I'M a MINER 49er for a YEAR...

One of the hardest and dirtiest jobs I ever had was up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. About the only work there was in the copper mines. It was probably the most interesting work, also. I found it interesting going 2000 ft below the ground with only a light on my helmet and a lunch bucket. The battery for the light weighs about 3 lbs. It is about the size of a book and we carry it on a belt and hanging in the back. The wire cable from the battery goes up the back to the light on the helmet. Try wearing all that and climb up and around a hill.

I started out on the “scraper”. This is actually a winch that has a half inch cable wrapped around the drum. It has a seat where the operator sits and two levers which one is for forward and the other is reverse. Attached to the long cable was a scraper, much like a snow plow except it is larger and heavier.

To explain this operation easier we should start at the beginning. The drillers would come in and drill a horizontal series of 1” holes to a depth of about 3 to 4 ft at about 30 degree angle in the wall at the top of this “stope” (hill). At the end of their shift, they would then pack sticks of dynamite in those holes (carefully). A fuse and a cap would be inserted in the last stick in each hole. The fuses would be from long to longer so that they would blow in sequence. This is pre-planned pattern. It would take a shift of about 8 hours to complete this. When all the drillers were ready they would light the fuses and waste no time descending down the stope and leave the area. About a half hour after they blow. the next shift comes in. One would be the scraper operator. Trying to explain the cable set up would be difficult so use your imagination. The scraper operator would use the levers to move the scraper up the stope and then pull it down the stope bringing with it the rock and ore down to the bottom level. This would be a continuous operation for an 8 hour shift while the drillers were working at the top of the stope.

There are tracks winding through the mine shaft which are there for the mining cars to carry the ore. There is an air operated front end loader on rail wheels that is operated from the side with 2 levers. There is a step for the operator to stand on and to operate the shovel to drive into the ore, filling the shovel and dump the ore into the mining car which is attached behind the air shovel. When the car is full the mining car is then taken back to the ore elevator and dumped on the conveyor belt that takes it up to ground level. That is as good as I can do to explain the procedure.

At any rate, I worked there for a year. Actually, sometimes, the worst part was coming up after the shift and often facing a blizzard, or bitter cold. The mine stayed right at 55 degrees constantly. Another thing I remember is how everyone got along together so well. When you work that close to each other you tend to watch out for one another. Only one time was there a moment of slight panic. About the end of the shift one night the electricity went out. That meant the elevator would not operate. We were there for about 2 hours and not knowing what was going on up above. Eventually we were able to go up and found that, of course, there was a blizzard and it had shut the power down all over.

I was usually the youngest one down there and took a lot of ribbing and a few practical jokes. I always took 4 to 5 egg sandwiches every night. Sometimes they would nail my bucket to the bench or hide all but one of the sandwiches. And of course, send me to the tool room for the proverbial left-handed pipe wrench. All things considered, I really did enjoy that time in my life. But.. I would never do it again.