What was the dominant religion?

AN: The L.D.S. was the dominant religion, in fact I don't believe that
they had another religion there at that time.

KN: Do you remember what the dances and the parties were like that
you went to?

AN: Well at that time we had parties, at that time it was mostly
games and a good sociable time, but there weren't too many people,
younger people. Two of my friends worked in the clothing store and
one worked in the drug store and those girls were from Joseph.
Vilate Bowen and Feral Owens. Feral Owens worked in the clothing
store. I had just a few friends, but we always had such a good time
when we were together.

KN: Did you meet your husband up there?

AN: My husband would come to Marysvale occasionally to see me and

that was when I first started going with my husband that I married.

5
KN: So you met him there?

AN: No, I met him before. We also had an outside dancing hall and all
kinds of entertainment at that time. Marysvale was a great town for
entertainment and for places to go to have a good time.

KN: When you went there did you plan to stay for quite a while?

AN: I only stayed at this place for two years because I could come
back down here and work at the Elsinore Sugar Beet Factory. At that
time there wasn't many young fellows so girls were needed in the
factories, and everything. I worked in the lab at the sugar beet
factory for five years.

KN: And that was after you had moved back here?

AN: After I returned from Marysvale.

KN: Would you like to have stayed in Marysvale?

AN: Well, I was quite ready to come home and be nearer to my home
and family.

KN: Do you feel that your life has been different because you lived
up there and worked or what would it have been 1ike if you hadn't
have gone up there?

AN: Well I like to think about the times that I went to Marysvale and
worked because it was quite a choice time in my life meeting
different friends and the good social life that I had there with
mingling with young people. I like to think about that part of my life
as having had a very enjoyable time.

KN: Do you think that your life would have been different today if
you wouldn't have gone up there?

6
AN: Oh, I think that I gained experience clerking at that age. I think
that it was quite educational to be able to work and to be able to
help in this store. I've worked in various stores. I've worked in Salt
Lake and Skram Johnson's store which was a long, long time ago
(laughs). I went to Salt Lake and I lived there over twenty-
something years. I've always done a lot of clerking in the stores and
I think that time in my life at Marysvale gave me some good
experience for my later 1ife.

KN: Do you know much about the Kimberly area?

AN: Kimberly area was a very very busy place at one time. My
mother-in-law and father-in-law had a boarding house there at that
time. They spent years there while it was the busiest time. Then it
went bad eventually. They came out the losers in the end because
they were unable to get their pay they should've had. That was kind
of a sad experi ence.

KN: Was that anywhere near the time that you were in Marysvale?

AN: No

KN: No, It wasn't?

AN: No

KN: Was that before or after?

AN: It could have been not too long after I left Marysvale [after
19201

KN: Did you ever go up there?

AN: Yes, I've been up to Kimberly a number of times and we used to

go there to gather berries.

7
KN: Was there a lot of good berries and things up there?

AN: Oh yes, a lot of wild berries at Kimberly.

KN; Do you remember any of the times, in certain, going up there?

AN: The Morrisons were good friends of ours and so we would spend
quite a bit of time up there and we'd go up just to see the place, and
kind of explore around. I like to go places like that.

KN: Has there been anyone in your family that has had experience in
the mines, that you know of?

AN: I've never had any of my friends or my relatives work in the

mines, except my father-in-law was quite a prospector. He spent a
lot of his time prospecting and was hoping something would happen I
guess. But it didn't (laughs).

KN: Did he work up there around Marysvale?

AN: No, they had their own.

KN: Oh. Do you remember any stories of some good times that you
had up there? Was the fami ly that you 1ived a big fam i ly?

AN: No, I believe that they had three children. They had one while I
was there, and I don't know to much about them since I left. Quite a
few people from Annabella moved to Marysvale and had big farms and
ranches, and the Olson's in Richfield still own a big ranch up there.

KN: So did you save money whi 1e you were there? Were you up there
earning and saving money?

AN: Yes, they paid me good and I 1ived right with them and it was
just 1ike a home away from home and a good home away from home,
so I like to think about the time I spent in Marysvale.

8
J8: How big were most of the families in the area?

AN: You mean the people that lived there in general? (pause) I'm not
sure.

KN: Do you wish that you could have stayed there longer or were you
ready to come home?

AN: Well I had my good times there, but there was better work for
me here. I could earn more at the Sugar Beet Factory and that was
one reason that I left Marysvale, and I haven't known to much about
1t since that time. I have always had kind of a warm spot in my
heart f or the Marysva 1e peop Ie. It was sure an up and com i ng tow n
at one time. It's to bad that things had to change, but it's still a
good place. Marysvale has always been a good place to go eat at
that, oh what's it called, Hoovers.

KN: Hoovers?

AN: Hoovers has been there for a long time. I t has changed hands
many times. I think that it is about the oldest restaurant in
Marysvale and it is still a good going place. My friend Margaret
Quinn still goes there and plays rook and they still entertain there
and have a good time.

KN: Did your job up there consist of loading things on and off the
train or what was your main responsibi lity?

AN: No, I just helped by working in the store. I would help prepare
the case lots and we had some local trade too. We had quite a bit of
local trade so I would take care of that part of it. I've always
enjoyed clerking and working in stores and I've worked in dress
shops and in different stores. Most of my life has been working for
peop 1e in stores, but the time I worked in the sugar factory that was
an enjoyable because that was working on a bench and then reading

9
the periscope to read recordings for the juices and various things.
That was an enjoyable time too.

KN: Someone told us this morning that they worked in the sugar beet
fields to. Was 1t quite a production here?

AN: Oh my, when the sugar factory was going in Elsi nore all of the
towns-Monroe, Elsinore, and all the towns around-were really going
good and business was good for everyone at that time. It was a
shame that the factory had to close. It closed because too many of
the people went to Gunnison Sugar Factory and too many of our
farmers signed with the Gunnison Factory and we lost our factory
here. That was what happened there.

KN: How many people worked there?

AN: I n the sugar factory?

KN: Consisting of all those that were getting the beets out of the
field and working in the factory. How many people were there total?

AN Oh my! There wou1 d have been a hundred or more (1 aughs). Oh, I

don't know, a lot of people. I've worked in fields, I've thinned the
beets, blotted the beets, loaded the beets, and helped with
produci ng the sugar. I've had an awful lot to do with the sugar beets.
Hard work all my life, and I've enjoyed it (laughs),

KN: Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?

AN: I believe that is about all I can tell you, I wish that I knew more
about Marysvale and how things turned out. The last few years I
haven't heard much about it, but I think that it is still a nice little
town and people are very happy there I think.

KN: Did your store eventually close?

10
AN: Yes, it closed soon after I left there.

KN: Well we appreciate you talking to us about Marysvale.

AN: Well I'm glad to tell you about it. I think that it was a good
experi ence for me 1ivi ng there and I enj oyed te 11 i ng you about it.

JB: Thanks for your time and your memories.

11
 -

ROLLO PETERSON

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I NTERVEI WEE: ROLLO PETERSON
INTERVIEWER Melissa Noble and Dixie Monroe
DATE January 18, 1996
PLACE: Marysvale, Utah
SUBJECT: Mining in Utah

MN: This is Melissa Noble and Dixie Monroe interviewing Rollo

Peterson on January 18,1996, in Marysvale, Ut, about the history of
mining in this area.

RP: Are you familiar with any of the mining in this area at all?

D: We went up into Bullion Canyon I think couple months ago, and

just looked at some of the things.

RP: Did you go up through that village?

D: Yeah

M: I t was neat.

D: It was really neat.

RP: I've been mining and prospecting most of my life. I worked in

uranium mines here and over in Moab for about ten years. And I
worked in the Lower Rainbow Tunnel and opened that on for about a
mile back in 1972. I opened that up clear to the end and worked for,
for, Magnus Al from back East. And I had my own mining claims out
here.
Drilled different holes in different places out in Ten Mile and I found
some old gold mines. I worked in the Shamrock for quite awhile and
found some good gold in places, but tryin' to mine up there is very
difficult, getting permission to do anything any more is almost
impossible. And this mining, here it's a young area, It's very hard to
prospect. Hard to recognize ore when you find it. It's not like
finding it in lime- stone or bedded. It's very expensive if you have to
mine underground and take narrow veins that fissure up through, so
it's been difficult for most. But there has been some real good finds
made and a lot of money made in this area. A lot of it made by
people leasing different properties up here and they take high grade
gold out and then they shut the area if they didn't own the property.
I found several different lost mines. I found the lost Burrow Trail
Mine in Marysvale and the Solsberry Mine and the Lee Trout Vein and
let's see, I found a rkh mine out in Ten Mile. It was very rich in gold
and silver. I wasn't able to get a company out there. The company I
got out there was looking for a big body of bedded ore, so they didn't
drill where I wanted to drill. Subsequently they left and I ended up
hurting that area rather than helping it. Finally I got old enough that
I don't mine much any more. So it's been fun. Some day there'11 be a
rich mine in Marysvale. There's a lot of ore here, a lot of different
kinds of ore, a lot of uranium not only uranium mines here but silver
mines. Also a lot of gold and silver that's never been mined and lead
silver deposits in that.
Do you got any quest ions or anything?

OM: Yes when did you decide to be a miner? How old were you when
you decided?

RP: I used to work down to Sigurd I worked down to the Sigurd

gypsum plant, I was a ki1n operator, a relief Forman. I worked for
almost eight years and when I was trying to get the union
recognized, I ended up getting fired. I was working for the union at
that time, and after working for the union awhile I found out that I
had been black-balled from everything around here and in RiChfield,
everywhere. Black-balled means they're not going to hire you just
because you're a union organizer. So I was forced to come to
Marysvale and go to work in the uranium mine. I worked up there at
B1ackbear Mine for Theone Dalton. I worked there for one year. They
finally shut that mine down and then I went out to Moab where I
worked there for awhi 1e for five years. Then I went back to
2
Marysvale and worked up to the Bark Mines and Yampa Shafts Mi;je up
by the Kennecot Copper Pit and I worked there for six or eight
months then I moved back to Marysvale, that's when I opened up the
Lower Rainbow tunnel to the end. I've been involved with the mining
activities in the area. I love it, it's just a kind of a disease, it
grows on you. You get gold fever, you want to prospect and look for
something that will make you rich. It's just a lot of fun, it's
interesting, it's good hard work. Uranium mines did kill a lot of
people out here but that was before we knew they was that
dangerous. But now they mine places like up in Canada where they
ventilate correctly to take care of the workers. See, when I worked
out in Moab they had a shower there so you showered everyday when
you come out of the mine and you changed into your street clothes,
and left your diggers there. Your diggers- that's your clothes you
wear under ground. And it helps to get rid of all that radiation, so
you wouldn't track it all over. But when we worked out here in
Marysvale why they had no showers out there. You wore your dirty
clothes home, you know, and then you exposed everybody with
radiation. That helped to kill a lot of people, then when they were
leasing and they couldn't spend the money and time that they should
have, so they had to breathe in a lot of that uranium dust. When that
gets in your lungs and that's what finally kills you because it
doesn't 1eave) ever. I t stays ri ght there. I've got 57% of my lungs
left, it kind of hurts, you know, but If I had it to do all over again I
probab 1y would do it allover again. You had to support your fam i 1y
and work for a living. And they paid best money around, that's why
people did it. You can't live for ever, no one ever said you can. You
have to go sometime, thank goodness.

D: What was one of your most memorab 1e experi ences tha t you've
had'?

RP: Well, I suppose, it was opening up an old mine,the old Darwin

Mine. I went in there once when they had it open back in 1981.
Before that I went in there when they had it opened too. I went in
and I found a place where I dug out a few nuggets of gOld. Once I
3
rea 1i zed what I found, I got a ho 1d of the fe 11 ows that opened it up.
Well they was going bankrupt at the time. I had done some mining
around here so I went up there. I t was caved in. Well I went to them
and said let's go in and sample it. So we worked up there and it was
caved in at both openings, so I tried to do it myself. Another fellow
helped me a time or two, to open that up, so we could get back in to
sample it. But we couldn't do it. \ finally got Re11 Fredricks and we
went up there and he helped me open that up. Finally we got it open
and at the time John Fredricks, my son-in-law, we went back into
sample it where I picked the nuggets up and John started diggin'
away there, sampling it. And I was sampling over by this shaft and
the inside tunnel about a hundred-fifty feet back in and it had a
vertical shaft that went down sixty-five feet I think it was. So I
got down on the ladder going down that shaft. I checked all the wood
and the wood was hard as rock, you know cured by the water. And I
noticed that it just had one ladder that went down six or eight feet.
I got down the ladder about three or four feet on it, you know just
below the top. And I was kind of looking around the side there, and I
fe lt the 1adder, about the same time it dawned on me that I hadn't
checked to see where the rest of the ladder had gone below me, and
it dawned on me that the acid that cured the wood hard also ate
metal up, so the nails were gone. I started up out of there. \ just
got to the very 1ast rung when I felt that 1adder 1ay back, and I had
this mine pick in my hand. I thought My God \ can't live through a fall
that far! So I thought what I have to do is break my fall part way
down or that's your life. I did break my fall but it tore my shoulders
all up. I hit down there, you know landed on my feet, broke my leg,
and fractured my skull. After that fall I went down an inc1 ine, about
a twenty-five foot inc1 ine up-Side down and I was laying down
among all the boulders, big boulders. I was lying down there but I
don't remember exactly how long I was down there. And \ a don't
think it knocked me out. \ don't remember being clear out. Well if I
can't feel my fingers and my toes \'11 just die. It was just so cold
down there I could just get about an eightieth of a breath and I
thought \ can't live like this long but if \ have feeling in my toes and
my fingers I'll try to survive. So I felt my toes and I could feel toes
4
and I felt my fingers. So I said all right I can make It, but my head
was downhi 11 you know and I thought I got to get f1 i pped around or
else. So I just put everythi ng I had in me. As I seen my leg go by, I
seen that leg fall and I knew it was busted. I got my head uphill a
little bit, and I could let them know that I was alive because they
were wondering if I was still alive. I hollered up there I'm all right,
I just got a broken leg and I said you'll probably have to get down
here and help me so John, my son-in-law, he went out and got a rope
and rappe lled down and got me and I said you have got to get down
out of this incline and down on a level spot. I said just take my legs
and drag me down there. He got me down where it was flat and I had
an awful headache, boy my head was splittln' and I said you holler up
and tell em' to go get help from town to get me out. So he did, he
hollered up and told em to get help. They got some miners to help
get me out of there. I tried to get John to get some samples whi le I
was down in there because there was ore down in there. Pretty soon
he just said lay down and shut up. He smoked and you could not light
a Cigarette or nothing. He had a couple aspirin in his pocket and they
dropped a coffee bottle down so I had a couple aspirins and a cup of
coffee. It took em' five and a half hours, that's how long I was down
there. They went into town and got Ed Jones and the Burns boys, Jim
Burns and Joey Burns. They had about four people come out there.
They had a wire basket. John said, "How in hell are you going to get
in this wire basket?" I said all you have to do is put it to the side of
me there and get me in there some way. My shoulder was k i 11 ing me,
but he fi nally got me into that basket. I sai d tie me in just as tight
as you can. He said there's no way we're going to get this basket up
that incline. I said yeah, you just do like I tell you. Strap me in good,
make it so I can hang upside down if I have to. I can't get out of this
basket. I said now finally get that rope back clear down there and tie
it to the back of that thing where my head is. You just get a hold on
the bottom and push and let them pull as hard as they can and work
me up over that bolder. So that's what he finally did, and then they
got me strai ght up and down ,you know, and they got up to the top.
They couldn't get me over the ridge of that shaft. They kept jerkin'
and pullin' and finally I just said, "God don't do that again don't drop
5
me again, I cou1dn't survive another one," Fina11y they got me up and
over there and got me out I to 1d them don't 1et John try to c 1i mb up
that rope. I said make him tie that rope on and you guys pull him
while he climbs. I said he's weak, never make it now. He's been down
out of air, He had put his coat around me so you can imagine how c01d
it was. It was ice water commin' down just c01d. It probab1y helped
me survive so they got me up out of the shaft and John finally got
out. They loaded me in a pick-up and called an ambulance, which was
waitin' down the mountain in Bullion Canyon. It was snowin', rainin'
cold, oh man it was cold. I was just in the back of the truck in that
wire basket. Finally it got down that mountain and they loaded me in
the ambulance. Took me to Richfield. They got that shou1der partly
replaced but then they sent me right on up to Provo. Then when I
ended up, I had a broken back and a broken leg and a fractured sku1l
and this one shoulder was the most painful thing. It was just tore
out of it's socket you know, and I think I had 1 1 major nerves
damaged in that shoulder, I was in the hospital. How long was I in
the hospital a week or two? A week?

Wife: Oh probably 11 days I don't remember for sure.

RP: I know they decided to get a hospital bed in here and I 1aid in
here in this hospital bed in here for a long time.

Wife: months

RP: Four months. Then after I got out of bed I finally got up so I
could go out. I decided to started taking some walks, you know. It
was hard for me to walk. I'd get over these fences going down
towards Taylor Pond. I would get part way over and I couldn't
maneuver, I just couldn't maneuver those damn fences. I just felt
like something wasn't right. I'd fall over the damn thing, I kept doin'
it and doin' it everyday, I walked and I finally got so I could get clear
down to the river and back, and I got well again. I t was hard but I did
it. I thought, wel1 first thing I got to do is get back out on the
mountain so I'm not afraid of those things, So I got up there on those
6
old trails and I took some good tumbles there before I finally got to
where I could work on getting my balance back, which is very hard.
But I f i na lly di d, it was a quite an experi ence.

D: You went back to mining after that?

RP: Oh yes. It was foolish of me not to think of those nails before I

got down on the ladder. It was foolish of me to get on the ladder to
start with. If you do things right you're not in any greater risk
underground than you are anywhere else.

Wife: That's not right, it was four months all together sweetheart.
Because you was in a wheel chair then. Remember the guys would
come over and help get you down the stairs?

RP: Oh that's right, I forgot that.

Wife: So you probably just laid up for four months.

RP: This Lower Tunnel I worked on at Shamrock up here, (not the

Shamrock Copperbelt) had a lot of water backed up in there.
Sometimes we'd break through one of them. Then watered come out
two, three feet deep, clear up to your waiSt. You'd muck for two or
three hours) sometimes we went back twenty-eight hundred feet in a
big cave with mud and grit and muck 'till about after five. Before we
got to that, I could see that water startin' to move that muck. I said
Bob, we got to get out of here. I said, I'm gain' to back this muckin'
machine up before that thing breaks. We'd better take off runnin' as
fast we can. About that time the water broke and hit the muckin'
machine, pushed the mucker and cars and everything. Why it was
around our waists and we's afraid we're gonna drown. I lost my
glasses in there when I was trying to get off the muckin' machine.
knocked them off, and it was the day before the deer hunt. So we
waited there for about five hours for that water to get out of there.
We went back in there to see if we could find my glasses. Low and
behold we seen them about fifty feet down the drift, laying by the
7
side of the drift. I was lucky there, But it was scary, That was a
scary tunnel we were working in. The air was so bad we had to pump
air in there with a pumper for about four hours before you went back
in, Because there would be dead spots where there would be no air
at all. You'd have these carbide lamps on You'd just stick that
carbide lamp out and walk into the spot You know, it cut the flame
ri ght off, 1i ke you took a pa i r of sc i ssors and cut the flame off. Just
nothin' there, I f you walk into them without knowing they're there,
you're done. See those are the precautions you have to make to mine,
It's 1ike that boy that fell down that shaft up north, There's no way
he could have survived, you know, He fell down, they figured he fell
down, well I don't know haw far, but he fell quite a ways down, Then
that big machinery fell on top of him. Boy when they couldn't see
him down there for a hundred feet or so, why they knew he was gone,
I'm glad no one got hurt while they was lookin' for him,

D: Were you married when you started mining?

RP: Yes, I was, I'd been workin' down to Sigurd. I was there for
eight years, That's when I came up and worked at the uranium mine,

D: Did you have any fam i ly that mined before you? Your ancestors?

RP: No, I believe I'm the only member of the family that went into
mining, But I always liked rocks when I was a kid, I liked to gather
up rocks, you know. Had a real interest in that, so that so it kind of
came natural.

0: What were the kind of wages that you earned?

RP: Oh, let's see. When I worked out here at the uranium mine, That
was the first place I worked in a mine, It was $2,25 an hour. Then I
went out to Moab. I made thirty or forty dollars a day. The wages
was high for normal wages at that time. When j first workin' down
to Sigurd I started out at seventy-five cents an hour. I was sorting
potatoes for about seventy cents an hour, I think for a year before
8
--- --------------------------------------

that, for a winter anyway, all one winter. But it's all in
perspective. Things were so much cheaper then. You really, you got
a lot nicer things. But back then you did just fine on that, that
dollar an hour. Bought my first home in Elsinore for forty-seven
hundred dollars. It was a nice, pretty rock home, you know. Nice big
yard, it was just fine for startin' out. Then I bought a trailer house.
I moved out to Moab and I worked out there for a year. We just 1ived
down in the cedar trees and pines with another miner in a tent all
one winter.

D: Oh, sounds awful!

RP: I t saved us a lot of money. My wife stayed home, she didn't have
anything else gain' until I could buy a house. Then I moved it out and
we 1ived in Moab for four months. Then I traded that trailer house
for an interest in this home here, and bought this.

D: That's neat. What kind of tools did you use? Did you use just a
pick?

RP: Tools yeah, picks, shovels and then you have air dri 11s and
compressors. Then you dri 11 figure a six foot round and it would take
around three hours. First you had to muck out. So you went in and
mucked your round out. That was around anywhere from twenty-one
to twenty-seven of those full 1700 1bs. mine cars. Then you went in
and drill ed from around two to three hours. You dri lled around
seventeen to twenty-one holes. Generally around twenty-one. You
had to drill in the center and you call ed that your burn cut. I a1ways
use. a "V". Two holes together a foot and a half apart to start out.
Then you come in together. You ended the ho 1e and then you'd dri 11
one dead hole, right in the middle. You didn't load it because that
was the break hole. In the center, you get that a nice big hole for
everything to break to. But then old timers used to hand steel. How
they did it, I'll never know. In the hard rock that grardte, that's hard.
You'd hit a hammer on that thing, and boy, those sparks would fly.
They run tunne 1s in that grani te by hand stee 1. I've tried it. I know
9
how hard it is. I've tried that out here by myse If. You know It just
takes forever.

D: What were the usual day condltions? What, how did the usual day
go?

RP: Well, if you're mining or runnin' a drift you come in and you go in
first You just get your air going, your compressor going, and make
sure your vent pipe, your ventilation systems going. Then you go
back in, take your cars back in there and start cleaning up. That you
have a muckin' machine, that's an air mucker. You ever see those,
you see one up to the mine park?

D: Up to the thing up there?

RP: Yeah, you get on one of those things and start muck in' that out
You clean your face off. You dig down around your back out Make
sure you don't have any loose fall on you. After you got that round
a11 cleaned up, why then you go back in and start dri Illn' your round.
That's what you call a round in and a round out That's what you
tri ed to make every day. Somet imes you could do it, somet imes you
couldn't I f you're mini ng in stope ore and shoot overhead, that's
mining the ore out You're going up the stope then you have to, you do
this on your own. You mUCk, you know. You get your timbers in there
and you dri 11 up and shoot that out Then you go in and pull the shoot,
pull that muck down to where you can go back in there and dri 11
another round into the ore brought out

M: How did mining effect you life, good and bad?

RP: Well, you know for me it's been interesting, very interesting.
Going into an area nobody's ever been and shoot around. Put feet on
pI aces no one ever put foot on. You look at rock that no one's ever
seen before. You're always thinking you're going to find some rich
ore or gold or something.

10
So that's very interesting, It's very hard work, it's very challenging,
Not everybody would enj oy it. But I enj oy gOi ng underground, I t's an
even temperature, most of them, An airplane's not going to fly into
you, so you don't have to worry about planes, The claustrophobic
can't stand it. If you got claustrophobia of any kind you can't work in
a m j ne. I've worked with a few that had that. You just can't do it
They just about die every time you were working underground, If you
get over a fear you can have a certain amount of fear, You should
have some fear and respect it. In anything you do, really, So you are
careful and watch what you're doing, If you get used to a mine and
working in them and get used to people taking care of the ground and
back and pry down these rocks and everything else, then you become
comfortable, Then all you have to worry about is not becoming too
comfortable, so you got to check your back and watch the rocks and
you can do that and it's very safe and very comfortable most of the
time, Otherwise you wouldn't have these thousand foot tunnels or
that shaft that kid fell down up there, Well they went back four
thousand feet and down then at least six hundred feet in that shaft.
That's amazing really, isn't it? Probably back when they had to hand
steel things, too, But it's not anything to play around with, There's
unseen things there you can't predict. Like air, I told you it cut off
that carbide lamp, You don't see anything different, you don't notice
anything, You walk into that and it's got ya, Before I knew that, I
used to go out on the west desert when I worked in Sigurd, I used to
go out to the mines, I used to take one week of my two week
vacation to go out in these old deserted mines around Milford.
Around that area I would take flashlights and go back in those places
and sample it. Just looked and I never had a lick of sense, or I'd
never done it at the time. But I'd never worry about bad air and I'd
come out sometimes with a headache. Or get to places where I'd feel
dizzy and I didn't think anything about bad air. I didn't know anything
about bad air at the time. So I was very lucky I didn't get killed just
1ike those boys. Something those boys just got to so it they're
looking for some kind of gold ore some kind of mine too, you know,
But it's a bad thing to do, unless you were with somebody
experienced, If it's somebody experienced you probably won't end up
11
 in those places anyway. They won't go jf they don't know about it.
See I found an old lost mine up Ten Mile way up to the head where we
had claims on it for a long time. We finally decided to drop it. We
had no road up to it or anything. You couldn't get up to the damn
thing. It was good ore, had some real good specimens. Had some
gold and silver. That mine they took out seventy-five thousand
dol1ars right off the surface before going under- ground. They took
some stuff off there and put it in cans, coffee cans. Nuggets that
they'd picked up. That one was a rich one. I thought we were going
to get rich off of it when we found It, but we didn't. Got some
mighty fine specimens off that. Then I was looking for one lost
mine, the Henry Mine. I t was by two sheep herders and never found
since. They took enough ore out of this short twenty foot tunnel in
ore sacks and took it down to Kanab. That's where he took it to.
So 1d it and the one bought a sheep herd and a ranch down there. But
the other, I don't know what happened to him. This fe 110w, Paul
Henry, was a relative of his. He had the ranch, he knew the history.
He moved in and bought out there the owner of that mine that
checked out pretty close. I found a gold and silver mine out in Ten
Mile, that was a good one. An a9 cuistle. There have been some real
finds. The Lost Burrow Trai 1 Mine, that's on the patented ground.
That's not on my ground, but it is a real rich one. That's a good mine,
but I'd have to buy the property. I found some real fine speci mens in
that area.

0: Did you work for any special companies?

RP: And I worked for JEN Incorporated down in Moab. Which is a

uranium mine. A seven hundred foot lost shaft in sandstone. They
ran raises SO ft. to 150ft. up from the and bottom would put raises
in the ore body so we could drop the ore down these shoots. And they
were called draw pOints. They drop it down and I'd go muck it out. I
had to muck all the ore in the mine on a muck contract. I worked up
at Kennecot on some old mines. I worked with that part for oh, about
eight or ten months. We then opened the Yampa shaft and another big
shaft we opened up there. Then they actually had horses and mules
12
 when they run those (mjnes) way back. And that was rjght on the
Kennecot Copper Pi t. So you'd step right over there and ate 1unch and
see people with the big trucks. The loaders and the mine's were
huge. One time we left work and were standing out there and we
saw the Kennecot people goin' back in there and taken' stainless
steel pipes out of the Yampa shaft. They had piped the acid water
out so they could run it down to the wash dump to take the copper
out of the waste. After a large blast on the far side of Kennicot pit
these men told me that was the China Mine. I said what do you mean
the China Mine? He said well they had a high grade gold mine and
they had a bunch of Chinese workin' in there. I can't remember what
he said. Something about a dozen Chinese and then the mine caved in
flat.
They tried to get to them) you know. But they just could not do it. So
they were very careful) about workin that area. It looked like white
1imestone across that pit) about a mile over there. I could see it
where I was. They said once they collapsed it they sealed it off.
Then they had a high grade crew in and they mucked that ore out. So
that people wouldn't high grade it. So they didn't mess with that
with mine equipment and everything when they blasted it. So
there's some high grate gold come out a there. You never hear about
it. I have some good high grade are I've got in coffee cans. I got
them out in my garage, scattered around. And I think some day I can
mill it. I got about two tons of real high grade and I've got about four
tons of good ore and stuff. I n a pi 1e out there that I will probab ly
never get milled. But it's too good to throwaway, so I kept it. I'll
show you some. Here's some high grade gold and quarts) I guess it
from California.

0: Oh really

M: How many different mine have you been in?

RP: I don't know) about 607.

0: Do you know any 1egends 1ike about the mines or anything?

13
RP-Yeah well I do. But the old Burrow Trail Mine, that's a legend.
From around here. That's where I took out some rich specimens.
Yeah when I was working, I worked out in one mine out to Beaver)
The Beaver View Mine with a fellow from Marysvale. And we worked
this mine, a incline. We stopped in at this cafe in Beaver, the El
Bambi Cafe. I t's a big truck stop there. The fellow that owned that
cafe was a big guy, he said do you know anything about mining. I said
yes I do. He sai d I'm curi ous, do you do any prospect i ng? I sai d a
little bit. He said well come on back here with me. And share
whatever with me. So I went back in this back room with him. And
he pulled out this trunk and he dug around in this trunk and he pul1ed
out this great big black log as big a catalogue. Must have been three
or four inches thick, you know. And he handed it to me) said his
great grand daddy wrote in there. So he got this out and said I want
you to read this. He said you think you can help me find this mine he
said? It'll be ours. I said OK so I started reading it and I started
reading you know, misspelled words you know and it talked about the
lost Burrow Trail Mine you know. And it was a Indian told it to him.
He wrote it down in his book so an Indian found the mine and talked
about Spaniards taking it over. I was reading through it real quick as
I didn't know when he was going to grab that book. I was looking for
something, maybe I could figure out where the mine was. So my
friend comes walkin' in there and this fellow grabbed that book out
of my hands and slammed it shut and put it in that trunk and locked
the trunk up. I sai d I never got through and I wanted to read the rest,
but the fellow said no I don't let anybody see that. He said I'll bring
the book over to Marysvale and maybe you can read that and maybe
you can go over that. And I said good. I tried to call him a couple
times. He said I'll be over he said in a couple days so you can look at
that. I was excited because what I read I knew the damn thing I
knew it was up in Bullion Canyon. It was obvious, it talked about
that pine tree, it talked about different bushes and different things
that I'd recognize. He had died. And I went over there to talk to his
family and I tried to get them to find that book for me and I said I'll
buy the book or whatever. I said it's very critical that I get that
information. And we looked and found a trunk and opened the trunk
14
and everything and no book, no book anywhere, never did find the
book. Called them on the phone but finally they left the area. And I
thought well I'll look for the darn thing. I'd get lookin' and found
several other mines and I finally found that son-of-a-gun and when I
found it I knew that's what it was. I knew it and I kept lookin' on the
ground there and diggin' you know and bein' very careful. And it was
very rich. Someday it will be a big mine, big go 1d mine and I was
excited. The legend is that it came from an Indian and the original
story comes from an Indian. And he had mentioned Spaniards in
there, but that part I never got to match up. I don't know whether
the Spaniards came and took it from the Indians or what. Spaniards
have been there. Spani ard's were in Bull ion Canyon, they've already
proved that so, so that makes sense and I found the Lee Trout Vein,
the Midnight Miner's Vein, and the Legend Mine. I haven't bought any
mines, never been able to afford to. I've never had enough money to
really develop a mine. Is anybody, does anybody know Rell
Fredricks? He's got, he went up and worked up on that mine up in
Bullion Canyon on of them. Of course, a lot of them's gone now. I'll
te 11 you another. Les Hansen to 1d me that they worked up in The
Wedge. He said they went back in there and they had this place
where they went everyday with a shut going up. They called it the
action shut. I heard they called it the action shut every once in a
while. They would go back there maybe once a week or something.
They'd pull a lagging away from a small opening and the nuggets
were in sticky white gooey clay. Pull a few cars out, it was full of
nuggets, you know. Get some real rich stuff out of it. Les Hansen
told me before he died that he went back in there and they had to
open it up and you'll see this ladder and just open the shut and reach
back in the gooey mud until you feel something hard. That will be
gold nuggets. I said, did you get you some while you was workin'
back there. They all knew about it, you know. They'd go back and
they'd reach back there and get a nugget or two. They was beaut ifu1
nuggets. Big as walnuts. You know, I would have done anything to
get into that. Which was too bad. I never made it to that point.
Caved clear to the surface back in there. So I couldn't never get back

15
 there, That ore's still in there, So there's some rjch things, you
know,
M: What caused you to stop mining?
RP: Well, you just get old, that's all, Get to a point where I just
couldn't do anything, It's very hard work, If you try to do things
when you're not able to, then it's very dangerous, But I still go
prospecting a lot. It's a lot of fun,

16
 -
GARY QUINN

-
INTERVIEWEE: GARY QUINN
INTERVIEWERS: ROBERTA SEATON AND VICKI HOBBS
DATE: JANUARY 19,1996
PLACE: RICHFIELD, UTAH
SUBJECT: MINING IN MARYSVALE

The original transcription was altered, edited, clarified, and

enlarged upon February 14, 1996, by Gary Quinn.

Hello, my name is Vicki Hobbs I'm here with Roberta Seaton and
we're interviewing Gary Quinn. On January 19, 1996. We are
interviewing him on his experiences with mining.

VH: Mr. Quinn would you start by telling us like how you got
interested in mining?

GQ: Well. I graduated from high school in 1950 I went to Marysvale

High School. After high school there wasn't much work except to
work in the mines. I was 18 years old. I worked there for about four
years. Then I decided that wasn't what I wanted to do. I went into
business for myself.

VH: What kind of mines did you work in? Wasn't it the uranium mine?

GQ: Yes it was the uranium mines. I worked for the Vanadium
Corporation.

VH: What were the conditions like?

GQ: Well mining was very dangerous. We had our dangers too. There
were dangers we didn't even know about. Working in the mine there
was always a chance of being caved on. It was very dangerous. It
was not ventilated very good. I enjoyed most of those days and the
challenges of the work.

RS: What kind of equipment did you use?

1
GQ: We used the drilling equipment called jackhammers to run the
tunnels. In the tunnels and inclines, which had the muckers, and they
had shovels and mucking machines to load machinery cars that would
take out the muck. Some would be waste and some are. Raises would
be where you drill upward and shoot the are down into the are
shoots. We have to use drills to go straight up. Probably a six foot
hole. Then we dynamite and blast the ore into the shoots on that
level. We would use a jackhammer. The jackhammer was on a jack
leg which would lift it and you push it to drill holes for the
dynamite. In some of the places they had a machine they called a
mucking machine. The mucking machine would scoop up the are or
waste and throw it backwards into the mining car. At the time, we
only had about two machines. Also they used a hoist to run shafts
and inclines and to pull mining cars out of inclines and cages out of
shafts.

RS: So what was a typical day like in the mines?

GQ: Well when they first started out that's when the mining in 1949
and course I started there in 1950. And when I left there I think
there was only one more guy that had worked there longer than me.
So they did have quite a big turnover. Anyways it started out in
inclines that go down to get more depth and check to see how deep
the ore went. To go in usually they'd have two shifts. The one shift
would go in and get he muckings from the shift before. When you'd
blast with the dynamite you couldn't go back in there for maybe
hours. The air was so bad. So when you'd start your shift you'd go in
and clean out the what the other shift had blasted. Then soon as you
got that done you drill another series of holes that's what they call a
round then as soon as you got it drilled you'd blast it. Your day was
pretty much over and you couldn't go back in the mine for a while. It
took most of an eight hour shift.

RS: Where did you live? What sort of transportation did you have?

2
GQ: We lived in Marysvale I lived with my parents about three months
then I got married. I and my wife lived in Marysvale and we did move
to Junction for a few months to live with her father. Then we moved
back and bought a home in Marysvale. We lived there four years.

RS: So what was your transportation to work?

GQ: We had a we had a fairly good car. Kept up to date on the cars
and stuff we did have a little Model A car that I fixed up and drove it
back and forth. We would trade and take turns on who drove to work.

RS: So did you ever work in Bullion Canyon or anywhere else?

GQ: No, the uranium mines were northeast of Marysvale. Actually

they're right between Monroe and Marysvale. They were dry, not much
vegetation. It was more of a drier·type mine too-it didn't have the
moisture that you get out of the Bullion type mine. Those that were
damp and had a lot of moisture in them.

RS: Did you have any other family members working in the mines any
where around there?

GQ: Yes, my father. He started working about a year after I did. He

worked on the underground, maybe a year or so. He spent most of his
time running the hoist on the big shaft.

VH: Do you have any other favorite experiences? Fun stories or

anything you want to tell? Anything memorable ?

GQ: I've got lots of memorable experiences, but they were not funny,
I mean this is more on the dangerous side. It was serious and there
were guys that got killed.We got caved on a lot and it was scary at
times. I got into an area where we had been running a raise, the type
where you go straight up. We were about to come through to another
level so we discontinued that and went to another tunnel. A few
months then we went back to finish working where we were to

3
tunnel on through. I'd sent my partner up to get something and I was
going to hoist him up some timber and he could stick it up there so
we could drill off of it. He had some drill bits and stuff in his hand .
And I was going to hoist up the stuff then all of a sudden these drill
bits come falling down the shaft and I looked up there and he'd fallen
and had the cable around his neck and normally there was only two of
us down there but happened to be three of us that day. I hollered at
the other man who was there, that this guy had fell. I got a ladder
and went up there. I got the cable from around his neck. I didn't
realize anymore because I had got in some bad air. I couldn't
breathe and passed out. The man I had called to, came back and saw
that I had passed out and he'd went and called some other guys. They
came up and tried to get us out and another one of those passed out
and so they realized that it was bad air and they turned the air up in
there then all of us got enough air and came to. We were a little sick
for a day or so. But there were good times too. At the time it was
probably the best thing that ever happened to Marysvale. It was good
for businesses, there was more people. People had money and they
never had to go hungry.

R5: So what was your position in mining? Were you an engineer? A

mine inspector?

GQ: I was a miner. When you first start out they call you a mucker.
Then as you to learn and train about different things to increase
your skills up to a miner. Then, of course, there are timberers. They
are the people that go and put timber in the mine. I was a miner.

VH: ,How have the tools and procedures changed from when you were
mining?

GQ: They're probably a lot better when I was mining than years
before that but now they have better equipment, they take more
precautions. I'm sure the wrking condiditions are a lot better but I

4
haven't done any mining in quite a few years. Infact, I did a little
after I left there for my father-in-law. I did some for him. After I
lived here in Richfield. Other than that, I finally got away from it.

RS: So how did you feel when you first learned about the dangers of
uranium mining?

GQ: Well at first I thought probably I was thinking I wasn't in there

long enough to bother me. Then after I met with some of the lawyers
and some of the government people that their lawyers talked with.
The problem was I might not of worked as long as some of the others
but I was in the worst places at the worst time. So that I had
probably a higher exposure than most of the others. But of course
was always a worry after you find out about it but we got to where
you thought you'd have to live with it. I did end up getting cancer in
my kidney and because of that I lost one kidney. I had my lungs
scoped for lung cancer. Of most guys there was probably one hundred
or so only a few are still alive. Another guy and I started counting
and we came up with eight to ten of us left.

RS: A guy in Marysvale told us that there was like fifty-five of his
friends that were all dead.

GQ: Yes, one of my friends in Marysvale that I grew up with passed

away.

RS: Do you know Bert Lund?

5
GQ: I know Bert. I didn't really work with Bert though I worked with
Rell Fredricks. ReI! and I were the same age. We went to school
together.
RS: He was a mine inspector.
GQ: Yes, ReU has been mining most of his Iife.ReU was into mines
and I was told he was a mine inspector. He and others set up the old
Bully Boy Park.

RS: Yes we went and helped him. Oh you worked in different mines
haven't you?
GQ: Yes I worked in the Vanadium Corporation mines. They had about
three mines that they gave names to. The Prospector was one others
they called Freedom 1and Freedom 2. And I worked at all three of
them. Freedom 1 was probably the first started. Pratt Segmiller in
Marysvale use to run the Rock Candy Mountain. One day he was up
there hunting rocks that they sell at Rock Candy Mountain. He's the
one who found the uranium. And, in fact, I worked with him for about
six months or so. He retired, I understand he did go back and worked
in the mines later on. I worked for another man Lane Burtelson. He
had mines right in the some area as the others. He had a company
named Sunny Side Uranium. I was there for about a year. They had
another kind of open pit mine. They used to call Bullion Manark. They
had a lot of mines and an open pit.

VH: So what were your wages?

6
GQ: I think the miners wages was about two dollars an hour. The
muckers got, when first starting out, $1.65 an hour. I think the
timbers got the same as miners. When you would contract you would
be paid by the foot, how many feet you made in the tunnel per day.

VH: What did you do during your free time?

GQ: Oh we just travel to the mountains and a weekend travel on trips

when we had the time. Most generally we just enjoyed traveling in
the mountains and things like that. When I was in high school I
played basketball and after I graduated from high school I was on a
mens' basketball team. We played church teams and some other town
teams.

RS: Would you do anything different? Would you change anything or

just do it all over again?

GQ: Well no, I wouldn't do it all over again. I have things I'd do
different. I think that if I would've known I don't think I would've
worked in the conditions we did. If I knew that 30 or 40 years later
we'd start having start having these problems. We would have done
something else. I'll say it was a good job at the time, probably the
best. Around the whole valley people came from everywhere to work
from Monroe, Junction, Circleville, Richfield and people came as far
as from Wayne County.

R.S.: So if someone came to you and asked if they should go into

mining, what would your advice be to them?

G.Q.: Well I think now that the conditions they have and precautions
they use that mining would probably be alright. It's a good paying
job. If a person didn't have a real good education, well mining is a
good way to make a living. I'm sure there's still dangers but they
watch those things a lot closer now than they used to.

R.S. Did you work in vertical shafts?

7
G.Q.Verticals? Yes. Vertical shafts and raises. Raises were unstable
and were probably the most dangerous, with less ventelation, and
probably responsible for most of the deaths. Probably high levels of
radon. Sometimes they'd have what they called deadend drifts. They
did that to develope and did not find any ore and would not work them
anymore and they would get all stagnate air. Back in the olden days,
the miners had carbide lights and candles and when they'd get back
in those places they'd go out, a warning of bad air. Now they have
other stuff that they use for that. Air sniffers and stuff like that
that tell you when the air is bad.

R.S. How big were the places you drilled out?

G.Q. Normally the drift followed the ore depending how wide the ore
got. In uranium you'll find it runs in veins. Sometimes the vein would
maybe only six inches wide but you still had to carry a whole drift
which was normally 7 ft high about 4 112 to 5 wide. You'd go through
there that way but if the ore got wider you'd have to drill it out
more so you could get out the uranium. Eventually in a lot of places
they had to take out a big section. Sometimes it'd be 30 ft. wide but
you had to stope up, called raises, to get the ore out. They done the
same thing on the raise, you kept them certain widths, so you were
able to work them. It was a good idea not to get out into the walls,
what they called the walls, because it got to be pretty dangerous and
start slipping.

R.S. So how far underground were you?

G.Q. Well at the time I was there I don't know that they went any
farther than that in the Prospector Mine, the one farthest down the
hill they'd find a lot of ore in there. It was the deepest. They had an
incline that went down on a 30 degree angle. Around 600 ft. and
after they drifted back, we run a cross-cut clear up through the
mountain to the other mines. Over a mile from the bottom of there
the shaft that they raised was about half-way between two points.

8
At Freedom " they run it straight down so eventually they could pull
are out of all three mines, put it in this one shaft that was
sixhundred feet deep.

R.S. In the first place why did you want to mine the urainium?

G.Q. What happened was right after the war there was quite a demand
for uranium. That's where it all started from. There was a mine
below the Freedom that had found floor spar. Urainium runs with
floor spar and there was quite a demand at that time everyone was
looking for it.

R.S So out of those mines did you take any other material than
urainium?

G.Q. No, not that I know of. I never seen any other type of material.
There could've been but we were not aware of any. Ii was shipped on
a train to Salt Lake to a mill called Vitro, where it was milled a few
years back. They had to move all tailings out to the West Desert.

R.S Was it really dark in the tunnels?

G.Q Yes. It was dark as it can get dark and if you didn't have a light it
was very dark just black as black.

R.S Was it cold?

G.Q No, eventually they got more ventalation then it was cooler but
most generally it was warm, it was quite hot. It stayed around
seventy degrees unless you had alot of ventalation.

R.S So would you like to add on to anything?

V.H You said your father mined, where did he mine at?

9
G.Q My father, the only mining he did was where I was. He didn't mine
very long, he was a hoistman. I think the life time period of that
mine was about 10 or 11 years. I think there's still urainium in
there; I've heard there still is. But there's no demand for it. I don't
think he done any mining before that. My father-in-law had a mine up
to Kimberly. He done some mining that wasin the early 1900's. He
still had it up to his death and I think his some of his family still
has it.

VH What did they mine there?

GQ Gold and silver. One time there was suppose to be a lot of gold
taken out of that mine but all the time I was there I never saw any.
That mine is still there we were there last summer. But it's very
dangerous: it's always caving in, lots of moisture, the ceiling was
dropping. These type of mines are really very dangerous.

V.H. What about the open mines? Like how the kid fell in the mine
just recently! How do you feel about these mines?

G.Q. Open-pit mines. Well they move alot a ground to get a little bit.
It's a big expense but for a company. In a way it's probably safer
though there is pollution of the country too. Another factor is the
Kennocott (the biggest mining company in the world) What are they
going do with it when they're done? Maybe they'll make a nice
mountain out of it, maybe not.

V.H. Do you think it's more effective to do open pit or mine the way
you did?

G.Q. Well it's a lot more reasonable to mine the way I mined for a
company to make a profit unless they have an awful lot of equipment
and then they'd need a lot of mineral that they were digging for to
make it profitable. Like our 6-10 inch vein of uranium you would
have to move the whole mountain to get a little bit of uranium then
you won't make much profit.

10
R.S: Do you have any closing comments?

GQ: No, like I said at the time I was there, it made Marysvale a very
prosperous place, probably the most it's been since the early days.
They give a lot of people good jobs. The only regret we have is the
health problems it caused later on. The people that we'd lost already.
The only sad part about it I think is that Marysvale had a population
probably over 600 people. I don't think they'd ever had that many
since. I don't know what it is now, probably around 300. Marysvale
is a nice place, I like it there and grew up and went to school there.
I was the Student Body President when I was in high school at
Marysvale and we had a really good basketball team all the time.
Things like that I will never foget. The only thing, like I say, the
only regrets we have is the illnesses that were contracted.
Marysvale's always been a mining town even before the urainium
came about. There were other mines they still have and I'm sure
they are still doing some mining there. Like I say, the way they do it
today is probably a lot safer.

R.S. How long did you mine?

G.Q. I've mined over four years.

R.S. What would you think of the Navajo mine workers?

G.Q. I understand the type of work they did. I think it was sad and
very bad. They had to crawl in butal swats in small holes, they
couldn't breathe that much. They were exposed to radon gas and it's
very unfortunate.

RS Was it frightening when almost all the miners started to die?

GQ: Yes, we didn't know til several years later when men started to
die. I found out that they were taking tests on the uranium. I thought
that the people who were taking test just taking samples but they

11
were testing the air to see how much raydon gas was there. So, when
I went in for my medical check ups, they could determine how much
radon gas exposure I had by where I worked . We didn't know about it
but when we realized it, it was too late. My doctor told me that long
after I'm gone, my bones will still have radiation.

12
 PR~ TT SEEGMILLER
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en 1ar~;eci upon on Fetwuary 23) 1996, by f"1andy Jensen and K 1mber 1y
~'J 1e 1son.

n'l Th j s mtervl evv 1s t)e i nl~ conducted on January 18) 1996 j n

r1arys'va 1e Utah Our names are i1andy Jensen and K i mberl y r Ji e 1son
The sub Je c tis the min m 9 rli s tory i rl ~1 a ry s val e

'vvr!y (jjijyOU become a miner'?

PS \I'l/e 11) I was a prospector) I found ,=,om eth mg that was very good
To start 'N i th I became ami ner because I had to find someth i rig to
rnake a \N ay to feed rny fam i 1y. I 1i vee! at Big Pock Candy i1cunt ain I
(jrjn't Ilave any money and I got a job at trle m me that you cau 1d see
r 1gl~lt east frorn Rock Candy 1-'1ounta i n. 'ieill' 11 ~,ee trlere's an 0 I rj m me
goes back in the rlil1 and that was the first job I rlad I got that
because I di dn't have anyth i ng else. The peop 1e w r10 r'un that m me
a 1:30 had a number' other mines Everyti me I had a chance I IN ent to
work for them. It didn't pay much money' You can't believe trlis but
ltwas three dollars a Ijay. Yes a day, not an hour but a (jay That's
wrlv I become ami ner to make a 1lI/i ng for my f am i 1y and myse If.

f<J"l Did ur parerlts m me?

PS 1'10, mv father-iN as qu lte J prospector He was a cattle antj srieep

man mostly t,ut rle also just loved to pr-ospect 'vv'hen I was very
/ e;j r ':; \ \N en t \/v i till-II rn r] r'l J t i- 1P t r:3 t t (I () k :=, e'/ er::: ':1 a';13, t:)
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j ;;)I'I'J lost 'Jo1,j mine, e ,ji,=Jn t firlij it b'Jt 'ive r:,3 Ij3 lot of
E-yperjerlce,

ps, \/vor-ked for 15 'lears in the rnjne'::; Tr'le l(~r,,~]est i everwcF!<.eci

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rI) !-::I:-:/ I) ne p J r t 1CU1ar fii i ne vv a sou t t nere 0 nth t? ea-:' t s i ,j e 1t .S JiJ'S t

f,=ur rn 11 es out of tC,\II/n

pS \;1/ e 11 If! e U 3 U ,311 'Y woe d near-1 y e j IJ h t hi) U r3) but 30m e t1 rn e3 vv e
livere at:]e to cut it srwrter lf we rla(j good luck I vvorkecJ for a
compallY out there I lea3erj the rtline that rny ""vHe ar1,;j I c,wnerjwe
1eased to tr'le Varlad ium CorporaU on of ,~meri ca. There's usua 11 y two
or tnree of us Iii mers in eme crew, We \,AI ere requi red to QO dovv n 1n
aneJ get out the ore tr-Iat was shot on the sr,lft t1efore us, and tnen
;jrll1 another roun(j Hito the ore Jnlj blast tl-Iat. Then '.Ale Vler-e thr'.="Jqtl
for Hie cJay 210metirnes it'd take us less then elght hours 2ornet1rnes
It woulcl take a llttle more trnn eil~ht hours but I think we avel~ageci
at'out e 1(;Jrrt flours

PSy'es

f' v\!' rl en you was 9row i n9 IJ P rj j Ij you min e and 11 \j e Ii ere m

1'1 a sva 1e'(

PS, '( es; I 1iv eij at CI i 9 Rock Candy 1'1ounta i r', wr1en I found U-,e m me
.::m(j trier-; I mo\/ed her'e in trle soutrl erld of tovvn in 1949 I so],j nlj/
witer e2, t m C, i ~I Poc k Can,jy t'1ountam

j'JU \//er'e ir: ~ n j nq thatycu' d 1j ~;e to tt? 11 us?

pc, itl/li3sal1,/p ;Ir(! i J
J i t'v'
I
on
~\/eryti'lrl~j or, t~le value of tr,e ore it'~, Vfr~ ;ntel~estji-rg f\le ciJ'y'

tJeC3USe 'You wonder vvhat did i l;Jet \,vr,en 1 orl11e(j that last t:nle ~<JU
hij r r y t Ci ';I et t, ack t r, e I' e ever;/ cl 21':/ t c' see \/v 1"1 at \lIj e 1"'1 It Dj cl w e hit r~ 23 1
ricll ore

PS 'yes, thel~e wer'e terrible tr~a(~e,jies'v\/e lO'3t tvvo nlen and tl'\en
vl/e\/e lost a Jot of otrlers because we dldn't knovv trre ur~allilJrn If;/ou i

\ivere e>-:pose,j to it all the tlme anlj t::weath It causes cancer so most
all of Hie miners are dead Ide had tvvo men tr'iat were killed
ace i (j en tall y. So It was baIj t hat way 'vve w ere w 0 r kin gin ani neli ne
(steep 30 degree slope on the mountain) i come out of nie rnme,
because the boss told me we neeljed some nalls So I went to town
to get Hie rlall s. 'vVhen I ~lot t'3ck evervoo,jy was Just look i nl;) sad
They '331d a man ha(j been killed. They were l'Jadmg the car with
timber They got It fully loaded and turned it to go down trle irrclir,e
Sorneorre forgot to rlook the cable to it So it ran away They' all
jumped into ali tt 1e 'space wer~e it IN ou 1d pass them Then orre nlan
panicked and ran out into tr,e main drift and thought r)e could out run
tl-le c:3r, bLit he couldn't. It caught him and kllle,j hlrll. anrjthen the
otrler man hewas workmg in a stope, do you know what cJo you kno\l\i
\,Ivhat a stope is?

f<Jt NO

PS Okay when you mine, you finej these(ln U-'il'3 rllirre) are vel-tical
veins f'.Jot all the mines are trllS way, but this is. Trlese are the
Free(jom mines and all the veins arevertlc31 '30 vve IjriJe ajrlft in
Limjer~ them Tunnel ir'l uncJer trrem and tr,en live turn arouncl anij shoot
straight up anlj blast above us caU'3€' the ore "11/],3 still there until we
got up at, out 0 h ten to f 1ft een fee t T rl erl W e w 0 u 1d t: u 11 (1 sri (lots
a1on,~ it;o tnat we could ~IO ab(:>ve that, an,j !=last the ore. It woul,j

.)
 ere tr'11::,jr-l/v3S. .::r;111n(J :JC' :1t:<ve ar,(j t e'e
,if a~.3·J ill e b 11] 100 's e '3 of ore above (lilY! ar:c ne i~jii]n~ lJ)!~ thei'n
ci 0 IN II car efu11)i H83 tar t e!j t (I (1 r 111 an ci j t C3 v e cl m I) n (, i nl BI,; t trl at s
the r=.!Il'y' tiNe) tr'lat 'Nere reallv killed in an accident One otr:er rnan
rj 1edOli ttl-I ere) tl d he d j e(j 0 fal"l ear tat t a(k the 0 trw r s 'Ii'.! ere k 11; e.j
h,;
vi :::I~(-'-
"--- i ,-j,:.r"t
,~.~ 1-.

~ 1/1 How was C, i q R(] eke 21f! Ij Y ~-1 0 u n t a lrI d 1f fer eI, t b a c k t ii e n?

PS ell, wrlen m~/ \(vife and I Canl€, she \lIas 19 years ollj anrj I \iva::;.
24 TI'lere was not(11iIg there 'Iou couldn't even drn/e off the road
Wevvent dO\N n be 10'1\/ the h l'jhw ay towards the river. There \/\/ as a
Orl(j~le across Hie r1ver' that went over to an old mine \lve cut away
tile 'sJCjebrusll and pitChed a tent \v'l/e 1ived there all summer Tilen
my t,rotrler carne to help me ancl vile t)ullt a cabin to live in. We rla(j
LemonadeSprmgs an(j that water \/11 as flea 1thfu 1 V'/e wou 1d sri j p the
rnlneral water' 1n ten gallon t,arrels to people So, then we started
vvith a P10, and shovel making a driveway where the main t)uil(jin,~s

are no~v Vve d ld f ina 11 y get it so that you coul d dri ve in there r1 grit
across trle bOrrO\N pit \tie put a plank between a coup Ie of p me
trees and set I~a 11 on jugs of mineral water on the plank People
stopped and we tried to talk them into buying a gallon of mineral
water. I t \,IV as very i nteres t 1ng That was in 1937. Then in 1940 my
partner sent me six hundred dollars and plans to bU11d the ser\/ice
statlOn 51>< hundred dollars (jidn't (dO very far but I manage l] to
c h a r 9e a lot 0f stu f f her e i n 11 a r y s val e and Rj c h f 1e I d bee ause VIi e I-I a d
a pretty good credit rating Vve chan'jed trie original bUii(j1ng into a
caf e and a souveni r shop We made m ~my th mgs out of rocks 1i I<e
triose two book en(js you can see \lJe marje those anlj sold trlem and
~ve dene pretty VI/ell.

PS Orl trlat \I\/as before, I'!j t1een m1rling b!Jt JU5,t 1n these ott'ler rnines
at~o\Jt'ld here, 11~~e the one 'vvest of us Tile PambovV, Wli1Ch 'Nas J (jeep
'JI tne ~oLlth of :/larysvale 2Wllj the i:Jne (10 v\l (, by [:;00 Car1(jy [/1CiJrtt31 1-'!

[NO JlJst t::; make a i l'im iJ I cI/Vne,j for-tv

8 i j in all of those b1jt
percent cf Pock Candy f 10untalrl an(j nl/ partner o\Nned sixty' percent
v

ancl rle \/ias 3 iJovenlment empl ee He fla,] 'NO ed lon!] ery)uqh 'so
J J ,

at r, e c (, U 1(I r- e t ire) ;:m d ri e \N ant edt 0 run t ne pia c es 0 he b I] U 9nt rn e

out and \ive move,j to j/larysvale. We decl,je!j to see if tr~lese ur-:Jr:1UrYI
c 1a Hi:S \/1/ 0 ul d n t pro d u (e u r an 1U man d tI"l ey pro (j u c edana VIi f u 1 lot 0 f
uran 1um '30 it VIj as 'JOOlj and I bougr, t a f arm out on the bener'l and all
was l,uSt fme

PS [t rlasn't hurt rne yet) but I have (Jh what they call a sputum
check up You cough up everything you can and I get that quarterly'
They send t hat from Gr and June t ion, Co lorado. The iJovernment does
tl~lat arid ttley test It. to see If your I;)ettmg cancer in your lUfYjS.
Then tVIllce a year I go and rlave a lung .x-ray So far It hasn't
affected me

PS Yes it 1S) it's very good There's only about tr'rree miners left in
fv1 arysval e you know that work ed out trlere They all di ed.
1

~.1"1 Holt) many were there?

PS, FHty-five) well ther~e was a hunljred all together in the

cJifferent mmes Where I worked there were fifty-five It's tJeen a
rea 1 tragedy an(j unf ortunate ly the .4 tom i c Ener~w Com m i 5S i on ~ new
U\3t 1t wou 1d everltua 11 y k iii us w lth i ung carlcer and other cancers,
l)ut tr,ey cJliJn't tell us because it \;vas war tlme, Iljidn't blame ttlem
It was war- time and trw sold1ers were putting trleir life on the line
anlj they \;\Janted us to mine that uranium so they could have it for-
tlombs \/-./e Ijld) and [ \N3S never ,=,orry because i had six brotr~ers m
tr:e Anrieej FOI~ces 3n,j one of tilem \;I/as w, Japan. \I';I~len the Im/Jsi'Jrr
f< ! clc'n'~ knl)\;\( \Nhat uranlurTI is

PS OI~1 Y'ou ,j;dn't knovv that. \IVe]1 uranium r<:r:; a lot of IJses It's
trernenclous 'v\liwrl irl trie nuclear power it':;, tremendous. Just a fE'\!\i
POUI~lijS of uran i Urll h3S I]ot I~nore ener~gy in it then a who 1e car loa!j of
coal. it's not Just u::,ed for- the t)omb but for 21 rlundred power plants
lrl trie Uniterj S,tates tr'rat are run on uranium There are few plants
so It's very important All trlese mines are shut clown t,ecaus,e tr'ley
f 0 un (j t hat t Ii e Call a (j 1an s get a lot 0 fur an 1um. The y can s hlP it i n to
U'le ite(j 'states crleaper than we carl mine 1t So all of them ar~e
shut (jovvn, even tl~le mill s. As far as I know tlJere's not ami 11
c:peratjrl~1 in trle United states H'lese power plants are t,uyirl'~ n'le
ur~anlurn from Canada

'oN rl at doe sur ani u m 1(10k 1ike) ?

PS I 1cok::; Just like rock most that we mined The very rlcr'!est trle
pr I mar-y ur-an i urn IS black.. Triat i s tl~le ore i ':; black. I t's a 111105 t as
tllack as coal. After it'::; exposed to the atmospher'e for awrll1e it
turns yellow anlj greenish I use(j to have at least a hun(jre,j pour-I,ds
of spec i mens here, but on T\f they kept tell i ng how dangerous 1tvv as
it you (jot exposed to it They ta1kelj like ltyou touche1j a piece of It
trlat It \,vould be dangerou~; We ["'lave a shop out in front, rnayt)e vou
riot 1celt \/vhere we ['lave a r~ock :3aw arid J e'vV e 1ry mak i ni;:] equ i prnent
anel trilnOS like U"lat, triat we u'sed to be in vvrien there was a Red,
J

Can ~·lountallr. i i]ot \jvorl~ying about that Ivvas ey:posinl~ my wife

and mv j!oung son to some th j n~1 \/ery cJangerous. So, I took 3 J 1 my
-f-'n~'(-J
- , ' L i I ) l.\ I, 'I \
_ , !~ 1_ I I _
I_A -
'_" I I I'r~1\
I'r~1r\1'
I --l I

:>S, 6.t Til:Jt tir-,e it wa,:, wei,tr, 21i;ir,t 11:3r::, a ~IOiJrlij T

Kerr ltil;1 up all ttlat liVe 'sold 'Nel-e arounej e19lit Ijol1ars:3
,= ,=) n t :3 1n \_i ran j uman d IN e t r i e(j to a\/ era g e t ! 1, ei- Ij e cJ 0u r (I r e C) u t
U',er '2=(1 tr:at j t ali er-aged f j ve pClur,(js to nle ton, 'I/\/r, i erl m ]Ije jt
\'\i'c:rtr: forty Ijol1ars a ton Trnt seemed to tie \ierv ']00(1, I=,eeause tr,er,
','\Ie coul1j 'Jet ricl of our- 10\\1 91-a(je \Newolll,j rTll/ the low iJr-a·je Jnc

tr,E' t-ii,~h grade to get rid of t1",e low 'jI'ade, 'Nrllch worked ou~ \/er\/
1-,; eel Ii The n aft era \N rl i 1e the pr 1c eke p t ';) 0 i n{:j 1I p, :3 n(j IJ p, and up, an (j
i t ij 0 t u:) t 0 a 1~, tt 1e t:, e tt eI' trl an for t y do 11 a r '=, a po U n c1 I Ij I) r, t k rl O'N if
,/0'_1 g: r 1'3 rem ember, but we had a nuc 1ear ae CI dent in wflat they
called tr-!e T1",ree 1'1,11e Islane! t"Juclear Plant. It Just ,:,cared eve boclV
an(j therl the environmentalists got on that "Oh you better not use
ur::m;,u:n" and or, arId on 2nd on arid trlen the price started to go clo \l\/Il ,
\!1m) clovvn an(j they quit building uranium plants and so then 1t

::tab!11ze,j :=0 novv I guess it's ~,tll1 eigrlt (jollars a pound

;::5 Oh, out here in the uranium \Ne really ,jidn't have very (;lood
t:-rltl1JtlOn but compared to the other mines I wor~ked at It i/Vas
v/'JncJeri iJI. Up here for instance in trle RambDVv' i/linewe never savv
jayl1~lht r,ever'l You were requlred in or(jer to work for the corn[:'any
to :lve r~ight there at the mine I live1j I n ] little (::aoin on ttle mlne
JilC] '/\Ie would get UP in the morning before dayligrit \ve wou'ld go
1nto Hie mine and of course the mine is black dark c]n!j when I/l/e
corne cut it would be dark again V!ewould never see day1 igrlt that
,~/ a":. Hl tl-,e \tv i liter of course, FrOrll W I-lere we \N ere dum p i n(J our cars
'~) t rie rT!Ountamw as ami 1e ~,() Jt was vvav bac kin there an,j t1"ier2
iil/j<; no ventilation there Just \lvasnt any You use(j 'NateI' In '>/OU(
cl rill t 0 1-,0 1cI do VIm HI e ci us t f 1- 0 rn Ij r 111 i r, I] t r-i e I~ 0 c k \/v r-I V 1t VI,! 0 u 1d
~,

create a \:;~,eanl The tunnel \f/;3'3 only about five feet Wl\je ari1j::even
C 0 U 1Cl n' t see r: i in '( I) U CC 1,_; 1

v\! ac;, t I~I;; vIi 0 r- '3 t pia c e Iv\! C: r ked. E'f e IN Ii e I~ e e 1::, e 'iv' JS t) e t t e r t han t nat

PS It ne\/ei~ lJoth;;r~e,j me much Some pf?')ple do :)ne man I USC'r] to

r- i cl e t I) 1;\1 0 r k_ vv i t hall the tim e h a (j a far m 0 U t S 1ci e 0 f r"1 a r-,/ S 'Vi ale an cj
i-ie 1//0 elj tl~ler-e to make;J llVin 1j He told lYle, after trle year-3 he
\/'v'I:wkelj tr:ere, every,jay i (Jo under'Jround ! 'm afraid ! 'm afraid all
the tlrne They Just feel ll~ e It'S gomg come m on them, but it i~lever­

ciid that to trlem, If 'yOU \Nere gC'ln~l to tIe a miner/ou t,etter enJoy or
trleY'Noul1j at least be able to tolerate It.

f'll D i ,j you use tho s e hat s w i ttl the 1i !j h t son the m, 0 r- did you t ak e
a lantern'!

PS Okay! You'll notlce that when I (Jet up I am a llttle bit cripple,j

It's :1 c t fro rn t ['Ie min e 5 It JUS t that Iw 0 r e my k rl e e S out and I rl a d to
have tf'i>-?rrl replaced \jvith steel and plastic JOint'3 Then in 1990 i 1-131]
a t,lood clot arid I had to have my leg amputated So, 1m a little
awkward, but i'11 make it I can rnake it

PS .~I iJ '3 t Sit r! ere and I' 11 t) 1- ~ n(~ i t lil. (b r- 0 Ui~ h t 1rI ali iJ [I t) See tt-I at's
I/'/hatwe use now is llgrlts 1ike nil::, It str-aps arounc) your \,valst and
that'(3 trle [Jattery You char-~~e those up e\ier~~/ nlijht It [la:3 a 11ttle
glot:.E' ana a big cjl, obe TtY3tS IJvri:3t 'v\ie use underl]round Trll's IS vv\-,at
Iii ~ U '3 ~ ij t I) in e T hat i san In t e r es t m g 1j ,~m t
PS It comes like little rocks about the Slze of peas Vou fl11 tril:::
3nIP \Nltr'l cal'bHje (tl',e llttle stones) I'lot clear fulllJIJt jU3t abrJut
two thlr-ds full, Trlen scre'N It orl i'lere anlj you feel this wlth wate!'
j.c,: t rl e c aI' b i ,j e !-! It s ttl e VIi ate r It c r' eat es a iJ as I( 0 u can r- e'9 u 1ate i t
VI/itr1 trll'S little leiel' here. It has a llgr,ter on 1t It gives a spark
an(j lights it, but after a while thlS is Sf-lot so you have to U3e a
IYlatcrt That',::, \Nhat we always used to use Until I work.e(j CJut here I.
r'lalj never seen a 11ght 11k,e this I vl/ent to vl/ork at Cartion COlJnt':/ In
trle ccal mine's and then they all had lights. I guess of course 'x'ou
coul(jn't [lave llljht'3 llke this In :J coal mir,e because you woul(j
explocle trle \AJhole courltry up But, tt-Iat's how the)/ work Do you
k now 1'10 VV dar- k 1t i s 01'1 t Ii e Ij ark est n i 9h t? IN e 11, 1t i s e\/ en m 0res 0
unclerW'ouncl Trler'e's absolute))! no source of light Vou shut off
everytrllrig:md It'S so t)lack dark tJlat you C2lrl't belie\/e It If y'our
1j IJilt I~ces out O!' j f any till ng happens the on 1y \N ay you can (;Jet out of
trie mine (you can't ~,ee) usually 13 If you follovV the tracks/cu
know '/(jU can make it With trle tracks. You (ollow the tracks to (jet
out of trle rnme or you have to go along trw turmel wall

ES Do you know what the tracks are'?

H1 . f\ren't they what you put tJ'le cars on'?

ES They're Just like tiny rallroaej tracks.

,rei u:: t 11 k era i 1r 0 ad t rae ks 0n. hi t rl e\Ir ' rea b 0 ut HI i s b 'I C1

J I .J

(:.rii)\;\1 us With rli::; han(js) They have 1ittle tiny sp1kes trlat spike

trlern to the srnai1 tle p,ll of our rnmes up r"!ere are trlat way. Tr!at's,
'1./ theYN ere r'IJnn i nl;J 111 the coal rn mes) except m the coal rn me::;
,tl:=1 rnUC~~I) nluct'"'l t)i r=1qer-
~ ~
:~,C tt-:2 1,=]r';) i=,IUr r-nlr:ln(-j-i ':]1-':3, ''/vOlJl j Dull
'\.._ I

::orrietrlmq tietter tnali a tOil cf l)re?JrJcj I~IFI 'X) n)C'se tracks you 1.J=i
- J
1

L E- e p ;3/ i n cj t [' acf:; '/ 'J U k n c \IV t 1'1 e'/ j [' e rift ee '~I fee tin 1e n 'j t I-I (t ri e
tr~:cks are l , have side ralls U'L3t u t !lil,:ntll ;/ou IJet f1fteen
feet. Thel' '/ve woul,j 13V 33et of tr'ack3 a:::; we 'l,lent Hi
i
But thE:' la::;t
f i \Ie \Ie:'!!' s tliat
I
! rn me:j ou t ther e i riae1 som e heart tro ut\ 1earn ono J

otr'Ie:- things i"ly \!Vlfe was alway:::, af:aid t'~at Iwas gomg tJ Ijie in
U-Iat mine and srle' ,j have to dr ag me out :10 ;::,rle dec] Ijed to \vork
IIV; trl tile IJecause to h we anybody there IS '30 ,jam rTluch paper 'NOn 30
I Ju=;t ciHjrd cJo It Vve were working for oUI~selv'es then TI~le

u:, n', pap u 11 e Ij cut 5 he W 0 U llj aI w ay s rn ak e up the e>< p I os I v ea n (j get

triern read'ji for me \.vhile I vvas drilling I had wrlat theyl called a
n1!Jckmg rliachine \Vh1Ch \;vas a un(jergroun(j loader that \;\/orks on
compressed ajr'I'(j load tr)e cars and then \ would give them a shove
Iil/ltrl tnat macrline (jown the track.s I set trie tracks so there was
Just 3 little tlit of slope going out so it wouldn't be so rlard to push
those 10a(jelj cars Then sl'le d jump on, she'd r~ide them right out to
trle surface Trlen I would have to come out anci rlelp rlere dump thern
iJecause '31~le couldn·t I~aise them They were to heavy for her to r'aise

Has r1arY"3vale change1j a lot since they stopped mirlin(;(i

PS C)ii yes, our population now 1S probat)ly bet'l·/een tJwee hunljred

ane1 flft,! to four hundred but itvVas over frye hU:ldred v.,/r,en Vie \ivere
nllnin!} Everyone was prospecting) locatmg claims, in lawsul ts, anlj
tt~lat's one thing you can depend on I f you ever rlacl arlything that
\/I/as any gcod your going to have someone Jump your claim lour
~101ng to have to get in lawsuits. Your 90irl9 have to flgrit like mad to
1",0 llj onto your ground) becausesom eonew as a 1W JiS trymg tostea 1
it Tr)at's t rle truth One outf It trlat \IV as to our north had J part c'f a
c 1a 1nl ~ hsy 1)\./ en t Ij 0 W nan d got j n tog 00 d 0 r~ e T f'i ey t urn e (j 1- I '9 h t
around ancl fol1ovved trlat ore right mto our grourl1j Tr-:e';/ stole ':1)<
rlup,jr'elj tons ,)f ol'e Very fc,rtunately \/lle caugt-It trler'!l FIJr about
fl\Jeyears 'Ne wer'e in one lawsuit after arlotrler, tlut '/tie finally ,./Von
Ch l~lrij U-'at ITiJ3uit went on forever, You \NOuI,jn't be faillllElrhltl'l

10
patent clamls
trien, It'~ 3 11tt~esti~lct':?r r:cJ~\' (:~,u cauk] JO out arlC] loc::::te a '=1a:rn
r!icli ',1,/;:33 Sl>( riun,jre,j feetv\/lcJe ani] fifteen nur-!cire,j feet lor'i J('JIj r
J

CCrt) : (j 10 cat e it 0 nth eli e Wly' I) U 'cJ 10 cat e vV i t h the 1/ er tic a 1::, t r ]k e
t r, J t Ii e i nvli as 'YJ 1I-HJ at f 1f tee n hIJ nIj r e(j feet YI)!J CI) IJ 1rj 1a'/ 33 IT; a
ciairnc:,)S ouvv;:mt to 50 theri arteryou r:a've got ,xe trlat is
5, u H a[=:' ie, val u at, 1e (: r~ e and ':I 0 u' '/ e do rl e en 0 ugh IN 0 r k 0 rl tr, e n"l y au can

IJet tr:em patenteci by the irlterior Department VIe didn't rlave rnucr:
Ill0ney) so )S soem as live stane,] makin1j money off the ni1ne'vve
dec ided to go for patent. That is the only way you can have a c:,ecure
tlt:e if you jU'3t liave a mming claim every year you have to (jo a
rl un dred cJ 0 11 ar s \N art h 0 f \IIi ark vv rl i c h 1S not h i n g. But, you are a 1\/1/ a)1 s
in ,jan~ier or somel)o(jy Jumping your c1aim Once you got tt patented
It'S Just as safe as this rlome You've got jt pald for and you've (;Jot jt
in your name Just is your personal property. So we IIvent for patent
it took us about four years You'11 rlear it on TV especia11y from
f33bbit, the Sec['et2wy of Interior') on how they're Just giving avvay
tt~lese valuable rnmerals tl) people that pay a little bit for H'le

acreage Trley dldn't pay much for the acreage) but oh lorlj they pay
plenty in t3x:es You rlear him carrying on He always makes a big
crlcwe trlat every tirne the Secretary of Interior rlas to sign that
fir,al deelj to you. He alvvays appears on TV and mourns how wer'e
Just Ijivlrig thiS mi11ions of do1lars in ore to somebody for a 1ittle
blt of notrllng. When the last ones were there it's a big Canadian
mining company. Anyway to get on back to my story we just kept
going for patent I t took us about four years, but we f mally got
eight claims patented so that they vvere ours That's all there \,vas
to it buy. Barrack bought a mine out in Nevada It cost him e1!~nty
ml1lion dollars to buy that rnine arid a's Just \/\/rlat they ca11 micron
'jollt With a magnifying g1ass you can't see any (jold in 1t it's ju,::,t 3
very srnal1 amount) but by getting millions of tons of it they can
mak e money on I t So then Barrack went ahead and spent anotlier
tl,verlly rnl11ior-1 t1uil1jin1j a m111 in their faci1ities to get that ,gOld out.
Then t\\,ey decilje trley better (~et tt~lat tit1,e '=,afe, because trley are
Just on unpatlented mining claims. So they INent for patent cmd
Seci'etar~y of interior Babblt appeared on TV and sai(j '1ve are Just

11
 (I,-e ar,e trlaty,1cJ 1::, not '.'\iUtr'l cnf IJarli t-; "~'?r'T It nas (=1 IJf [)rou;;r li
'=,ut if It co';ts a 1~lun(jre(j mlliiiJn (j,.::.ilat-'3 The/ :=ie=,erve title t:=, It ail]
nlat';"vhat it t'Jok and trleil rte INouicJnt 519r-; 1t He ab'301utely
I'efus~d to sjl~n their' cieelj H-Iey ar-e not just a penny-alit] cCrilpal'r/,
U-Ie;/ rlac) r-;-,cney They r)lred a !JOG,] lawyer anlj ',vent to cOllr~ ani)
=, ue,j r-I ~ man (j t rl e c () IJ rtf 0 r c e d [', i m t I] S i gil j t B IJ t e\/ e r '3 1nee tr-I e n h e
INcul(] ju:::t (jo trle sametrdng over and over' He's orle of U'lese rC:1dlcai
env 1ronrnentall'3ts yOIJ kno\iv ! ijUeSS he thinks we can I~et aiong
\/v'lthout rnining. 'v\l'ell, I'll be l;Jlad to tell you anything I can Arl'!,
rnere qlJesti;Jrls 01- anytriillg. "vVr:y I'd be r,appy to It wouldn't botlwi
r()e

Ki/1 Well we don't know much about mining so we don't knowvVrlat to

ask YC;IJ\/e to 1(j us a lot though thanks.

P5 Orl you're welcome, you're just vJelcome

~:~1 Thanks for letting us cr:Jn1e and talk to you about It. Thanks a lot

PS / 0 u tl et, IN e' 11 see you

:2
 RICHARD SYLVESTER:

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Interviewee: Richard Sylvester

Interviewer: Lisa Mathie and Shelly Wilkinson

Date: January 18, 1996

Location: Marysvale, Utah

Sub j ect: Mining

SW: We will be interviewing Richard Sylvester in Marysvale and it's

January 18,1996 on the subject of mining.

SW: Okay, Why and when ...

RS: You'll have to talk loud because I'm about deaf.CLaughs)

SW: Okay, why and when did you become a mIner?

RS: Well I really never really became a miner but I did work in the
mines from the time I was about sixteen years old until I graduated
out of college in 1957. I was born in 1935. I worked in the Rainbow
Goldmine which is right up the canyon here for Lucy and I can't
remember her brother's name now ... Lewy-Lewy and Lucy Deluke. That
was probably the first mines I've ever worked in. After that I spent
about every summer in the Deer Trail Mines out here. My father was
the superintendenLJay Sylvester. He was superintendent of Deer
Trai I Mines. And after I got out of high schoo I and started to go to
COllege in the summertimes I would work the Deer Trail Mines out
here. I did work one part of the year in the uranium mines out on the
east side. So probably you could say about probably t 952, about
1948 to 1957 I worked in the mines.

LM: Okay can you describe the mines like what it was like inside it
or ... ?

RS: Amine is just a bi 9 ho I e in the ground. (Laughs)

The mines around here there's a, this is called a underground mining.
They're tunnels. The tunnels are about 6-7 feet wide and probably 7
feet high. And it's just an oval hole. Have you ever went through
Bryce Canyon?

LM and SW: Yah.

RS: Or not Bryce Canyon I mean Zi on Canyon through the tunne ls?
Well that's what they're like only ya don't have holes going out into
the day1 ight of so 1i d dark and they go back for I think the longest
tunnel in the Deer Trail Mines is back about 2 miles. And then, of
course, off of those tunnels they have what they call drifts, which is
just another tunnel taken off going in a different direction.
Following lower bodies of ore they have what they call shafts which
go down from the main 1eve 1 and they they will dri ft off from that.
So actually it looks 1ike a big ant hi 11 when ya-if you've ever have
seen a aquari um-what they have where the ants you know tunne 1
around against the glass, well thats what a mine looks like. And
then they also go up in the air on the main level and they call that a
raise. And some of them even come clear back through to the
surface. We use them for ventilation purposes.

5W: What were some of like the work conditions in the mine?

RS: It's always dark and you had a either a electronic battery
operated lamp which come into existence in the later years. I worked
in the mine but the first few years we had what we called carbide
lamps and they were nothing more than just a little lamp that you
wore on a hard hat. And were about that high and they had a little
reflector on 'em and you'd take the bottom off and fill it full of
carbide and then you'd feel the top full of water and the water would
drip down into the carbide and create a gas that would come out and
you would have a little flame about that long, about an inch long and
that was the 1ights you had. They are really pretty affect ive. Other
than that temperature is fairly warm after you get back in out away
from the a main entrance a little ways like out in the Deer Trail

2
Mine you go back about 1300 feet and it takes a turn and from there
on the temperature is pretty nice but from there on out it's quite
cold.

5W: Okay, what was the typical day?

RS: The typical day? Well, they generally run what they call 3
shifts. The shifts run from like 8 o'clock in the morning til 4 o'clock
in the afternoon and another shHt would come in and work til
midnight and another shift would come in and work til 8 o'clock in
the morning. 50 whichever shift you was on and what they did each
shift was to put in one round-a round consisted of loading up the
waist in the ore whatever you were working in that day. Loading it
into the trammer cars hauling it outside and dumping it and then
setting up the drills and drilling a new round, and blasting it for the
next shift. So actually the tunnels were being driven about as rule
of an average 5 feet a day per shift I mean. jf you were dry you'd
dri 11 in the face 1i ke thi s. I guess thts a wall lay-you'd dri 11 a bunch
of ho les allover in that then you'd load 'em and blast em then the
next shift you'd come in and muck all that out with a mucking
machine load it into the cars haul it outside with electric trammers
and dump it then set up the dri 11s and drill a new bunch of holes and
load 'em and blast 'em so the next shift come in and thats what the
day consi sted of.

SW: So where did it all go to?

RS: I t went out to the waste dump and if it was scrap or if it was
are they had bins out there they loaded it in and hauled it to the
smelters. The earlier days there was smelters in Utah, Midvale,
Lark-there was one other one but I can't think of the name of it right
now. Then after the railroads closed down they had to shift it by
truck to the smelters and then the smelters closed down, in Utah so
they had to ship it out of state and thats about the time they went
out of business cause it was costing more to ship the ore than they

3
were making. And then the other part is still out there. The waste
dump.

LM: Okay, were there ever times you couldn't go into the mine?

RS: You couldn't go in? Well I don't know of any time you couldn't go
in other than right after when you blasted. You'd have to wait for an
hour or so for the ventilation system to clean the dust up. Any time
you went into a mine with a carbide light, the carbide light wouldn't
burn you got ought a there because that indicated that there was no
oxygen. If the little flame was bright and yellow you were okay but
if it ever went down to a light or an orange color and real small get
oughtta there. 'Cause the oxygen there wasn't very much oxygen. If
it went out you're in trouble. And that was a good indicator of
whether you should go in or not was if the carbide light and when
they started using the electric 1ights you didn't have those so you
just had to depend on the way they (the mines) smell and the way it
felt.

SW: Hm. Where did you stay?

RS: Stay?

SW: When you were mining?

RS: Right here in Marysvale.

SW: You did.

RS: Lived right here. We didn't stay at the mines, the mines at that
time. Now back when my dad was mining back in the 40's, we did 1ive
at the individual mines which is where. We lived at the Rainbow
Mines, we 1ived down here at the Trenedy. You've seen them, well
there's not much left there now, but there used to be cabins right
straight across the river from the Rock Candy Mountain.

4
SW: Oh my heck.

RS: Thats called the Trenedy Mines. There used to be a couple houses
there. We I ived there. We I ived out here to the Deer Trai I, what they
ca 11 the Cori sa.

Mrs 5: Here's a picture of it.

RS: Yah, there's a picture of the Trenedy right there. That was the
houses that was there, that was right straight across from Rock
Candy Mountain. One of them little feflers there is me. I don't now
which one of them is.

5 Wand LM: Cute

RS: The other one is my brother.

RS: My dads the guy with the bib overalls on and the other guy is Pat
Henry. Thats the guy who was running the mines. He was President
of the Deer Trai 1 Mines at that time.

SW: Hm, cool.

LM: So 1ike the fam i lies that came, I ike if the dad went to work than
they al1 would come?

RS: Now my dad worked up in Bingham. Up in the mines in Bingham

and after he married mother we moved to ElSinore and he got out of
the minilig a few years and raised Anghora goats. Maybe you've heard
of Anghora goats out in Povert Flat out west, or southwest of Monroe
or east of Monroe there.

SW: A huh.

RS: They raised goats there. The Sylvesters did, my dad and his dad,
my uncles. Then they take the goats into John's Valley, in the

5
summertime and bring 'em back in the winter, Wel1 then he got back
into mining and sold the goats, Had to get rid of the goats, during
the depression time about 38 or so, somewhere along during the
depression so he went back into mining and he come to Marysvale and
I went to school through the fourth grade in Elsinore, But I was
actua lly born in Murray but we moved down here when I was just a
little baby, I was probably in the picture here about ah maybe seven
years old, Seven or eight, and we 1ived at the Trenedy at that time,
In the summertime, then after I started in the winter time I went to
school in Elsinore 'til I was about a fourth grader, Then mother
moved up here and we lived here ever Since. But we did live at these
individual mines ah, in the summertimes when there wasn't school.

SW: How has Marysvale changed since then?

RS: Well most of the old timers are gone and all the new comers are
Californians.

SW and LM: Ya

RS: Ah, actually, It's kinda died you might say. We don't have any
mining going on around here now whatsoever. It used to be that the
employed oh when the Deer Trai I Mine were going and the uranium
mines were going down here. There were probably over 100 people.
So the economic phase in Marysvale 1s down to 0 now. There's really
no reason for young people to stay here. The only thing we have here
is what few farmers we have that already own the property. And a
couple 3 dairies. If you don't work for the county the state or the
school district, there's just no work for ya in Marysvale. So
basically Marysvale is becoming more of a retirement place than
anything else because we are getting a lot of older, elderly people
moving in oughta California, Vegas now. Like most small towns do.

LM: Okay, do you have any like favorite stories you can tell us when
you were mining like funny ones or something?

RS: Oh, favori te stori es.

6
SW: Or did you just hate it:

RS: No, actually ah it was quite interest ing to go back in each day
after you've worked the day before. A lot of the time we just
worked 1 shift. And you'd
go out and go in and dri 11 your round, blast it, next day you'd go back.
It's qu i te interest ing to see what new type of ore or rock that you
would hold into from that last round or how much ore you had or if
you were just driving a tunnel how much footage you made. You
always wondered if all of the dynamite charges that you'd put into
the face had gone off. We'd generally counted 'em so we'd go down
after we'd light 'em we'd go down to the drift, go down a couple
turns you know and stand and 1isten to them go off. To make sure
they all went off. And alot of the times there would be so much
nOise we couldn't count 'em all so then when we went back it was
kinda spooky because you knew some place in that wall there's a
loaded hole. You could generally find it cause it'd be broke out around
it so you had to be real careful that you didn't drill into that one. And
there's been a lot of accidents happen when people drill into them of
course. And discharges generally kill them. So that was probably
the worst thing about it is you knew you had a missed ho1e,just
going back and workin around it. As far as amazing stories, I can't
remember anything real extra exciting at all.

SW: Did you see a lot of people die and stuff?

RS: In the mines, I've never seen a soul die. At the time I was 4 they
had a fire out here in the Deer Trai 1 Mines. A couple people died, but
that was before I was into mining. I've seen a lot of people get hurt.
This is probably the most amazing story. I've had a couple accidents
like that but there funny, and actually it's really not funny because
you could of really got hurt you know. I worked with an old man by
the name of we 11 even at that time he was probab ly we 11 I guess he
was 20 yrs old, maybe 25, name was Jimmy Davenport. He was a
real good worker and just worked and give you everything he had but

7
he only had 2 speeds and that was high and no go, I mean he had to do
everything on the run or else he didn't do it. And he would be
runniung a mucking machine and like I said a mucking machine is a
machi ne that there was tracks in the bottom of the tunne 1 and th i s
machine would run on the tracks, it would run by air pressure and
you'd have an air hose hooked to it and it'd be I ike you've seen air
tools and stuff they'd use, Well this was an air motor to run this
mucking machine, What it was it looked something like it had a
bucket on the front of it. And the bucket would go up and raise back
and come right back over the top of it and dump the stuff (rock, ore)
in the waste car behind it. Well you walked along the side of this or
you rolled it with a little stamp that stood on the side of it. Well
sometimes it would get so close to when you'd be standing up when
that bucket would come up and just come by your nose like that you
know, And this old guy like I said it didn't matter how tight it was
or how close it was he had to run it wide open, I'd been working
there with him and he'd come off then come back and it'd (mucker
bucket) hit his hat I ike that and knock it down the drift. He'd jump
off and run get his hat and put it back on, light his light back up, get
back on make one pass and the same thing would happen, I think he
run over his feet 4 or 5 times and broke his toes at least that many
times when I was there. That was probably the most oh you might
call it entertainment. Another guy I worked with out there was
another fellow that was about 1ike him. I n fact the 2 of 'em used to
fight coming to work everyday. They had a 3rd fellow with them.
This kid's name was Arthur Nielson. And the other guys name was
Verdell Sudweeks. Jimmy Davenport, Verdell Sudweeks, and Arthur
Nielson all lived in Kingston. They'd drive down here everyday to
work. Well Jimmy and Arthur couldn't get along very well. They'd
get in a fight, in a fight about everyday coming to work. They'd have
to get out and slug it out a few times. Verden was always in the
middle and he'd catch about every other slug you know. Anyway they
were about the same type of people. They just had to do everything
real fast. Ya'd really have to take the caution that you needed to. We
were running a dri 11 ing race and start ing a raise up one time. A raise
is a hole that goes up off the main level. There's a big rock sitting

8
up in there, I mean a big one. Probably bigger than that chair, just
hangin there. Looked like it was just hangin there. And I told Arthur,
I says Arthur don't you think we'd better see if we can get that rock
bef ore we start dri 11 ing. Oh he says, its been hanging there for
months it will be alright. Okay. 50 we started to drill and the rock
fe11 and it come down and hit it just barely went right down the
backside of him. Didn't hit him but I don't think it missed him a
quarter of an inch. He didn't even shut the machine off. He just
looked around, sit down on the rock and kept dri 11 ing. At that time I
told my dad that these guys were crazy, I'm not gonna work with
them. That's about the on ly 2 amazing things that were interest ing
to me. A lot of the people, the miners, you know were a different
group of peop 1e.

5W: Like some of the people you worked with what were some of
their contributions for mining?

RS: Their life, it was a difficult life. And that's all they did. The
fellow that I was just telling you about, Jimmy Davenport, he
worked in the mines and when he got out of the mines he was old
enough to retire. I mean he was a social security agent. The
contribution is that was that was their way of making a living and
that's what they did and that's all they did. Ah there's the people
that I worked with were miners. There's two different types of
miners ... there's the prospector, he's the guy that goes out and spends
his life hunting for things and maybe he finds it and maybe he don't.
But the old miner, he was til 8 o'clock in the morning to 4 o'clock in
the afternoon everyday. Five days a week somet imes 6.

LM: Do you like keep in touch with people you worked with do you
like know what happend to them?

ps: Most of the people that I worked in the mines with now are dead.
Cause I ike I said I was 18, 19 years old. When I was work ing in the
mines these people were in their 40's and 50's. There's still a
couple of them. My brother-in-law, Joel Johnson down here he spent

9
most of his earlier life in the mines and then he bought a dairy and
he's been a dairyman ever since. But he spends every free minute he
can, digging in these mines. He gots claims up the mountain, he's
the prospector type. He'd mine today if there was one. I like it, I
really like it.

SW: How did mining affect your life both good and bad?

RS: Well in a good way it give me an income to get through college.

And as far as it hendered my life, as far as I know I've never had any.
A lot of the miners around here especially those who worked in the
uranium mines suffer from lung cancer and from radiation cancer. I
didn't work there long enough and I suppose I don't have cancer yet
either as far as I know. Anyway, other than that it was interesting.
It was a hard time to work, it was a manual work, most of it was
getting 1t the modern time miner don't work like the old miner did.
The old miner used a pick and shovel and that type of thing. It is a
type of work that gets into your blood and it is something that the
old boys that did it really enjoyed it, and did it their whole life.

SW: Did you have any favorite times or when you liked it a lot?

RS: No, I can't say I had any favorite times. They were all about the
same. But there was one thing that was kinda interesting out in this
Deer Trai 1 Mine out here. They hit what they call ed a crystal ball and
what it was is we went in there one day after we blasted around
just 1ike a big ore room had opened up full of crystals in there and
everybody tried to get as many of those crystals as they could. And
after today if you had all those crystalS you could be a wealthy
person because they turned out to be worth quite a bit of money.

SW: Did you have anything else that you wanted to tell to us that we
missed?

RS: No, except if this area is ever to live again it will have to be
through the mining because nothing else is ever going to make it.

10
This area according to all geologists and everybody that's ever
surveyed it or looked at it or studied it is one of the most
mineralized areas in the whole United States in this little Marysvale
area here. But it is the opinion of most people that the big ore
bodies are down deep, and when I mean deep, I mean way down deep.
So feasib 1e, it's not feasib 1e for big companies to come in and try
and get it. Very, very few mines are existing today that are mining
underground because of the expensive overhead. That you call
overhead getting the ore out and getting it to market, getting it
processed. The people that are making money in the mines today are
the big leach plants and the big open pit like Kennecot, and like the
big leach plant out here in Nevada, and down in Cal Hornia. They
make money out of it. Our average round per day was probably oh
maybe 7 ton of dirt whatever it might be. Kennecot moves a mill ion
ton a day. 50 you can see what the difference is. The same with
these leach plants. They just take everything and put it in and run
the whole thing and they can operate on 4 or 5 hundreds of an ounce
of gold (per ton). In a hard rock you gotta get up to one ounce of gold
to ever make money here in the underground here. That's only about
400 dollars a ton. The time the Deer Trai 1 Mine closed, the ore--was
bringing over 7 hundred dollars a ton. That was lead, I think copper,
silver, and gold. But because of the high cost of shipping which they
had to do by truck-the railroads closed and having to ship it out of
state instead of just to Salt Lake or Midvale where they used to have
to ship it. They had to ship on into Colorado or Montana, Wyoming, so
the shipping cost was eating up the profit and it wasn't feesible for
them to keep going. There's st ill a lot of ore out in the Deer Trai 1
Mine. You can go into the mine but like I say until they get some
place to process it without the expense of shipping it so far it will
stay shut down. There's been talk and talk for years and I'm sure Mr.
Frederickson will tell whoever's talking to him of people gonna
come in and put in mill, and that's been happening since the last 20
years that I know of and I've never even seen one started. So if they
could put in a mill, that would upgrade the ore you know just
separate it and you'd just ship the high grades then we could
probably make it but 'til that time comes and that's a multi-million

11
dollar process. Just putting a mill in, so that's why we're not doing
much with it. Anything else?

SW: I don't think so, I think we're done. Thank you for letting us
come.

RS: Okay, do you need to ca 11 somebody? .. or do you need to be

dropped off, I need to go to the post offi ceo

12
 INTERVIEW SUMMARIES

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 Jim Anderson

Kerry Greenhalgh

Mrs. Glenn

Honors Engl ish 1 1A 2nd Hour

February 23 1996
J
 Mr. Jim Anderson mined for nearly five years. I n all of
that time, he was in only one accident This is a story about
it
There were three miners finishing a stope) pulling the
ore out of it One of the men got a bri ght idea) he thought
he had an easier way to do it It looked a little scary to
Jim, but he decided to do it anyway. They took a two foot
1ength of pipe and put three st i cks of dynam i te in the end
of it Then they cut the pri mers and put those on the end of
a stope hammer. A stope hammer is a air hammer and air
pressure pushes the hammer up, The hammer then beats
and rotates the dri 11. The three men put the bomb on the
end of t he stope hammer and pushed it up into the
bulkhead. They pushed it up there a couple of feet into
three bulkheads,
When they did it to the fourth one, Jim could smell
something burning. This scared him a little) but he
shrugged it off. Then one miner told him to turn off the air
because they were through. Jim walked four or five feet,
and the bomb went off. Jim ran to turn off the air in the
main valve, When he came back he could tell there was still
pressure in the jacker, I t was very dusty so Jim couldn't
see much, Finally he saw ali ght by a drift There was a hat
1y ing by the dri ft} so Jim thought one of the miners was
under it He wasn't) it had just knocked his hat off. Jim
took that one out of the mine, When he went back in the
other miner was halfway down an incline with his boot off.
A piece of timber fell and crushed his foot. Jim got them
out of the mine and down to Marysva 1e, with the he 1p of
others.
Most accidents that happen in the mines are because
peop 1e get into too bi g of a hurry or somethi ng isn't
exactly right. When you fail the do something exact, you'll
always get into a accident.
There were more peop 1e kill ed on the hi ghway from
Panguitch to Richfield while Jim was mining, than there
were in the mines. It was safer to have a job mining than
one driving around on the highways. There is a long term
effect from work i ng in the mines though. Most men that
worked in the uranium mines have had health problems due
to mining. In fact, only three or four of the men that
worked with Jim haven't had a health problem, yet. Yes,
mining was and still is a good job, but in the end it may not
always be worth it.
 JIM ANDERSON

JESSICA ABRAHAM

MRS. GLENN

HONORS ENGLISH lIB 2ND HOUR

FEBRUARY 28,1996
 Could you imagine working underground in the damp, gloomy
darkness, with only flashlights and lanterns to guide your work?
These are conditions that the miners worked in everyday. Jim
Anderson started mining in 1956. He mined on and off for about
five years, all year round. He started mining in a uranium mine
called Freedom Prospector in marysvale area. Uranium is a mineral
that comes from deep down in the earth. Uranium pushes up out of
the ground and into vertical veins.
In 1956, mining was a very good job to have, because it paid
quite a bit of money. Jim lived fairly close to the mine he worked in.
It was only five to ten minutes from the time he got to the mine and
went down the shaft 500 feet underground, where he was ready to
work.
According to the mine safety rules miners could only be
underground for eight hours or less. That may seem like a lot, but
that's not very long compared to what miners used to work. Some
miners worked ten to twelve hours each day.
A typical day for Jim would be to go down into the mine and do
what they call tramming. There are stopes in the mines that run on
vertical veins with shuttles about every ten feet along the stopes.
Jim would take these shuttle-mine cars and roll them under the
shoots and fill them with ore. He then would move the cars out
where a motor trammer or bucket trammer, would be hooked onto
the cars and take them out of the mine. After the miners got the
uranium out they would ship it to Salt Lake City. Most of the
uranium mined at that time was used to make nuclear weapons for
war times. In peace times, uranium was sold to private and foreign
agencies for the development of nuclear power. After the war times
were over most uranium mines closed down.
Although there were a few scary incidence, Jim couldn't
remember many accidents were caused from the dynamite that was
used for blasting. The miners used dynamite the whole time Jim
mined. It was only after he retired that they started using fertilizer
such as ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate was stable and a lot
safer to use.
The mine Jim mined in is now closed. It is called a gut mine,
All entrances are covered and no one should go down into the mine
because of harmful gases such as radon gas that still exists in the
mine. At the time Jim mined, the miners were not aware of all the
long term effects that they would get from these harmful gases.
They knew it had some harmful effects because the old miners used
to get a disease they called silicosis. Silicosis is a condition in which
rocks and dust would get in their lungs and set up like cement. lime
is in the dust and rocks which forms crystals that settles in the lung
and would cut the lung tissue until it bleeds. Although mining is
harmful, we have achieved many new working conditions to ensure
safety of our miners. Uranium is used for nuclear weapons, nuclear
power, and as a vast source of industrial power.
We should be very thankful for our miners and all they have
given us. Many miners now have very bad health because of
working conditions. They are now paying the price. Jim has cancer
in his lungs. The doctor has removed the upper right lobe, which left
him with 46% of the lung capacity that he should have. Most of the
people he mined with either have died from cancer or have cancer
now.
Jim is retired now and continues to live near Hoover's cafe on
the way to Marysvale. He has a little gold mine that he mines in his
free time. Even though his abilities are limited because of his lung
disease, he wouldn't change his experiences in the mine.
Rell Fredrick
by:
Amanda Payne

Mrs. Glenn
Honors English 11 B
February 22, 1996
 Life is like a roller coaster! He could feel his heart pounding as
the skip twisted and turned four thousand feet down the mine shaft.
All that held it up was a one and a half inch cable. No safety devices
were connected at all. The skip sped along moving its passengers back
and forth. With in two minutes it had carried its passengers from the
outside of the mine to fifteen hundred feet below its surface.
Rell Fredrick has been a miner for about fifty years. He has
worked in uranium mines, base metal mines, and gold mines. He has
also worked in many diferent states such as: Wyoming, Nevada, South
Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, and all through-out Utah. But his favorite
job in the mining industry was that of a Federal Mine Health and Saftey
Inspector. In this job he was able to travel and see all the different
mines, which is something he always wanted to do. When he started
out in mining, safety wasn't taught like it is now. Just like in the story
about the skip with no safety devices, many other mining equipment
and procedures were used without a thought of safety. Things are
different today. Now you are required to take courses on safety before
you are allowed to mine. Before safety didn't matter. What they
worried about was production. Hurry and get the job done; the more
produced the better. In those times most people learned safety from
knocks on the head and broken fingers.
After 1969, the Federal Government could see that some of the
areas of mining were not getting any safety training or safety
supervision. This is when they enacted the federal law that states that
federal inspectors would inspect mines and be sure that safety
requirements were met. This helped the mining industry a lot; making
it a better place to work.
 One of the occupational diseases that goes along with mining is
silicosis. This happens is silica dust gets into the lungs and then
can't be expelled. With the help of safety requirements though,
siliicosis is no longer a problem.
Fire is always a problem. It is really easy to have a fire in a
mine. Any little charge can start a fire because the ventilation put
through the mines dries out the timber and fans any sparks that are
created. Not only is the fire itself dangerous, but the gases they
produce can be deadly. If ventilation can not be quickly established, the
fires' gases and smoke would kill the miners. When mining, you are
three or four hours from medical services and you need to be
transported to the surface. It can be very deadly. In the Sunshine Mine
fire in Idaho ninety-one people were killed. At the Deer Trail Mine
there were two people killed in a fire. Also the Wilburg Mine fires
killed twenty-seven people.
Now the federal and state laws require that anyone going
underground take with them what is called a, "self-rescuer" in case of
a fire. A self-rescuer will change the carbon monoxide gas to carbon
dioxide gas, and give miners an hour or more to escape from the
dangerous gases. When the rescue team in Tooele recently went
into the mine to search for a boy who had fallen down a shaft, everyone
that went into the mine was carrying a self-rescuer, even though there
was no fire danger.
If these laws had been in effect before many lives may have been
saved. There are a lot of dangers in mines, but if you follow the rules
and practice safety, many accidents can be prevented.
 DESTINY
Alyssa Magleby

Mrs. Glenn
2nd hour
February 23,1996
 ReI! Frederick was born to mine. From the time he was little, he
showed great interest. Once when he was in middle school, he and his
friend tried to dig a mine shaft in his backyard. Neither boy had ever seen
an actual shaft, but they dug one anyway, just for practice. ReI! was the
youngest in a family of miners, so of course he would continue the
tradition. While in high school, he worked summers in the Deer Trail and
other mines to help his family out with money. He had studied to be an
electrician, which later came in handy setting up telephones and
electricity in the mines; however, he could not escape his destiny, so he
became a miner.
Through his life of mining, he's seen many changes. One of the first
was the change from using strictly dynamite to using ammonium nitrate
compounds for blasting. He started out loading ore material by hand and
ended watching machines do it. At first, mining was a very dangerous job
because he learned safety by knocks on the head and smashing his fingers.
The conditions in the mines were improved with the creation of Federal
Safety Inspectors, which he later became. He witnessed Marysvale grow
around him as a boomtown then fizzle out to be a town full of grandmas
and grandpas.
His typical day as a miner varied greatly. He would always check in
when he got to the mine, pick up his equipment, and then go into the shaft.
Once inside, there were many jobs he could do. He would work drilling,
loading, timbering, blasting, excavating, or whatever else his assignment
may have been. He ate lunch underground and went back to work when he
was done. When it seemed time for the ten 0' clock break, it would be
quitting time. He worked fast and furious for the seven hours left after
travel and eating time was taken out.
 The temperature and climate were usually the same inside most of
the mines Rell worked in, so the miners dressed in normal work clothes.
Some mines were extremely hot or had water trickling down the walls and
puddling on the floor, but for the most part, the temperature was about 68
degrees. There was always water involved to keep the dust down, so they
sometimes wore rain gear. However, if he worked outside the mine, he had
to layer up to fight the elements. Riding the train out in the wintertime
was freezing.
In his free time, he usually went swimming, hunting, fishing,
skating, picnicking, or horseback riding. He occasionally played church or
town basketball and baseball. He also watched movies at the movie
houses before television came around.
He once leased the Deer Trail Mine with his brother and another man,
just for fun. They had their own crew to work with. It took a lot of
determination to keep it going and make a profit. They worked it for five
years but had to shut down when the Eureka smelters closed. The next
closest smelters were in Texas and that was just too far away.
There were many dangers in mining. Silicosis was a great problem.
Silica dust would get into the lungs and cut them up. Explosions were
always a threat in the gaseous mines. Fires were sometimes imminent in
the other mines. Yet with all these dangers, a very low percentage of
miners were actually killed.
Now, instead of mining, ReJl spends his time improving the pioneers'
museum in Bullion Canyon. He's presently working on a boiler. Recently he
recovered some buckets from an aerial tramway, which they plan on
setting up to give people an idea of how it worked. People are still
offering pieces of equipment to add to the park. Hopefully, they'll soon
have hiking tours, horseback rides, and maybe a small, underground mine
tour to share the rich history of mining with those who are unexperienced
in that area.
ReI! Frederick has done a lot and is still accomplishing great things.
He's an inspiration to anyone with high goals and dreams. His example
shows that anyone can reach their goals with enough determination.
The Life of Rell Frederick and Mining
by
Richard Hawley

Mrs. Glenn
Honors English 11 B
February 23, 1996
 Some people on this planet were born to be a specific something.
Some were put here to be inventors of medicines that will cure incurable
diseases. Thus is my belief that Rell Frederick was put on the planet to be
a miner. During the course of his entire life he has worked in the mines,
and has been involved in some very harry experiences, and has seen things
that most people don't even dream of seeing.
My part of this report is to tell of some of Rell's stories during the
course of his mining career. ReI! Frederick has been part of some very
harry experiences in mining. One of these stories takes place in Marysvale
around the middle part of the century. Rell Frederick was part of the night
shift that was digging a shaft in one of the mines. The day shift, the shift
right before him, had dropped one of the hydrolic rams that powers the
drill bit with which they were working, into a pool of water that had built
up in the mine. When Rell's crew came down into the mine to perform
their shift, they found a twelve hundred pound piece of equipment in the
water. The water had built up pretty deep in the mine, and this paticular
shaft they were in was a sixty degree shaft. The steepness of the shaft
made it so that if they were to go down to try and find the piece of
equipment and got stuck behind one of the timbers, they might not be able
to get back out again.
Rell had a younger man with him who was fairly inexperienced in the
dangers of the mines. So when Rell suggested that they dive into the
water to try and find the piece of equipment and bring it back up again.
This guy started to pull off his shirt thinking that he would just dive in
and bring it up with no trouble at all. Rell thought that was pretty nice
thing for him to be doing. But it was finally decided that Rell would be
the one to dive into the water. First he would find the piece of equipment,
then he would go back up so they could plan a way to get it back up again.
Rell got ready to dive in; now he told us later in the interview that
sometimes when you get deep enough into the mine the underground
volcanic action can heat the water underground to very high temperatures.
I don't know if he thought about this as he dived in, but the water wasn't
hot enough to leave big sores on his body. Rell went down through the
water and as the pressure started building, that he thought his ears would
burst and let all that water in and drown him. He found the ram, hooked a
chain on it and followed it back up to the surface. He then took another
chain and hooked it on the ram and hauled it back up. Then they worked the
rest of the night to get that rams nose up so the day crew could get it out
and put it back on the drill where it belonged.
This story is only one of many adventures that Rell has had over the
years he has worked as a miner and federal mine inspector in Utah and
around the nation. As a young boy the country had just entered the great
depression and the only jobs around for him to do was to mine. He started
mining as early as the age of fifteen. But even before that you could tell
that Rell Frederick was destined to lead the life of a miner. As a child he
and another friend had had wanted to play miners and to make the game
more real they went out in their backyard and started digging a mine shaft
in Rell's backyard. In the summer they would go and swim in the Sevier
River which was one of their favorite passtimes. They would also play
basketball with the church teams. There was also a baseball team in
Marysvale. Another favorite past time was to go to the movie house.
So as you can see Rell Frederick has led a very interesting life, he
has done more than a lot of people try to do. I hope that we can become a
little more like that.
Mining told by Roger Howes

Bradley Winegar

Mrs. Glen

English, 2nd period

February 23, 1996

 Roger Howes has always believed in hard work and a challenge.
Which is one reason he started mining in the first place. Roger Howes, a
miner living in the Marysvale area, has been mining now basically all his life.
He started right after high school and is still enjoying his job.
He has had a lot of close, and wonderful experiences. He's been with
men that have been killed underground. Some accidents which possibly
could have been avoided. One of the neatest experiences he ever had was up
on the Lark Mine. The Lark Mine is a big gold mine, underneath the
Kennecot Copper pit. He was working up there in 1968 when a man by the
name of Buck Jones was working in a stope, when it caved in. His partner
got out and said that there was one place in the stope that if he got to he
might still be alive. They set up down underneath him and drilled a hole up
into the stope. First a two inch hole where they figured he might be. He was
there still alive. He didn't even have enough room to take his boots otT. It
took them nine days to get him out of there. When they fmally did they had
ABC, CBS, NBC, and broadcasting companies from all over the worlcL
because it was such a big story. What they did was to keep enlarging the
hole that they drilled up to him. They started with a two inch hole and went
to three, and to four, and five, and kept making the hole bigger in
circumference. Then when they got the hole about nineteen to twenty inches,
they greased the hole and had him tie a nylon rope around both his wrists and
start down the hole with his anns out in front of him. It was forty-seven feet
up to were he was and they pulled him down that hole to safety. Roger
Howes was on that rescue te~ and it was really one of the neatest
experiences he has had happen to him.
Once and awhile Roger Howes will get to keep some of the gold or
other ore that he mines out. They have what they call high graders, but its
not the right thing to do. A lot of companies or mines if they hit a little high
grade pocket dO\\1l in the mine they'll tell the guys to get themselves a little
sample for their own collection. But after that to leave the gold alone.
Because if they start packing it off in their lunchboxes it would cost the
company lots of money. Roger Howes knew a guy that packed out $20,000
of high grade ore in his lunchbox in six to eight weeks. But its stealing, and
you're stealing from the company.
Roger Howes has worked so much he couldn't count all the mines.
He's worked all the Western States. Here is a funny story about one of the
places he worked in. Out in Death Valley there's a range called the Funeral
Mountains. They worked in a mine called the Coffm Mine. To make the
story even better he worked graveyard shift. So he worked graveyard shift at
the Coffm Mine in the Funeral Mountains. Now if you were really
superstitious you would have a hard time going to work in that mine.
Mining has injured Roger Howes quite a few times. He got hurt in
1980 pretty bad and a had a couple of surgeries which pinned broken bones.
Three months ago he had a surgery on his right arm, which required 300
stitches. "Its a tough occupatio~" says Roger. He fell in 1980, but his latest
injury was from lifting. He busted a tendon right in two lifting a big rock.
Roger has had a lot of close calls. He's had an adrenaline rush so bad a
time or two when something started falling he felt like he could squeeze
water out of a rock. That's how much adrenaline you have running. But
according to Roger you get hooked on that after awhile; and its funny the
excitement, adrenaline, and the different things that get you going and you
get so you like that.
Well I guess Roger Howes got to where he likes his job a lot, because
he is still mining today. He has been mining since he was 18 and he is now
54. But Roger Howes doesn't mine in the State of Utah, because Utah only
pays about 1/3 of what other states will pay miners. However he doesn't like
city life so his home is in Marysvale, Utah.
Mining told by Roger Howes

Lloyd Gleave

Mrs. Glen

English, 2nd period

February 23, 1996

 Mining today is much different than it was back in the 1960's. There are various

differences in styles used and equipment etc ...

Back then the work was done by hand with shovels. Now we use rubber tired

mucking machines, over shot muckers, and the muck is all moved mechanically now.

To blast they used to just used to just use dynamite to blast, but dynamite has

nitroglycerin in it and when the nitro glycerin penetrates your skin and gets into your

system it gives you a terrific headache. Now they don't use dynamite very much any

more. Underground they use a newer explosive, a plastic detonator, called a Data Prime,

and they also use ammonium nitrate (which is the same type of explosive that was used

to blow up the Oklahoma Federal building), which is just made up of fertilizer with a

carbon base made by diesel fuel, and then it becomes highly explosive. But all the

explosives and the way they blast has changed underground

Back in the sixties they used to work in areas were the air was terrible, and the

bad air made the miners sick all of the time. The working conditions were also terrible.

Now that can't happen because the rules and regulations have changed so much, that now

if a mine is not kept in tip top shape they will just simply shut you down. So now the

mines make keeping the mines in tip top shape the main priority, so you can tell that the

conditions have become a whole lot better compared to way back in the sixties.

They used to use railroad cars to ship the rock out of the mine and then onto a

train to ship it to the companies that bought the ore from the mines, and the company is

free to do what ever they want to with it. Now they use rubber tier vehicles to get the

rock out of the mines and they use diesels to ship the rock to the companies, instead of

the railroads.

When they worked, back in the sixties, they earned S 1.99 an hour and now they

earn around $20.00 an hour, but because of inflation, and other things, they lived better

back then on that $1.99 an hour than they do nowadays on that $20.00 an hour.
 The mines, them selves, now get much bigger faster, as you can imagine, Just

because of the machinery we have now that they didn't have back then and also because

of the technology that we have. Not only are the mine much bigger, but we can also haul

out much, much more in a day than they could

Back in the old days they used to take a canary into the newer parts of the mines

to see if there was enough breathable oxygen, and the way this would work is they would

take a canary in on a perch and when the oxygen level got Down to about 13% then the

canary would fall off its perch or die, and this told the miner to tum tail and run because,

most people don't know this they're usually scared off being caught in a cave in but lack

of oxygen is what usually kills people wen they go into mine shafts and don't think you

can handle it because it sneaks up on you. You are just walking along and then you fall

to the ground, and unless you get enough oxygen, you're going to die and you won't even

know it. We normally breath in and out 15 to 16% of oxygen and sometimes the older

mines don't have enough oxygen in the entire mine. But now they make you carry a, self

rescuer, before you can go into the mines so that if you don't feel you're getting enough

air, or you've been caved in on, you can use that self rescuer to tum bad air, or not

enough air, into breathable good air.

Also it used to be that you could just get on the phone and get a mining related

job just about any time or any where, but now you have to apply and go through testing to

transfer from mine to mine.

People have always been a little bit scared around old mine shafts, and they

should be because they are unsafe so you should stay away from them, and remember

that before you chose an occupation, whether it be in mining or what ever, just remember

that you should get an education first because you might not want to stay in the same job

the rest of your life and with an education can you accomplish that.
 Me 1issa Gramse
2-22-96
P-2
English

Mining Summary

Joel's sense of humor and great spirit really helped him to

have a love for mif)ing.
In 1957 Joel started working for the RUf)dell Mining
Company at the Deer Trai 1 Mi ne in Utah. Now he I s a dai ry farmer,
but he still continues to mine by himself in his OWf) shaft.
While Joel was workif)g for the Rundell Mif)ing Company,
they always took good care of him. For Christmas they gave him
a hundred af)d fifty dollar bOf)us, af)d a five pound box of
chocolates. He was paid about three fifty an hour.
He has always loved mining and gets really excited to
discover a lot of the different types of ore and crystals. Joel
wishes that he could have kept all of the ores and crystals that
he found while working for the Rundell Mining Company.
One time Joel was working and he found some crystals and
put them in his lunch box to take home. His boss knew that he
loved them so mUCh, so he lifted up his lunch box to check and see
if he had taken any, and found out it was heavy. When he opened
it up there were crystals in it. He then took them out and traded
them with rocks. When the day was over Joel tried to show
everyone what he had, but when he opened it up they all laughed
at him because he only had some rocks. Then his boss gave the
crysta 1s back to him and 1et Joe 1 keep them.
Joel had a lot of funny experiences while he was mining.
Sometimes during lunch one of his friends would tell jokes, and
he would coax the squirrels to sit on his knee and eat out of his
hand. Another funny experience was when a guy named Gray Price
would sneak up behind Joel while he was drilling, and tap him on
the shoulder. Then Joel would turn around and Gray would be
standing there acting innocent. Gray always helped him laugh and
have a good time while he was working.
Joe 1 has really made mining sound excit ing, and
interesting. Miners didn't live an elegant life, but they made just
enough money to support thei r fam ily.
Joel is in great condition, and has really good health. He
has only been hurt once on the job. Joel was pushing the rope
along to bring some stuff up to the top, when he got his finger
caught in the pulley. I t smashed his finger flat. Joel cried
because he was scared that he was gonna lose his finger. He
knew how much his finger meant to him. But somehow they ended
up fixing it for him, and it looks really good.
Joel has definitely had an interesting and very scary job.
Lots of things can happen whi le mining. You always have to
constantly be thinking and paying attention so that you don't
endanger your 1if e.
Joel has led a very exciting, happy, and rewarding life, and
will continue to for many years l !
Mining: Risky Business
Samantha Stillman

English 11 B
Mrs. Glenn 2nd hour
February 29, 1996
 Mining: Risky Business

Two miles into the tunnel, it caved in between them and the
dayl ight. They dug and dug in order to get free from the darkness
that enveloped them. Carbide lights were the only source of light
and heat when they worked. Men were digging from the outside in
trying to get the men out. Safety prevai led, that day ...
Joe 1 Johnson was one of the very fortunate members oft he
Rundell Mining Company. He escaped his many years of mining with
on ly one injury. I chose to di scuss some of the ri sks and i nj uri es
that were actually experienced by Mr. Johnson, that took place at the
Old Deer Trail Mine along with stories he heard from men out of the
area.
The year was nineteen hundred and fifty-seven. The place;
Marysvale, Utah. Joel Johnson was just starting his career as a
miners helper. He became acquainted with the mines and the
minerals found there. His love for the mysteries of the Earth
enabled him to gain a position as a miner after only a couple of years
of labor. The three and a half dollar wage was worth the
experiences there, especially for Mr. Johnson. He loved exploring the
crysta 1s, mineral s, and the ores found on the job, but with thi s job
came many, many risks. The men had to learn the rocks and watch
out for even the sl ightest amount of danger. I t was hard work by
itself.
 Mr. Johnson soon got his own helpers. On one occasion in
particular) they were running a raise straight up into the ore body.
They had timbered it and discovered, one morning, that it was
"drummy." They pulled slabs down but could not satisfy themselves
as to it's safety. They decided to try and do it some way that was
safer. Mr. Johnson told his helper to move and he went and he went
into the middle and sat on a timber. This was not a good place to be
and Mr. Johnson knew it. He suggested that he get under the slope so
nothi ng coul d happen if anythi ng fe 11. Just as they got safe ly under
the slope and started dri 11 i ng, the who le thing fe 11 out of there and
on top of the timber that his helper had been sitting on. It scared
them but taught them to be more aware.
Various little accidents happened all of the time. One man fell
and rolled down three sets of timbers, but caught himself before the
bottom. Another time a rock fell righfbetween Mr. Johnson and
another companion of his. It barely missed the both of them. A
fellow that he worked with was on a loose timber and it caved in
underneath him. He only fell ten feet but these things were semi-
common in the life of a miner.
Mr. Johnson's funniest "scary" story was an old miner from
I daho. At the mine he worked at in I daho, they had the bunkhouses.
This old miner had just gotten married so his buddies fixed up a
nice, little cabin for him and his bride. The only lights they had
were carbide, but they had a nice bathroom. One of the other miners
thought it would be funny to throw some of this carbide into the
toilet. The miner's wife got up in the middle of the night to go to
the bathroom. When she started going, the liquid started the carbide
going. It was bubbling up all around her and she was screaming. Her

husband came j nand 1ita match to see what was wrong and the
carbide blew up. She got burned really bad, but was O.K. "in the end."
An experi ence Joe 1 Johnson can never forget is the day when he
received his first and only injury. Him and another man were
bringing up timbers to put in a raise they were working on. They'd
drilled a hole in the top of the raise and made a pulley in order to
pull up the timbers. Mr. Johnson had to guide the cable with his
finger and at one point, forgot that he had climbed all of the way to
the ceiling of the raise. He ran his finger into the pulley and
flattened it. He went to the doctor and he molded it into the shape it
is now. He says he got big tears in his eyes because he thought he
was going to lose his finger. This was the most memorable bad
experience that he had the whole time he was mining.
Many experiences in mining are ri'Jemorable, but to know, you
must experience them for yours'elf and take some advice from the
"experts." I hope hearing these stories has made you a little wiser
and maybe left you with a little chuckle in your heart.
 Interview Summary
Melissa Foreman

Mrs. Glenn
Honors English lIB-2nd hour
Febuary 29, 1996
 Imagine, if you will, a crowded room. In this room is a desk overflowing with
computers, archeology books, and papers. Now imagine a ITustrated man with the modern
electronic world around him. Tfyou look closer you will come to realize the man is Bob
Leonard day-dreaming of an escape to a long ago city.
Mr. Bob Leonard is a Fishlake National Forest Archeologist He is quite
knowledgeable and fascinated by miners, especially those that mined in Bullion City located
in Bullion Canyon, Marysvale, Utah.
For instance, he knows that the American miners in the 1860's were not the first to
mine Bullion Canyon. He said that the first miners were probably Spanish. Accordingly,
Mr. Leonard said that the Spanish Conquistadors rode north ITom New Spain and Santa Fe
looking for gold and slaves. He estimated that the history of Bullion Canyon went back to
the 1600's or 1700's.
But, Mr. Leonard also points out that Native American people were probably in the
canyon thousands of years before the Spanish Conquistadors.
He explains that the history of the American miners in Bullion Canyon is quite
unique because it was during a time that is not as known in Utah history. These miners
thought that they were the first to go up into that canyon. But they were wrong.
According to the Marysvale folklore, when the miners went up in the canyon and up it's
creek they found an arrastra. Mr. Leonard explained that an arrastra is a Spanish ore
crushing devise where you put ore in it and crush it. He said that you have to crush the ore
to extract the gold. At the base of the arrastra they found rotted sacks of gold ore, clearly
stating that they were not the first.
Mr. Leonard also tells how most of the first miners did not get rich, indeed it made
most men poor. They barely made enough to keep them and their mules alive. The only
people that really profited and made lots of money were organized mining companies.
These companies bought claims ITom placer miners and then they went in with advanced
machinery and dug for gold. They dug deep mines and shafts that took the ore out of the
inside of the mountain in great quantities.
The miners worked long, hard days five to six days a week. They worked

1
underground, knee deep in ice cold water. On average, they would make four dollars a day.
Most or all of that money would be spent on boarding and food.

During the summer of 1994, Mr. Leonard took part in the Passport-In-Time
program that is offered by the Forest Service. He was a leader and he directed a crew of
volunteers from eight or nine different states. Mr. Leonard has some fond memories of that
time, but it was that summer that he and his crew transported a cabin from Mt. Brigham to
the Miners' Park. The cabin on Mt. Brigham was up about ten thousand feet. In order to
move the cabin he and his crew had to label each piece and take it apart. Because the cabin
was so old, all of the bottom logs were rotten. They had to log ten or eleven good sized
spruce logs to replace the bad ones.
This is only one of the many favorite stories that Mr. Leonard enjoys telling. Mr.
Leonard enjoys outdoor life activity and admires the long past miners for their endurance
and strength at such a hard and demanding task. As mentioned in the beginning of this
paper, Mr. Leonard enjoys leaving the "electronic world" to build something or work in
Bullion Canyon's Miners' Park.

2
Mining Summary

Jay Brewer

Mrs. Glenn
Honors Engish lIB
Feburary 29, 1996
 Mining

Mining is very hard work. They would leave Marysvale to go

up to the Deer Trail Mine where they were working. Bert Lund
had just graduated from high school in 1948, and began mining in
the Deer Trail Mine with some other men.
They would leave Marysvale and head south about seven
miles to the mine. When they got there they would go to the shop
and pick up a hard hat and a carbide light. At that time they did
not have battery-powered 1ights. Then they would get on a "man
train" and go back into the mine, about 2,500 feet back into the
mountain. The tunnel was seven feet high and five feet wide.
They would go back into the mines and shovel out the round. The
round was the material that had been blasted from the face of the
mine the night before. They would shovel the round into mine
cars. After they had the mine cars full, a mule woul d pull the
mine cars out of the mine. As the mine cars were pulled out the
material was looked at by an engineer who decided if it was
waste or are of a high grade. The material was then dumped into
a prescribed bin. If it was waste, it would be thrown into the
dump.
After shoveling out the material they would take jack-
hammers and jackhammer the face of the mine. They usually had
to jackhammer about twenty-seven holes, and that would take
four hours. After they did that they would take a half hour lunch
break and get something to eat. After lunch they would fi 11 up
the holes with dynamite, but they would leave the center hole
empty so that the material would have a hole to break to. Then
they would place a blast i ng cap, and a fuse on each st i ck of
dynamite. They would then set the dynamite off. The holes that
they drilled had to be dri lled in a certain way so that the
material would fallout right. They also had to be set off in a
certain way. The center holes would be set off first, which were
ca 11 ed the break i ng ho 1es. Then the top ho 1es w ou 1d be set off.
The last holes to be set off were the bottom holes; they were
called lifters. After everything was shot down, the last blast
would 1ift the materi al back out onto what they call ed sl ick
sheets. A sl ick sheet was a sheet of steel that was about a
quarter inch thick and probably about four feet by eight feet.
They would put them down on the floor so that the material
would be easier to shovel. That was a typical mining day for
many miners.
I'm glad that I was not a miner because it sounds like
mining was very hard and the pay was not all that good. Some of
the miners also experienced health problems from mining, and
still suffer from them today. Many of the people that worked in
the uranium mines are no longer alive today because of radon gas
and radiation which caused cancers. Bert Lund also suffered
some health problems from mining. He has what they call "rocks
in the box" from breathing quartz dust. The quartz dust that he
breathed has settled in his lungs and is still there today.
Because of this he has more health problems with colds when he
catches one.
Summary of I nterview with Bert Lund

by Erin (ott le

February 29, 1996

Mrs. Glenn

2nd Period Honors English

 Bert Lund comes from a fami ly of miners. His great-
grandfather, William John Lund, discovered the Deer Trail Mine. His
father, two uncles, and three half-uncles also mined.
In the beginning, mining gave Bert a job to earn money. He was
interested in the materials, in mining, and in metals. He was also
interested in 'the way that it went' and the smelting of it. He was
interested in rocks and geology in general.
He graduated high school in 1948 and began working that
summer in the mines. He worked two more years after that. Later,
he was transfered and quit. He went to work in a uranium mine. He
quit that mine in 1954
For Bert, a typical day was a long one, at least eight to ten
hours. They would go to the shop everyday to pick up tools, such as
jackhammers and drills, hard-hats and lights. At that time, they
used carbide lights, rahter than battery-powered lights. The carbide
lights were quite helpful, though. Since the light required oxygen to
burn, if the light went out, they would know if the air they were
breathing was bad ... carbon monoxide. They used air-powered
jackhammers to dri 11 and muckl ing machines to scoop the material.
They went to the mine before sunrise and came out after sunset.
Three weeks after he went into the Air Force, he was picked up
in Denver, Colorado. He had his uniform on but no luggage and he
couldn't prove he was in the Air Force. He was thrown in jai 1 for one
night.
He later moved out to California to work for the Division of
Highways. He worked for the Army Engineers testing drill ho les and
oil divisions. He was required to get a security clearance when they
were working in areas where atomic bombs were being stored. When
he was getting his security clearance, a man from the Air Force
questioned him about being incarcerated. Bert had originally put on
rlis report that he had never been in jail. Eventually, he got the
clearance and continued working in California.
His favorite experience during his mining years was when he
and some miners were touring through the mine and they came
across some quartz crystals in a cluster. They each took a couple of
the unusually clear crystals. Later, a man talked Bert out of his so
they could be put in a museum, Today, they are sitting in the
Smitr'lsonian Institute,
A scary experience he had was while he was working in a
vertical shaft. Bert was at the 2,200 foot level when the power
suddenly went out. Because the "man-cage" was inoperable, he had
to climb a circular ladder all the way to the top, taking him two and
a half hours to exit the mine,
The only major lasting effect his mining experience has left on
him is the lump of quartz dust in his left lung, After breathing that
dust over and over, it lodged in the corner of his left lung.
Every time he gets a chest X-ray, it shows up. He calls this "rocks-
in-the-box",
Eventually, a law was made so that you couldn't drill in a mine
without water, They also had to take some safety courses for First
Aid, They had to learn about the mines and know how to be safe and
responsible,
Another experience he had was while he was working in a
Nevada mine, In the conditions they were working, they worked
around the clock, The men they were replacing were late coming off
the shift and the other workers were a little bit late blasting, Bert
and the others were going down and going back into the tunnel where
they were supposed to work, The other men had come out of a
different area and all at once they heard a blast. Had Bert and the
other men been just five minutes earlier, they would have went back
into the face where they had blasted and they wouldn't have been
alive,
Bert enjoyed mining a lot. He was interested in the work he
was doing and worked hard at doing his job. He experienced many
things during his mining years, When asked if there was anything he
would do differently, he responded with, "No, I'd still go back and
work in the mines. I'll go back as far as the next guy!" I t sounds I ike
he really loved this work,
Interview With Bert Lund
By
Matthew Jenkins

Mrs. Glenn
 Bert Lund is tied to Marysvale and mining. He grew up
in Marysvale and then, after retirement, moved back with
his wife. Mining has shaped his life. He lost his father to
mining and has also developed health problems caused by
his working in the mines.
He worked in the Deer Trail Mine for a few years right
after he graduated from high school. It was there that he
breathed in the dust of that mine, which left particles of
quartz in one of his lungs. Though this sounds bad, it could
have been worse because of the work he did in the uranium
·
mines.
After working in the Deer Trail Mine for two years and
then serving an LDS mission, he began work in the uranium
mines near Marysvale, as did many other young men who
were eager for money. This did not last long, for when he
would come home at night and have absolutely no energy
left, he could sense that something was not right. Because
of the bad feeling which he had, he quit working there after
only two years. He never mined again.
He is very lucky to still be alive because almost all of his
friends and co-workers that worked the uranium mines are
now dead. Most died from lung cancer and others from
heart attacks, including his old boss who used to live across
the street from him.
After mining, Bert joined the military and hooked up
with his life's occupation which turned out to be a type of
geological surveyor. He is very knowledgeable about mining
and minerals and about how to survey the ground for
buildings and other structures. He worked in California for
thirty years before returning again to his hometown of
Marysvale, Utah. He currently resides there with his wife,
Doris. They enjoy running a small ceramic business.
Bert's father was killed in an accident in the Deer Trail
Mine in 1938 when Bert was just a young boy. His dad and
another guy, who was 21 and who had just gotten married,
were working back in the mine about 3,000 feet and were
separated from the other miners. One of the other miner's
lamps caught on some timbers which ignited a blaze that
burnt all the oxygen out of the area in which they were
working. The young man passed out from carbon
monoxide, so Bert's father hoisted him up on his shoulder
and started climbing up a SO foot ladder to escape the
poisonous gas. His dad got almost to the top trying to save
his friend but did not escape in time, fell from the ladder
and died. He could have gotten out quicker by himself, but
was caring enough to try to save his friend.
Bert has numerous old pieces of mining equipment and
other interesting antiques which he and his wife are always
willing to show and explain.
Bert doesn't realty want to return to mining but he
would not trade his experiences in the mines, for they
taught him many valuable lessons.
 Memories Live On

Joseph W. Boucher

February 23, 1996

Honors English 11B/2nd Period

Mrs. Glenn
 Memories Live On

The year was 1918. Her name was Atella Ni lsson. She was an
eighteen year-old young woman who was moving away from home to
help an old friend and her husband run their store in Marysvale, Utah.
Her friend was Hazel Anderson Taylor and the store was The
Marysvale Forwarding Store.
Marysvale itself was larger and busier back in that era than it
has ever been since that time, mainly because of the major mining
industry in the area. The population of the town, including the
Alunite Mine and Deer Trail Mine was almost 1,500, but now it has
only about 500 inhabitants. There was a grocery store, a clothing
store, and a drug store. Other businesses included a show house, a
church, and even a bank.
Near the town there were several mines: Alunite Mine, Deer
Trail Mine, Bullion Mine, and Bully Boy Mine and Mill. Although she
often longed to, Atella never had the chance to visit any of the mines
or to mingle with any of the miners while she was living in
Marysvale.
For the next two years, Ate1la spent most of her time working
in the store, mainly clerking. They sold more goods to nearby
communities than they did to people who actually I ived in Marysvale.
When she wasn't working, Atella had the time to do
entertaining things with her friends. They frequently had parties
and there was a cabaret (a restaurant or cafe with singing or
dancing) in the town. She also used to go to Kimberly to gather
berries and to explore with the Morrisons, some of her friends.
Two years later, Atella returned home because of World War
One. All of the Men and boys were being drafted, so the women and
girls had to work in the fields and the sugar beet factory in Elsinore.
Sugar beet production was a major industry for southern Utah back
then. For example, the total number of employees of the factories,
including the farmers that grew the beets was well over 100 people.
Although she only lived in Marysvale for a short period of time,
Mrs. Nilsson preserved a window to the past that might not
otherwise be in existence. From that window, we learned that
Marysvale was a very different place in those days than it is now
and may never be again, but with a little luck and some diligent
work, memories can 1ive on.
MEMORIES OF MARYSVALE

K.C. NILSSON

FEBRUARY 29} 1996

HONORS ENGL ISH 1 1 B.
MRS. GLENN
 MEMORIES OF MARYSVALE
Through an interview with Atella C Nilsson, I found that she
had an unquestionably good experience living in the town of
Marysvale,
Atella Nilsson was born in Annabella, Utah in 1899, She was
raised there and received her education there, When she was
approximately eighteen years old, she was asked by her friend, Hazel
Anderson Taylor to relocate to Marysvale and work in the store that
she and her husband owned, Atella willingly accepted this
invitation, She lived right with Hazel and her husband Orson from
19 17 to 1919, Her main responsibilities in the Marysvale
Forwarding Store were; clerking, keeping things in order in the
store room, and assisting the gentlemen in loading things on and off
of the trucks. She really enjoyed this. This store sold things in
bulk. They sold things to the smaller towns that were south of
Marysvale as well as the citizens of Marysvale.
Along with working in the store, there were other activities
that Atella also participated in. She went to parties with friends
and on occasion even got to see her soon to be husband.
The town of Marysvale was very different then from what it is
now, They had all kinds of different stores. They had a bank, a
forwarding store, a general store, a Church, a lumber yard, and other
businesses that were typical to the booming towns in that day and
age. This was in the year nineteen hundred and seventeen. Business
in Marysvale was really doing well at that time. Mining was really
good in that area and a lot of money was obtai ned from the ore that
was mined there.
One of the big delights for the citizens of Marysvale at that
time was going to the Cabaret. Atella remembers going to hear the
jukebox play. She re lated that she and her friends had a lot of good
times at the Marysvale Cabaret.
I t seems that sooner or later a 11 good thi ngs must come to an
end. The Marysvale Forwarding Store had to close, leaving Atella
unemployed. For this reason and the longing to be nearer to her
fami 1y, Ate 11 a returned to Sevi er County and started a job at the
Elsinore Sugar Beet Factory. When asked what she remembers most
about living in Marysvale, she said, " they were the very best years
of my life, It was hard work) but I enjoyed it."
A Shafty Experience

Melissa Noble

Mrs. Glenn
Honors Eng 1ish

February 29,1996
 One of Po 110 Peterson's most memorable experiences w itr.
mining happened at an old mine. Pete, as called by many of his
friends, was prospecting old mines. He called up the people who
owned the mine and they decided to take some samples. While Pete
was in there, he discovered a shaft with a ladder going three-
fourths the way down. Pete investigated the ladder to find the wood
strong and sturdy. Therefore he decided to cl imb down the ladder to
take some more samples. He slowly descended into the shaft. All of
a sudden he real ized that what had made the wood hard, also had
eaten away at the nails. He quickly began to exit the shaft, but it
was too late. The ladder leaned back and Pete fell. He knew in his
mind that if he didn't break his fall somehow, then he would surely
die. He caught himself, but it ripped his shoulders all up. He landed
on his feet, then fell down a twenty-five foot incline landing up-
side-down. his luck was intact that day, because he managed to live
through that huge fa 11.
Pete landed in a way that his head was going downhill. He
thought that if he could feel his fingers and his toes that he would
try to 1ive. First he wiggled his toes and they were fine then he
wiggled his fingers and they were fine. His next obstacle was to
turn his body around. As he manuevered himself around, he saw his
leg flop past, and he knew it was broken. His shoulders also were
hurting him; consequently, he had a terrible time getting around.
Pete could hear his buddies yelling down to see if he was still alive.
He yelled back but he wasn't going to live much longer without help.
I t was freezing down in the deep shaft, and he was also lying
in the freezing water. The oxygen was so light that he was only able
to get an ei ght i eth of a breath. But he thi nks that is what he lped
him survive. His son-in-law, John, rapelled down into the obscure
pit to help Pete. John Finally made it all the way down. He looked at
Pete and didn't know what to do, so Pete to ld him to grab his legs so
John could pull him to a flat place. Then John gave Pete his warm
coat.
Pete was thinking little of his injuries. If he would have been
able to, he would have been searching the shaft for any precious
metals. Since he couldn't do it, he kept telling John to go and some
samples. John could have cared less, and finally told Pete to lie
down and shut up. John yelled up to get some help from town. They
got Ed Jones and Jim and Joey Burns. A wire basket was lowered
down into the shaft. John put it to the Pete. Some way they had to
get him into it. Pete decided that however much pain he was going
to be in he told John to just tip him in. The larger problem was
getting out of the shaft. Pete told John to tie the rope around him as
tight as he could, so that even if he was tipped up-side-down that he
wouldn't fallout.
The men at the top slowly began to pull the wire basket with
Pete in it. He began to rise. They had to raise and lower, raise and
lower. Finally they got him up to the top. As they tried to get him
up over the ledge, he kept banging into the side of the shaft. His
body was slamming into the rough walls. Finally they pulled Pete
from the shaft, and the bed of a truck. It was raining and snowing as
they got down the canyon to where the ambulance was waiting.
Pete's life was saved by the dedicationand loyality of his son-in-law
and friends.
MYSTER I ES OF BULLION CANYON
Dixie Monroe

Mrs. Glenn
Honors Engl ish 1 1-B
Feb 29, 1996
 Nicknamed Pete, Po 110 Peterson had a very mysterious
experience one day after a hard days work in the Beaver Mines,
He and a friend stopped at the El Bambi Cafe for a bite to eat. As
they sat there eating, his friend needed to take a break. After his
friend left, the owner, a very big guy, came over to talk to him,
He asked in almost a whisper if Pete had done any mining,
Obviously he answered "yes," Then the owner asked him if he had
done any prospecting in the area, Again, Pete answered "yes,"
Then to Pete's surprise the man asked him to follow him, They
walked down the long hall of the diner to the back room, where
the guy pulled out an old dusty trunk, He undid the lock and
opened the creaky 1i d. He dug around for awh i I e and then f i na 11 y
he pulled out a great big, black, book. It was as big as a catalog,
around three of four inches thick, The owner then explained that
it was his great grand daddy's, He handed it to Pete and said, "if
you can help me find this mine that is written in here it w111 be
ours."
Pete took the book and started to read. He had a hard time
understanding it because of the messy handwriting and all of the
misspelled words, Pete read frantically though, never knowing
when the man was going to take it away, He read something
about the lost Burrow Trail Mine; it said that an Indian had told
him about it, that the Indian had owned the mine, Then it talked
about how the Spaniards had taken it over, He kept reading, he
was looking for clues that would help him find the mine. Just
then his friend came back looking for Pete, and the man grabbed
the book, slammed it shut, and locked it in the trunk, Pete
started to protest that he hadn't got to read the whole thing and
the man just said, "I don't let no one else read this," Then the
man continued to tell him that he might come over to Marysvale
and let him read it. He never came over though, so Pete decided
to call him, The man said he would come over in a couple of days,
This excited Pete because he was sure he knew where the mine
was; he recognized some of the trees and bushes mentioned by
the book,
The man never came over, Pete finally got the news that
the man had died, He went over to talk to the man's family,
explaining to them that the information in the book was very
critical, They all went to look, Finally they found the trunk,
They had no idea where the key was so they just broke the lock,
Pete's excitement was almost overwhelming, They slowly opened
the lid, Pete looked around in it and everything that was in there
before was there except the book, The family looked other places
but the book was never found, Pete decided to try to look for the
mine based on what he remembered reading from the book, He
looked up in the mountains and many other places, He found
several other mines, but none of them was the Lost Burrow Trai 1
Mine, One day he was look ing and he saw a tree, The tree seemed
very familiar, and then it dawned on him that it was mentioned in
the book, He saw many other familiar things. Pete was almost
jumping for joy. He finally had found It! He dug around and
discovered that it was a very rich mine.
The legend of the mine told by the I ndians, was that the
Indians once owned the mine, but then the Spaniards came and
took it over. It j s be 1ieved that there have been Span i ards up in
Bullion Canyon, so the legend may very well be true.
 Pe 1igro-Dangerl
Vicki Hobbs

Mrs. Glenn
Feb.23, 1996
Honors Eng. 2nd hour
 Pe 1igro-Danger!

Working in the mine there was always a chance of being caved

on. There were dangers we didn't even know about. For example we
were breathing in poisonous gases and silica. Those mines weren't
ventilated very well.

This information is from the interview I along with Roberta

Seaton conducted with Gary Quinn. We interviewed him on his
experiences in the uranium mines over by Marysvale, Utah.

Mr. Quinn mined because he loved the challenges he faced

everyday when he went in that tunnel.

They used dri 11 ing equipment called jackhammers to run the

tunnels. In the tunnels and inclines, they had shovels and mucking
machines to load mining cars that would take the muck outside
where ore was sorted from waste. He told us even mucking was
dangerous because once a car got loose and went speeding down the
track. Mr. Quinn heard the car coming and got off the track just in
the nick-of-time.

Raises were when you dri lled upward and shot ore down into
ore shoots. Then they had to use dri 11s to go straight up, probably
six-foot holes. Then they'd dynamite and blast the ore into the
shoots on that level. When lighting the dynamite the men had to
hurry and 1j ght the fuse and get out of there. Samet j mes not all of
the fuses waul d 1i ght and so the guy had to sit there and try to 1i ght
It really quick. He always made sure he was out of the tunnel before
the dynamite went off.

The jackhammer was on a jack-leg which would lift it and they

would push it into the rock face to drill holes for the dynamite. In
some places they had the mucking machines to scoop up the ore and
waste and throw it backwards into a mining car. It was a good idea
to stay out of the way the flying ore also.

The reason the car got loose earlier was because of something
called a hoist. Someone wasn'tpaying attention and let the car go
before the others were ready. They used these hoists to pull mining
cars out of inc lines and cages out of shafts.

The work was fair because there was usually two shifts. You'd
start your day by mucking out what the shift before yours had
blasted. Once you blasted you couldn't go back into the mine for
several hours because the air was so bad. After your shift had
blasted, your shift was pretty much over.

I knew there were many dangers in mining, but I never knew

that there were so many. There are even more that I didn't mention.
 SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW
ROBERTA SEATON

HONORS ENGLISH 11B

MRS. GLENN
FEBRUARY 26, 1996
 Many miners have fatal accidents like cave ins, untimed explosions, lack

of good air and even it is minor, people still suffer. Mining was a major

source of income back in the 1950's. New sources of minerals were becoming

industrialized such as coal, copper, gold and uranium. The money was good and

work was hard to find.

"It was scary at times. I got into an area where we were running a raise,

the type where you go straight up. We were about to come through to another

level. A few months then we went-back to finish wo~k~ng where we were to

tunnel on through and I'd sent my partner up to get something and I was going

to hoist him up some timber he could stick up there so we could drill off it.

He had some drill bits and stuff in his hand. I was going to hoist up the

stuff then all of a sudden these drill bits come falling down the shaft and I

looked up there and he's fallen and had the cable around his neck and normally

there was only two of us down there but it happened to be three of us that day.

I hollered at the other man who was there, I got the cable from around his

neck. I didn't realize anything anymore because I had gotten in some bad air.

I couldn't breathe and passed out. The man that I called came back and seen

that I had passed out and he went and called some other guys. They came up and

tried to get us out and another one of those four men passed out and so the man

that I called to came back and seen that I had passed out and he's realized

that is was bad air and they turned up the air in there then all of us got

enough air to come to. We were a little sick for a day or so."

Sometimes the effects of these accidents didn't become visible until years

later. The health effects of uranium mining was also very severe. More

severe, because uranium miners didn't know how uranium would affect their

lives. Miners were exploited and the truth about mining was untold.

Interviewing Gary Quinn about his mining experiences led me to believe that
unranium workers were cheated in a way. Back then they worked without

respirators and that is how they got radon gas exposure that causes many type

of cancers and diseases in former uranium workers. Mr. Quinn told us that he

lost one kidney to cancer.

"Well, at first I thought probably I wasn't there long enough for it to

bother me. Then after I met with some of the lawyers and some of the

government people that lawyers talked with, I found that I had been exposed.

The problem was I might not hav~.~orked as long-as soma-of the others but I

probably had a higher exposure than most of the others. But of course it was a

worry and then you know after you find out about it, we got to where you

thought you'd have to live with it. I did end up getting cancer in my kidney.

I lost one kidney. I had my lungs soped for lund caner. Of most guys, there

was probably one hundred or so, only a few are still alive. Another guy and I

started counting and we came up with eight or ten of us left."

Many of the uranium workers that used to work with Gary Quinn have died in

the last few years. Many of these workers were Gary Quinn's friends and he

says that when they started to die, he got scared. He found to his horror that

the government was keeping a deadly secret. Nobody ever told the workers that

the mines were dangerous. Gary Quinn told us that.

"We didn't know until several years later when men started to die. I

found out that they were taking tests on the uranium. I thought that the

people who were taking tests were just taking samples but they were testing the

air to see how much radon gas there was so when I went in for my medical

checkups, they could determine how much radon gas exposure I had by where I

worked. We didn't know about it but when we realized it, it was too late. My

doctor told me that long after I'm gone, my bones will still have radiation."

Gary Quinn lived through the unknown truths from the government. He was
lucky compared to his co-workers and friends. I asked him if he would do it

allover again. He said, "Well I wouldn't do it allover again. I would have

things I'd do different. The only thing is 30 or 40 years later years we'd

start having these problems. We would have done something else. I'll say it

was a good job at the time, probably the best." Mr. Quinn is a courageous man

and I wish him the best of luck in the future.

THE LIFE OF A MINER
MANDY JENSEN
KIMBERLY NIELSON

MRS. GLENN
HONORS ENGLI SH 1 1B
FEBRUARY 23, 1996
 THE LIFE OF A MINER

Pratt Seegmiller needed a way to feed his family. There

were not any jobs at Big Rock Candy Mountain where he was living

at the time, so he decided to go into business for himself. He

cut away some sagebrush and pitched a tent and lived in it all

summer long. His brother came up later that year and helped him

build a cabin. He found Lemonade Springs and that water was very

helpful. He would ship the mineral water in ten gallon barrels

to people allover. He would put planks between a couple of pine

trees and set the ten gallon jugs of water there. People would

stop and he would try to talk them into buying a gallon of

mineral water. This was getting pretty old. So in 1940, his

partner sent him six hundred dollars and plans to build a gas

station. Six hundred dollars did not go very far back then, but

he was able to charge a lot of things in Marysvale and Richfield

because of his good credit. He built up the building and then

decided to change it into a cafe and souvenir shop. He made many

things out of rocks like bookends and jewelry. He sold those

things and did pretty well.

He wanted to try something new. His dad was a prospector

and he went with him a couple of times and he liked it. He met a
guy up at Big Rock and he got Pratt into mining. He first

started mining in the Big Rock Candy Mountain area near

Marysvale, Utah. He only got paid three dollars a day for

working a full eight hours!

With the two to three other men in his crew, he set out for

a long day at the mines. They were required to go and get the

ore that was shot out on the shift before theirs. They would

drill another round into the ore and get that out and so on.

That is what a typical day of mining was like.

Pratt was then transferred to another mine called the

"Rainbow" Mine. This mine, like most of the others, was pitch

black. He could have his partners right by his side and wouldn't

even know they were there, because he couldn't see them. He

would wake up before daylight, work in the mine all day and then

come out when it was dark again. So in the winter, he didn't

ever see the sunlight. There was very little ventilation in this

mine, and it was always real steamy. The mine was only about

five feet wide and seven feet high, so it was very hard to breath

and get around. If their lights ever went out, they would just

grab hold of the rail tracks and follow them out of the mine.

Tragedies in the mine were few, but there was a couple of

them. One happened when two guys were loading the car with

timber. They got it fully loaded and turned to go down the

incline. Someone forgot to hook the cable to it and so it ran

away. They both jumped into a little space where the car could
pass them, but one man panicked and ran into the main drift

trying to out run the car. He could not do this, it caught up to

him and killed him. The other accident happened when some men

were drilling at the ore. They hadn't bared the big loose chunks

down good enough so as they were drilling a chunk came down on a

man and killed him.

At the time when Pratt was working in the mine there was few

tragedies, but little did they know that the uranium in the mines

would prove to be deadly. There were around one hundred people

working in different mines around Big Rock Candy Mountain. All

but three of those miners have passed away from the deathly

exposure of uranium.

They didn't think of the uranium as deadly, and nobody told

them it was. There was a war going on. The soldiers were

putting their lives on the line and so the miners didn't even

think of it. Pratt had six brothers in the war, and he was never

sorry about exposing his lungs to uranium when the soldiers

needed it for bombs.

The uranium in the mines was worth eight dollars a pound.

They blended high grade ore with the low grade ore, so together

is would average five pounds of good ore to the ton, which made

it worth forty dollars a ton. This was very good, because they

could get rid of the low grade ore by combining it with the good

ore. The price kept going up and up until it was worth a little

over forty dollars a pound.

 They had a nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear

Plant. It scared everyone so nobody wanted to use the uranium

anymore. So the price went down and down. The price now

averages eight dollars a pound.

The uranium affects did not ever catch Pratt, however, he

did have heart troubles within the last five years of mining.

His wife was always afraid that he was going to die in a mine and

she would have to come in and drag him out. So she became his

partner and this was good because he didn't have to go through

all the trouble of hiring someone. She would make up the

explosives, while he was drilling. He had a mucking machine,

which was an underground loader which he also used to push the

cars on the tracks. He would load the cars and then give them a

shove with the mucking machine. He put the tracks in on a slope

to make it easier for his wife to push the loaded cars out of the

mine. She would jump in the loaded cars and ride them right out

to the surface. Then Pratt would come out and help her dump the

heavy loaded cars.

He did this for a few years. Now Pratt and his wife live in

Marysvale, Utah just enjoying life.

 Mining in Marysvale
Lisa Mathie

Mrs. Glenn
Period 2- Honors English lIB

February 26, 1996

 Mining in Marysvale

Richard Sylvester was born to mine. His grandfather as well

as his father both mined. Mr. Sylvester lived at the individual mines
when his father was mining. He 1ived at the Rainbow Mines, Trenedy
Mines, and the Deer Trai 1 Mine. Although Mr. Sylvester experienced
the mining life, his family also raised Angora goats. Mr. Sylvester
started his mining saga when he was seventeen. He needed a way to
earn money to pay for schooling. Mining was a way to earn an
income. It wad also a very interesting type of work for Mr.
Sylvester. Everyday was a new adventure, to go back into the mines
each day and find new things. They were always suprised with what
they found each day. Mr. Sylvester also made new friends whi le he
was mining. Jimmy Davenport was one of his working companions.
Mr. Sylvester said he only had two speeds, high and no go. Jimmy
would be running the mucking machine, which runs on a track and is
powered by air pressure. Sometimes the mucking machine would get
so close to the side of the tunnel that it would almost hit your nose.
Well Mr. Davenport would always get hit, his hat would get knocked
down the drift. he would jump down, get his hat and do it again. It
would happen again and again. His feet got run over at least four or
five times, That was the biggest entertainment Mr. Sylvester and
the other men had while working in the mines.
Although there was god times at the mines, there was also
some bad times. Although Mr, Sylvester never saw anyone die, but he
di d see people get hurt. Other men who worked in the mines never
got hurt but now they are suffering from 1ung cancer and other
diseases, Mr. Sylvester has been lucky to not have any sign of these
dis.eaeses,
Mining was hard work, I t required hard manual work, All the
men who worked in the mines learned the value of work, Mining has
effected Mr. Sylvester in good ways and bad, A good way it effected
him was it gave him an income and as far as it hindering his life it
hasn't.
Now that mining has quit in Marysvale the only way Marysvale
will live again is by mining. Marysvale according to geologists and
surveyors, is one of the most mineralized areas in the whole Unlted
States.
As you learn of one mans sage, like Mr. Sylvesters, you gain
alot of respect for the mining life. When you hear the word "miner"
you don't think about the hardships they may have faced. Once you
learn more about it you gain a deeper understanding of the miner.
Now. in my mind, it seems like an adventurous experience. To go
down in the earth and look for her treasures is an amazing thing.
When you see the tools and machinery that was used it seems
amazing that they could even mine. Now when you see mining, they
use very high tech equi pment.
Mr. Sylvester is now a retired school teacher. He resides in
Marysvale with his wife. He has been part of the mining history. His
chapter of the mining life will not be forgotten.
 Mining in Marysvale
Shelly Wilkinson

Mrs. Glenn
Period 2- Honors English lIB
February 26, 1996
 A MINING EXPERIENCE

Richard Sylvester was like any other miner you have

heard or read about. He mined in the Marysvale mining area. When he
first started mining, he was the age of seventeen. He had always
been around the mines, so he knew a lot about them. Ever since he
was a little boy, he would go stay up in the cabins with his family
while his father worked in the mines. He had quite a few interesting
stories and worked with a lot of different people. I really enjoyed
listening to what Richard had to say. I've always heard of people
dying in the mines and what a terrible thing it was, but his stories
made me think different. He sounded like he had a good experience in
the mine and learned a lot from the people he worked with. He
seemed to have a good, positive attitude about mining although at
times it was tough. He got a lot of good laughs out of the guys he
worked with, but also learned some good lessons from them. The
story I'm about to tell you is one I liked the most. I'm sure this
story will make you think that the people he worked with were crazy
also.
First of all, you have to understand that being in the mine is no
where to be messing around. It involves too much risk and danger of
gett ing hurt, so you have to use your head in everything you do. You
should always be aware of those people around you and watch out for
one another at the same time.
Although Richard Sylvester never seen a soul die in the mines,
he had seen a lot of people get hurt. At one time he was working
with this twenty-five year old man by the name of Jimmy Davenport.
Jimmy was a good worker, but kind of absent minded I guess you
could say. This man only had two speeds and that was high and no go.
He had to do everything on the run or else he wouldn't do it at all.
You'd really want to take the caution when you needed to be around
this guy. One day they were drilling in the mine and came upon a
raise. A raise is a hole that goes up off the main level. At the top of
this raise, there was a pretty good sized rock sitting up there. This
rock was probably bigger than a reclining rocking chair, and it was
just hanging there. Richard got scared and asked Arthur, "Don't you
think we had better see if we can get that rock down before we
start'?"
Arthur replied, "Oh, it's been hanging there for months, I think
it will be all ri ght." So the both of them went back to dri 11 ing and
the rock suddenly fell. It came down and just barely missed the
backside of Arthur by a quarter of an inCh. Arthur didn't even shut
the mach i ne off. He just looked around, sat down on the rock, and
kept drilling away. It didn't even cross his mind that he could have
just been smashed and killed by thi srock.
At this particular time, Richard told his dad that he wasn't
going to work with them any longer. These guys were too crazy, and
their absent minds involved too much danger for Richard to handle.
This was one of the few stories that Richard told us about this
guy, but the most interesting to him. Some of the guys did some
pretty interest i ng and crazy thi ngs, and they were all a di fferent
group of people. Now, as Richard told us these stories, he can't help
but laugh at them. He knows of all the good experiences he had, and
now he I ikes to reflect back on them.
Richard Sylvester continues living in Marysvale and really
enjoys it there. He only worked for -9- years in the mines, but he
really enjoyed it. He said that the money he earned from the mine
put him through college and gave him an education. He also said that
if the Marysvale town is to start up again, it wi 11 be through the
mining business.