We have crossed the eastern Continental Divide many times, as it crosses over the eastern part of West Virginia, but I never really expected to stand on the western divide!
On our way to the railroad and silver mine on Sunday, we took a route that led us right over the divide. (Interstate 70 goes under the mountain here instead of over it, through a very long tunnel.)
Incredible views up here! And one beautiful granddaughter too. 😉
Bad Sarah!
We took the train ride first, then it was into the mine!
Our tour guide, Brent, did an excellent, thorough job of explaining both the history and the hardships of the early silver-mining days. Larry was completely into this, as so many aspects of silver mining were exactly like coal mining. He grew up in a coal camp so he knew a lot about it, and he and Brent had some good conversations. At the end Brent gave him a beautiful arrowhead, which he had found in the creek that ran through the mine site.
Looking inside the mine, where the roof was shored up with large timbers, then pieces of railroad track iron rails were hammered above the top beam to provide solid support. Every few feet of tunnel took months to complete, as of course all the work was done with hand tools and muscle.
An area called a drift, where miners followed a vein.
A system of cables, pulleys, and a big bucket called a kibble (a Cornish term) were used to lower miners into the deeper tunnels. Men hung on the bucket by putting one leg inside and one outside the bucket, so 4 could fit, tightly into the space--- with all their tools too. Sometimes a miner would lose his hold and fall of, or lose a leg or other body part on the way down.
At this point, we were several hundred feet underground, and Interstate 70 was right over top of us!
Can you imagine crawling back into this deep hole?
Brent explaining the mine workings, and telling us about
tommyknockers. Most of the early gold and silver miners in the US at this time were from Cornwall in England, and brought that superstition with them. (We heard tommyknocker stories when we were in Cornwall. The mines there were silver, tin, and coal mines, so the men knew the work.)
When this drill was introduced, it sped up the drilling process significantly, but produced a lot of dust. Men who worked in the mine at that time had an average life expectancy of about 35 years. So sad! And all for a few other men to get very rich. Millions of dollars worth of silver came out of this mine, and would have been worth billions today. But the men who mined it were paid very little, and these mine companies paid in scrip, which had to be spent at the company's store. Goods were way overpriced, so miners were constantly in debt. No way out with a system like that!
This slimy substance on the rock below was called dragon snot by the Cornish miners, and it actually had some good health uses, such as curing dtomach aches. I am not sure what it actually is. There were, however, stalactites formed from the dripping water, so my guess is that it contained calcium, just like antacids like Tums. These miners called the mist that often came out of the mouth odmf the mine "dragon breath", and the walls of the mine were called dragon ribs. Makes sense, since dragons are common in Cornish and Welsh folklore.
It was good to get back outside!
We panned for gold at the end of the tour, but not in a creek. All it was was some large animal feed troughs with water and sand in them. You scooped up the sand, then swished the sand out of one rubber pan into another, until all that was left was the gold bits. The gold was actual Colorado gold, and every person ended up with at least $10-12 worth of gold in the end, according to the guides. Here's Larry holding his tiny vial of water and gold kernels. The whole thing was rushed, but it was fun, especially when you saw the gold start to appear in your pan.
We didn't keep our gold--we gave it to Sarah's boyfriend's daughter, who was completely thrilled with the whole mine experience.
We ended the day in a German restaurant, eating some amazing sausages--some made from wild boar meat, some from venison, some with Guinness beer, and the house recipe. These were accompanied by potato salad, pickled red cabbage, and sauerkraut, along with some really good mustard.
And then it was home to bed and a very good night's sleep.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
