Kilted Underground

[Riverkilt]

Back in 1963 I worked in the Idarado Mine up at Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, Colorado. It was a copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver mine. Our ore went to the mill town of Telluride - a sleepy mountain town of about 600 back then. Who knew the tourist/ski/hot springs boom that would later come to the area. I coulda been rich if I'd known to buy a little bit of land.

Anyhow, I enjoy vacationing in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and was back up soaking at Orvis Hot Springs and poking around the local attractions last weekend when I noticed the Bachelor-Syracuse mine tour was open early. Haven't been underground in a mine since '63 so signed up and got a trip deep inside Gold Hill.

Talk about memories flooding back - the smell, the sounds, the darkness. Really glad I went back in.



Suited up before hand. It "rains" all the time inside these mountains so need the raincoat.




Inside the mine at what would have been a face - this of course is their exhibit for the tourists. As my memories came flooding back I started yapping away about them - politely - and the guide seemed to appreciate it. He was a young man who'd learned about the mines but had never actually worked them himself. He kept saying how much he appreciated an old miner being on the tour.




And there is this beautiful San Juan Miner's Memorial statue in Ouray. The figure is dressed exactly like we dressed back then - save he's taken off his Filson tin cruiser jacket. And, a guy I worked with, Oscar Franz, has his name on a plaque on the wall behind the statue. The wall is topped with samples of the ore and rocks inside the local mountains.




Here's a picture from last year that shows the beautiful mountain backdrop - which incidently are the mountains I worked inside. The rock pile the statue is on is made of mountain rock too. Its like working inside a stope where the miner drilled the overhead to load dynamite then blast the ceiling so the rock fell and they they'd drill another dog hole from the raise and go in at the new higher level. The loose rock would shift. Its like working on top of the sand in an hourglass. If the sand in the hourglass started to run and you were on top of it you'd have to run up hill faster than the sand ran downhill to keep from getting sucked into the vortex and crushed. Only it wasn't sand it was these large rocks. Happened to me and let me tell you everyone was running - we all made it but a frightening thing to have to do to earn a paycheck.

[DesertCeltic]

Nice job Ron and great backstory and pictures. I will be going though the Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow kilted with the wife and kids.

[Bugbear]

Cool story, Ron.

Nice job Ron and great backstory and pictures. I will be going though the Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow kilted with the wife and kids.

Carlsbad Caverns is a cool place; went several times as a kid. If you ever get a chance, asuming it is still open, "New Cave," I think it is called, is a cool place near by. There's cave paintings too, but it was a bit of a hike up a small mountain to get to it, if I remember correctly.

[cessna152towser]

Cool pics and a great story Ron.

[bchunter]

I admire guys that can go underground like you did. Thanks for the pictures, which from the assortment of kilts looks like they were taken on several different trips. Your love and admiration for those mountains is evident.

[toadinakilt]

Very cool.

I had to reread your entire post in a Gimli voice... somehow, I see you with a battleaxe just as readily as a drill.

[Riverkilt]

Different days this trip. The Antarctica tartan was a different trip with better weather.

Didn't drill - was a mine engineer's assistant and sample boy. Means I was often the only one in the mine without a partner, roaming around the newly broken ground areas taking samples to be assayed. Often was blown up - like in the movies - when the guys working a face had to blow up a rock too big for the chute. They'd get too lazy to go down the main drift and see if anyone else was around. Would get blown down a drift about ten feet - like a bullet.

Also was the rodman for surveys. The rod went on the ceiling of the mine to measure how much ground they'd broken. Once was rodman for survey of a new shaft. Worked all day hanging from the ladder. Got back to the engineer's shack at the end of shift and saw I'd been hanging off that ladder 1,000 feet from the bottom of the shart. In the dark - who knew? Asked my engineer why he didn't tell me we were that high. He said he figured if he did I wouldn't have done it. Right....

If anyone had them back then I'll bet leather kilts would have been the perfect attire for the men on the drills though - Leg position is key and the kilts would offer a lot more freedom than pants. Maybe RKilts should consider a booth at a mining trade show...?

[toadinakilt]

Would OSHA allow that?

[Riverkilt]

My underground tour was in 1963. OSHA was founded in 1970. Have more stories about how wads of blasting caps and bags of dynamite were handled "casually" underground. A big shock for a kid raised on "Don't play with blasting caps" warnings on early television...

It remains a miracle to me that I learned how dangerous/fatal underground mining is and was able to get that into my brain and choose another occupation before I was killed in the mines.

Money was good though...very very good...

[Sir William]

Very nice. I was just telling someone last night that both sides of my family are miners, though in totally different regions. My dad's side mined gold in Idaho, zinc in Oklahoma, copper Nevada and silver in Arizona, while my mom's side mined silver and lead in Colorado.

I've read about mining and visited mining museums but have never been down into a mine. One of these days I'd like take a tour such as you described.