Victor Heritage Society
Working Together to Preserve 
Historic Victor, Colorado
City of Gold MInes
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  • Guidelines & Galleries
    • Guide to Preserving Our Architectural Heritage
    • Photo Gallery of Victor Residential Gems
    • Photo Gallery of Victor Businesses Operating in Historic Buildings
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Victor Homes & Buildings--Then & Now
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Victor Artwork by Fred Shane, Circa 1942
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Gold Mines >
      • Stratton's Independence Mine
      • Restoring the Historic Headframe of Stratton's Independence Mine
      • Gold Coin Mine--Part of the Woods Empire
      • Vindicator Mine
    • Photos From 1903-04 Labor Strike in Cripple Creek & Victor Mining District.
    • Step Back in Time with Glimpses of Historical Photos Featuring Victor, Colorado & the Surrounding Mining District
  • Oral History
    • “The Only Swedish Grocery Store in Victor”: The J.A. “Joseph” Beckman Family in the Cripple Creek Mining District of Colorado, 1896-1915 by Richard "Dick" Markley.
    • Goold Family Historic Ties to Victor, Colorado & Famous Former Residents of the City by Nellie Goold Young.
    • H. L. Turner Story--Part 2: Unique Perspectives About the History of Victor, Colorado & the Cripple Creek Mining District.
    • Memories of H. L. Turner (1882-1967) and His Experiences in the Early Days of the Cripple Creek Mining District.
    • Tragedies When I Was Growing Up In Victor by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of James Garth Payne & How He Came to Letter Names on the Original WWII Roll of Honor in Victor and Cripple Creek, Colorado.
    • Winters in Victor, Colorado during the 1940's & 50's by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack)
    • Biking & Hockey in Victor, Colorado -- The Passions of Brian Hayes
    • Sports in Victor, Colorado & Memories of the 1949 Pikes Peak Junior High Basketball Tournament
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: The House & Antiques Shop -- by Debbie Abbott.
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: Digging At the Dump -- by Steve Abbott.
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: Mom & Her Victor Friends -- by Dave Abbott.
    • A History of VICTOR, COLORADO--THE CITY OF MINES, compiled and published in 1933 by S. E. Poet, Superintendent of Public Schools at Victor.
    • Carl Roy's Oral History Videos -- Life in Victor, Colorado
    • The Miner’s Photograph: A Pathway to the Past by Steven Wade Veatch.
    • Recollections of My Life in Victor, Colorado during the Depression, WWII, & After By Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack)
    • Memories of Washington Elementary--My First School in Victor, Colorado by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Adventures at the Beaver Valley Ranch While Growing up in Victor, Colorado by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of the Ina & Henry Cleveland Hack Family by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • The Lighter Side of a Visit to Hack's Victor Barber Shop by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of Margaret & Henry C. "June" Hack, Jr. by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memorabilia from Cripple Creek & Victor High School Bands Directed by Ernest T. Sly from 1939 to 1950.
    • A Day in the Cresson Mine by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Firewood For Victor, Colorado by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of My Grandfather, John Reed Gardner (1864-1951)--Gardner Mercantile Owner, Bank President, Insurance Company Executive. By John Reed Gardner, II (grandson).
    • Tarie Huber Oral History Videos -- Life in Victor, Colorado
    • 1896 Shooting Affray at Union Theater in Victor, Colorado.
    • Memories of Mrs. Katy Bemore, resident of Independence when the deport was blown up in 1904.
    • Working Underground in the Cripple Creek & Victor Mining District, 1972 to 1979: How I Got the Shaft, the Gas, and the Broken Steel by Randall Stewart.
    • INSTALLMENT #1. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • INSTALLMENT #2. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • INSTALLMENT #3. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • Memories of Edward Franklin Page: Watchman at the Stratton Mines and Subsequently a Mine Manager, Farmer, Retail Businessman, & Banker.
    • Tom Schryver's Memories of Growing Up in Victor, Colorado and His Parents--Mayme & Charles "Bumps" Chapman.
    • McCormick Family Connections to Victor, Colorado (1893-2014) by Mary Ann McCormick Hamm.
    • Paying the Piper by Gertrude Moore McGowan.
    • Gold Camp Celebration--Fourth of July in Victor, Early 1900's by Gertrude Moore McGowan.
    • Memories of Lulu Ella Manson & Harry Gordon Moore by Gertrude Moore McGowan
    • Memories of Fannie & Alfred Osborn by Marge Breth
    • Memories of Cripple Creek & Victor, 1945-62, by Mary Alice Orazen
    • The Story of Axel Olson & His Golden Girl, Betzi Johnson, by Shirley Beach.
    • Memories of Mr. and Mrs. Axel Olson by KC Garver
    • Victor Recollections--Mountain Doctor, Small Town Cop, Gus's Sporting Goods, & Little Toy Pocket Knife by Floyd Frank
    • Memories of Lowell Thomas--Victor"s Most Famous Former Resident
    • Memories of the Gold Rush Era in Victor by Edgar McGowan
    • A Day In the Life of a Miner by Chuck Clark
    • Underground Mining Experiences at the Cresson and Ajax by Myron House
    • Hynes Brothers "Clean Ice" for Victor, Colorado--Memories of Mary Ellen Hynes Chetelat.
    • Marguerite Clark--One of Victor's Angels by Chuck Clark
    • Charlie Clark & the Quality Cash Market by Chuck Clark
    • Pop Sly -- Ernest T. Sly, The Band Man by Chuck Clark
    • Mr. Mortenson--The Victor Shoemaker by Chuck Clark
    • Heninger Family Memories of Victor, Portland Junction, & Independence: 1909-1916, by Virginia & Edgar Heninger
    • Reflections on Goldfield by Carol Roberts
    • Growing Up In Victor in the 1930's by Bob Penman
    • Victor's Welcome to Vice-President Roosevelt
  • Visit
PictureAfter Work--Time to Play in a Mining Camp, © Charles Clark, Click to Enlarge.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MINER
By Charles (Chuck) Clark 
  ©

     A few friends of my era have contributed valuable words to this vignette.  They worked as miners in the inky black bowels of the earth beneath tons of rock.  Some were young, virile men who had just graduated from high school and this was one of their first real jobs.  Some were part-time jobs while going to college; others were full-time bread winners for their families.  Some had never worked underground before, but they had parents or relatives who were miners.
     In the early days (late 1800s) one of the quickest ways to get a job in the mine was to take on the toughest man on a crew in a fistfight and attempt to beat him into submission.  One of these individuals was Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler, who had little difficulty earning a job.  As miners became more civilized, the way one got and KEPT a job was to work hard and keep one’s mouth shut and one’s eyes open.
     Life underground was very dangerous and a mistake could end one’s life in a flash.  Each miner had his co-workers back if he recognized a danger.  This didn’t always work, but many lives were saved by recognizing dangerous situations and alerting a co-worker to the danger.   One of the hardest situations to adapt to was the darkness with only a small carbide, or later, a battery operated light.  This was a safety trade-off as the carbide light would fail when bad air was encountered.
     In the winter, the trek to work was in the dark and the end of the day shift was about the same.  Miners lived in a near dark environment most of the time.  If that tiny light failed for some reason, panic ensued.  One friend, Myron House, experienced this and had to find his way to another station by guiding his feet along the tram tracks until he came to a lighted section of the mine.  By his own admission, he was terrified, though at the time, he hid his fear!
     Other dangers were the result of a misfire in the round of explosions that were required in the search for veins of gold.  Usually there were patterns of explosions that resulted in confirmation of a level.  Dynamite was delivered to the powder man who had the expertise with explosives.  In the early days, the delay in the charge was determined by the length of the fuses.  Each was lit with a delay that determined the shape of the explosion.  More recently, the detonator that initiated the explosion was determined by the electrical delay of the detonator.  The miner counted the number of explosions to make sure all charges went off.  If the explosions were not counted, there was a possibility of drilling into a live round when the next shot was activated.  Newbies carried the explosives to the head of the shot and mucked the broken rock into motors (trams).
     Since the majority of the mucked rock was worthless, it was taken to the skip or bucket and transported to the surface and discarded on the ore dump.  Paying ore went to the ore house and was sorted by values that were determined by an assayer.  This was accomplished in an assay shop. In Victor there were several assay shops.  Kohlberg and Page were the most well known.  In the early days a rider picked up samples on horseback and carried them to the assayer and returned the result of the test back to the mine owner or superintendent of the mine.  Later, the telephone accomplished the same function.  Valuable ore was shipped to a mill and refined for gold.  If rich enough a guard accompanied the ore to the mill.
     If a rich vein was discovered, some miners carried unusually good pieces home in their “pie cans”, clothing, or body cavities.  This was called “hi-grading” and if caught by management, was cause for being blackballed from working in a mine again.  Even though the penalty was great, “hi-grading” persisted to the end, as miners’ top salaries were so pathetically small in the early days ($1.00/hour or $8.00 per 10 to 12 hours per day).  Some miners bought clothing and groceries with good specimens.  It took a very rich specimen to buy anything, as the price of gold prior to 1939 was $25.00 a troy ounce, the going price of a pair of boots.
     Because life was a series of horrors without rewards, miners drank heavily to forget the bad times.  They would spend what little money they had on 10-cent beer and stay all night in Zekes, the Stope, the Amber Inn, or the Gold Coin where they could commiserate with their buddies about the rough day they had.  In some cases, they closed the bar and as one miner stated, “The one who was the least drunk ran the hoist the next morning.”  This indicated that safety went to the least drunk miner, which was not what many miners wanted to hear.  That was the way it was in the early days in mining and surprisingly, safety didn’t suffer greatly as a result.  The EPA and OSHA would have been horrified.  Not all miners drank to excess, however, but their stories evaporated into nothingness and didn’t make the headlines or the obituary column.

​     Bars were the social clubs for the miner.  If a miner was hurt or killed in an accident, the other miners would “pass the hat” and collect money for the family and take care of them until the miner could resume work or until the family could survive on their own.  Word traveled quickly in the bar when jobs were available, or when a mine was closing, or if a boss that no one liked or was not respected was fired.  Some called this gossip and some called it “essential news.”  In either case, miners knew things that were important much more quickly than one might expect.

Picture
Sammy Klopenstein, © Charles Clark
Picture
▲ Frankie Banks--As mining declined in the 50s, Frankie and Sammy spent much of their time on a bench at the side of the Gold Coin Restaurant and Bar (now the CC&V Mining Company Offices). They were real miners. © Charles Clark
     Toward the closing of the mines in the fifties, life was tragic and depression was rampant.  It was a time of little or no hope and miners reacted as one would expect.  There were a few miners that were harbingers of optimism, but not many.  Bars did a big business in spite of large bar bills that went unpaid in many cases. There were many fights during this time.  What was an unemployed miner supposed to do when he had no job or hope? A mining camp runs on money just like most areas do.  No money, no hope, no groceries, no clothes, no rent money.
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Lyda Kennedy ran the Stope Cafe on South Third Street--where Zeke's Bar was eventually relocated before it went out of business. That building is now vacant. © Charles Clark
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▲ Lil Clark ran the Gold Coin Bar & Restaurant on the corner of Victor Avenue & Third Street --where Cripple Creek & Victor Mining Company offices are now located. Lyda's & Lil's good natured generosity toward miners facing tough times enabled some to run up tabs that were never paid. © Charles Clark
PictureRufus Porter -- Hard Rock Poet. As hard rock gold mining activities declined, Rufus Porter transitioned with greater success than most hard rock miners to another career as a writer and poet. Click the highlighted link to learn more about his remarkable life. © Charles Clark.
​     It seems that there was a lack of spiritual activity in a mining town.  This was not true in Victor, Colorado.  There were a multitude of churches in the District.  How many was not certain, but in Victor alone in the 50’s there were at least six regularly attended churches.  There was a Catholic Church, a Baptist Church, a Christian Scientist Church, an Episcopalian Church, a Lutheran Church, and a Presbyterian Church.  Church services were regularly attended by women, but not so regularly attended by the male population of miners.  In asking several miners why they did not attend church, the majority of miners suggested that Sunday was their only day of rest, but that they were represented by the family.  Bible School, communion, Ladies Aide Society and other church sponsored activities were well attended.   Not all miners were bar cruisers and set proper examples for their families.  The Catholics and the Scandinavian segments of the population seemed to be the most regular in attending church.  Some had hints that God would bring hope for them.  This, sadly, took, a long time.  Most of the old timers passed away before Victor was revived.  The miners had to move out of their community to procure a job.  This was terribly difficult as miners liked to plant roots in a community.  This meant leaving not only the job, but also meant leaving long time friends, fraternal organizations (of which Victor had a number) and all of the associations related to long-term employment and residency.  One miner said his main regret was not being able to count on a doctor as well qualified to deal with miners’ wounds as was Dr. Denman.  Some were worried about establishing credit at the hardware and grocery stores, and were worried about feeding their families.  Among the more resilient, Rufus Porter left the Mining District to find fame with success in a new career as a writer and a poet.
     Closing the mines was truly a sad day in Victor’s history.  Grocery stores, hardware stores, movie theatre, auto dealerships, and a myriad of other shops disappeared one after another. 
     It was heart breaking to watch as a resident of the City of Mines saw friends, classmates, and businessmen move to a distant town where he could no longer talk to, interact with, or even say “hello” to while walking to school in the morning.
     Victor died that day, as did a number of souls.  Watchmen took over on the mines and even they disacppeared after time.  The mines were swallowed by time.  Most are now large pits in the ground with only a few memories to remind those that care what a glorious place Victor was.  The reason was the character of the miner—God bless his Granite Soul!

                                               © Charles (Chuck) Clark

​ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  
     Charles (Chuck) Clark was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1933.  His father was a grocer and his mother was a teacher.  He was raised in Victor, graduated from Victor High School in 1951, and four years later graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in English Literature and a Commission as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy.  Later he received a Masters Degree from Colorado College.
     After his service obligation and becoming a pilot, Chuck was a teacher, probation officer, photographer, marketing manager and vice president of several companies.  He traveled to Peru twice and accumulated and sold numerous photographs of the Amazon and its indigenous people.  In 2011, he was elected a Member of the famed National Explorer's Club headquartered in New York City.  He is the second Victorite to gain membership in the exclusive Explorer's Club.  The first was Lowell Thomas. 
     Chuck recorded many of the experiences he had as a child in Victor in a 2011 book titled "Memories of a Wonderful Childhood in Victor, Colorado" -- which can be obtained from the gift shop of the Victor-Lowell Thomas Museum or ordered online.  

     This vignette about "A Day in the Life of a Miner" (not included in Chuck's book) was submitted in May, 2016 in tandem with Myron House's memories about his "Underground Mining Experiences at the Cresson and Ajax".​  Click the link.

THE PAST MATTERS.  PASS IT ALONG.
The Next Generation Will Only Inherit What We Choose to Save and Make Accessible.
​
Please Share Your Memories and Family Connections to Victor & the World's Greatest Gold Camp by

Contacting Victor Heritage Society, PO Box 424, Victor, CO 80860 or e-mail VictorHeritageSociety@gmail.com.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE MEMORIES AND STORIES OF FAMILY CONNECTIONS TO VICTOR & THE WORLD'S GREATEST GOLD CAMP.
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