Gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and other minerals helped to drive the European invasion of North America and the settlement of the American West. Mining towns were often boom towns that quickly created and then abandoned when the mines were no longer profitable. Many abandoned towns and played out mines dot the Western landscape, often leaving behind a scarred landscape and polluted water. Many museums have displays illustrating the mining histories of their communities. A few of these displays are shown below.
World Museum of Mining, Butte, Montana
The World Museum of Mining, located adjacent to the campus of Montana Tech (formerly known as the Montana School of Mines) in Butte, America, occupies the old Orphan Girl Mine site. The mine closed in 1956 and what remains of the mine today is the head frame, the hoist house, and the tramway. As a part of the World Museum of mining, the remains of the old mine share the grounds with mining artifacts brought in from elsewhere.
Shown above is the head frame for the Orphan Girl Mine. From here, cages were dropped into the mine which carried miners and ore. The ore was hoisted at 1,550 feet per minute, but the miners’ cage traveled at only 800 feet per minute (modern elevators run at less than 450 feet per minute).
The cage shown above would carry ten miners.
Shown above is a Rocker Box, also known at a Cradle, which is used to separate gold from other materials. It is hand-operated, easily homemade, and portable.
Shown above are the showers.
Shown above is the mine dry.
According to the display:
“Miners coming to the surface from their shift could be soaking wet from ground water present in the minds or water to stifle dust during drilling. They could also be covered in machine grease and oil used to keep moving metal parts lubricated in their machines. Having a place to shower and change back into street clothes was the purpose of the dry.”
Some miners would step in the showers fully clothed and then use borax soap to wash away the grease and copper water (copper water was very acidic and could destroy a set of clothes in a single shift). The wet clothes would then be hung in baskets to dry before the next shift. The dry room was kept hot.
Shown above is the recharging station for the miners’ headlamps.
Shown above are some of the drilling tools used in the mines. According to the display:
“Silica, in the form of quartz, is part of most ore and associated rock. When silica gets into the lungs, it stays there forever, gradually building up and sealing off more and more of the alveoli, so the blood gets less and less oxygen. Eventually the miner can’t breathe and dies a slow, painful death from silicosis, also known as miner’s consumption, ‘the con’, or ‘rock in the box.’”
Shown above is one of the large compressors which created the compressed air to run the drills and other machinery in the mine. Compressed air was piped throughout the mine and was used to run loaders, hoists, hand tools, ventilation fans, and pumps.
Butte, Montana
At one time, Butte was called “The Richest Hill on Earth” and the landscape was dotted with headframes that took the miners deep into the earth—some mines were more than a mile deep—and brought the precious ore out.
The headframe at the Original Mine is now a performing stage for music festivals.
By the middle of the twentieth century, open pit mining began to replace shaft mining. Many parts of the town were gobbled up by the ever-expanding pit. Eventually, the pit was closed and when the pumps in the abandoned shaft mines were shut off, water filled the pit. The water is highly toxic.
Shown above is an active open pit mine.
Another view of an active open pit mine.
The Berkeley Pit today.
Garnet Ghost Town, Montana
During the 1860s, gold lured thousands of miners to Montana’s Garnet Mountains. Along the streambeds and beneath the ground’s surface they found gold nuggets, flakes, and dust. Within a decade, the placer gold deposits played out and prospectors turned to drilling deep into the bedrock to find lodes.
The mining town of Garnet was established in Montana’s Garnet Mountains in 1895. In 1898, Garnet had a population of about 1,000 and by 1905, only 150 remained. In 1934, gold prices were raised and, together with new technology, another gold boom began. By 1936, the population had increased to 250. With World War II, the boom disappeared and in 1942 the post office closed. By 1948, the general store had closed, and souvenir hunters were looting the town. Today it is a ghost town managed in a state of arrested decay by the Bureau of Land Management and the Garnet Preservation Association.
Shown above is a prospecting pit.
A prospecting pit is simply an exploratory hole dug with shovels and pickaxes. Prospectors are looking for ore veins of red-colored quartz rock that contained gold and silver. If this was found, then the pit became a claim and the prospector could mine the area.
Shown above are the remains of the Sierra Mine shaft.
The Sierra Claim was filed in 1872 and the mine operated until 1916. In 1932 it resumed operation for a while. The most productive year of the mine, 1902, produced 45 pounds of gold, 100 pounds of silver, and 7,500 pounds of copper. The mine produced $750,000 of minerals over its lifespan.
Shown above are the remains of the shaft house going into the Sierra Mine.
Shown above is one of the carts used to bring ore and rock to the surface at the Sierra Mine.
Shown above are placer workings.
In placer mining water is used to wash the sand and gravel away from the heavier gold. Small dams coupled to a network of hand dug ditches provides the water flow needed for placer mining.
Shown above is what remains of a log-lined mine shaft that was 50-100 feet deep.
When the mines were in operation, water had to be continually pumped out. Today, the shafts are filled with water.
Shown above is a replica of a windlass.
Miners, tools, rock, and water had to be hoisted out of a developing shaft. And then, miners, tools, and explosives had to be lowered into the shaft. All of this was done with a hand-cranked windless, raising and lowering personnel and materials to depths of 75 to 100 feet.
San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands, California
Shown above is a head frame which functioned as a hoist to bring ore out of the mine.
Museum of North Idaho, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Washington State Historical Museum, Tacoma, Washington
Heritage Museum, Libby, Montana
Nevada City Living History Museum, Nevada City, Montana
The assay office was an important feature of mining towns as the prospectors and mine owners had to know if their ore was valuable enough to warrant the expense needed to extract it from the ground. According to the display:
“At an assay office, miners could have their raw gold analyzed, with its weight and value assessed, or test an ore sample by fire assay. The multi-step fire assay process extracts gold from the ore using heat, chemicals and other reducing elements and has been used for hundred of years. The weight of the gold is compared to the starting sample weight to see how rich in gold the ore is.”
Shown above are crucibles—heat-resistant vessels made of graphite or porcelain. They are used in fire assay for melting and reducing materials at high temperatures.
Fort Steele Heritage Village, British Columbia
According to the display:
“The role of the assayer was to conduct tests on ore samples in order to determine the mineral content of the ore. As exploration for valuable minerals was extensive in the East Kootenays in the late 18th century, assayers were kept very busy by the local mines and private miners alike.”
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana
According to the display:
“Between 1850 and 1950, millions of dollars worth of minerals were extracted from Montana’s mountains and hills.”
Renton History Museum, Renton, Washington
A group of underemployed miners organized the Renton Co-Operative Coal Company in 1895. The Renton Hill coal mine, which had been run by the Renton Coal Company, had been closed for a decade. The miners re-opened the mine, running it as a co-operative: each miner was paid according to what he produced. Miners were limited to loading four cars of coal a day. Each man, worker or management, bought into the mine and worked his share. The miners, who were also the owners, set mining quotas, working hours, and established their own safety rules. The profits went to the miners.
Shown above are some different mining lights for caps. Mines, being underground, tend to be dark and so the miners needed some form of illumination which they could carry with them as they worked.
Shown above are a lunch pail, canteens, and fuel for the lamps.
Museums 201
Museums 201 is a series of photo tours of similar museum displays from different museums. More from this series:
Museums 201: Ancient Beds (photo diary)
Museums 201: Model railroad dioramas (photo diary)
Museums 201: Wood-fired kitchen ranges (photo diary)
Museums 201: Washing machines (photo diary)
Museums 201: Electric ranges and refrigerators (photo diary)
Museums 201: Antique farming equipment (photo diary)
Museums 201: The timber industry (photo diary)
Museums 201: Wood-fired heating stoves (photo diary)