Hard Rock

By Lloyd Vian

After working in several mines around many men of all colors and ethnicities, Lloyd found they all had the same thing in common: they each had a story. He did not realize he was collecting these in the back of his mind. As the years went by, many of these men passed away, and their stories with them. He did not want all that he had heard die with him. Lloyd knew it would be difficult because he is a miner, not a writer. He set out to put all he had heard and felt into words. If you decide to read this little book, you will be keeping a little bit of each one of these men alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662479472

Book preview

cover.jpg

Hard Rock

Lloyd Vian

Copyright © 2022 Lloyd Vian

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-7946-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-7947-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

About the Author

Special thanks to

Otis (Pancho) McWhorter for pictures,

Vorin family for pictures,

Fred Amaro for cover artwork.

Well, here we go; I would like to tell you a little story. Some of it is true, and some of it is a lie. I am going to tell it as things were, not as things are today. If you can’t handle dark language, ethnic slurs, or racial slurs, do not continue.

This all started in about 1916 or 1917. That’s when Frank was born, way up at the top of Brewery Gulch in Bisbee, Arizona. Frank had an older brother, his mom, and a stepfather. Frank’s stepfather was a short powerful man with big hands, and always drunk. One day when the old man came home drunk and mean, Frank’s older brother hid behind the door. When he walked through, he hit him in the head with a piece of firewood. After a couple of days he felt well enough to go, they never saw him again.

Just about five houses east of Frank’s house, another boy was born. His name was Alfred. Al’s situation was much the same as Frank’s. As the two boys grew, they became close. They gathered firewood, did odd jobs, gathered bottles for the penny when they turned them in, and a little bit of larceny now and then. With the mountain air, lots of beans, tortillas, and homemade bread, they became tall and strong. Even at this early age, they knew that together they could do much more than alone.

Frank’s brother had already gone to the mines. He spoke to his boss, and the boss consented to try them out as muckers. At this point, I need to explain a little bit about what a mucker is. When a person who has never worked underground first hires on, they are given jobs that are necessary but time-consuming hard work that the miners don’t have time to do. This includes cleaning track, using a pick and shovel, then loading the rock into ore cars, cleaning up under chutes where the motor crew had spilled rock, helping the timberman repair or replace timber in drifts or cross cuts, breaking boulders with an eight-pound double jack, and cleaning the water ditches. A water ditch collects and directs excess water to the shaft, then to the sump where it can be pumped out. Miners refer to this ditch as the piss ditch; well, you have to go somewhere.

Frank and Al went to the company warehouse and got their hardhat, miners’ boots, miners, and belt, and were instructed to have a knife, a watch, and a watertight match case. The next day they were to report to the mine office near the shaft.

The next day they went to office and met the foremen: this man, tall and slender, nicknamed Slim. Nearly everyone in the mine had a nickname, and they become a little more colorful as this little tale goes on. The foremen handed them over to shift boss; Frank got Tex—you have this nickname figured out already—and Al got Blue Steel. Blue Steel was a little more difficult; this boss was chewing out a motor crew when he said he was tough as blue steel. By the end of the shift, the entire mine knew him as Blue Steel. The boys were then given a round copper tag with their payroll number, instructed to keep it with them while they were underground, and to hang it on the tagboard when they returned to the surface. The shift bosses gave each boy a carbide lamp and instructed them on how to use them. Most of the time, this would be the only light they would have.

I need to explain a little more about the copper ID tag. When you returned to the surface and hung up your tag, the shift boss could take a look at the board and know that all of his