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| Lebanon Silver Mine |
An advantage of living in Colorado when the temperature is in the 90s is the relative ease of escaping to the cool of the mountains. To celebrate our anniversary (number three!), my hubby Jesse and I took his brother Lou and wife Carol to ride the Georgetown Loop on a narrow gauge excursion train that runs between Georgetown and Silver Plume, Colorado. Silver Plume was a mining town named for the spray formation of the silver lode.
Carol and I took the walking side trip through the Lebanon Mine. Walking the rails into the dripping mine was not as easy as it looked, wet as a cave. The Ranger cautioned us about deep shafts now filled with water, extremely cold water that was pumped out when the mines were in production. Successful rescue is unlikely due to hypothermia.
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| Lunch Pails Were Hung over Candles |
Our guide showed us the metal lunch buckets the miners used, and how they were kept hanging over a candle to keep the food warm. Bottom tray, coffee; middle tray, a pastie, a Welsh calzone or empanada with a hard crust on one side for ease of handling; top tray, the three small candles issued for the day's work and chewing tobacco. The buckets were helpful for several reasons. One, the metal protected the food from hungry rats; two, meals were eaten in pitch darkness. (No candle provided for the one-hour meal break.)
The miners worked 10 hrs per day, six days per week, blasting and shovel ore that contained silver. They timed their day by the candles, taking their hour break after the second candle guttered out. Some miners worked far underground, two levels down standing in freezing mountain water. By the way, the miners gave the hard crusts of their lunch to the rats, as the rats were more economical than canaries; the rats alerted the workers to gas leaks and potential explosions.
We learned that miners worked in pairs, trading position from hitter to shaker (the latter holding and turning the drill bit). The mines were profoundly dark save for the candle light, and the air was hazy with
silica, which sliced up their lungs. Life expectancy was two years for adult miners. The Welsh and Cornish miners were working to send enough to bring their families from the Old Country and give them a start in America, even if they were not alive to welcome them.
Over 120,000 unwanted children in the eastern US were sent out West in Orphan Trains and put to work on farms or in the mines from 1850 to early 1900's. Those who look on the sunny side consider the Orphan Trains as the beginning of foster care in the US. The children were prized in the dangerous mines as "powder monkeys," who lit the dynamite—they were able to run faster than the adults and if they were killed, oh well. Although the mines that used children in this way had a bad reputation, it didn't help the children.
Hard hats are required now for "anyone who has a heart beat" going into the mine. I was glad for mine, as I did give myself a whack on the head when I didn't bend sufficiently. Safety precautions took a long time to be adopted in American mines—though they had been invented by women miners in England, including hard hats and breathing masks. It was said men didn't want to wear the gear because it was effeminate. My guess is that the women also invented the lunch pails, which were not too girly.
These mines are closed to production now. The trestle bridge and the tracks were torn up and sold for scrap. When enough years had passed , the bridges were rebuilt and the trains began to run again for the amusement, entertainment and edification of tourists. In fact we acquired our tickets as members of History Colorado. Special dining car trains are available for wine tasting or fancy dinners stopped on the trestle over Clear Creek far below, which should add a garnish of frisson.
