Things in my neighborhood

The Sunshine Miners Memorial.

Yesterday I went to the yearly memorial for the 91 miners who died in the Sunshine Mine back in 1972. The mine itself sits about a mile up Big Creek just down the road from us in Kellogg. More than 170 miners were on shift when a fire broke out over 3000 feet below the surface. The carbon monoxide quickly overcame many miners and others perished waiting for the mine elevators to get them out. Only 2 miners survived the deep depths of the mine as they were fortunate enough to be near a fresh air source over a mile below the surface. The cause of the fire has never been determined and the disaster changed the way of safety regulations of hardrock mines.

38 years later there were still over 200 people at the anniversary service. Seems that almost everyone around here lost someone, or was close to someone in the fire. People shared stories of the miners and told how that day changed their lives. The end of the service had the mayors of each town that lost citizens in the fire read off their names, as the names were read family members extinguished one of the 91 headlamps on mining caps placed at the base of the memorial.

It was a melancholy service to be sure but also underscored how deeply ingrained the mining culture is here in my part of the world. Even after only a few months here I knew at least one person in the crowd, a guy I worked with this winter who's Grandfather was one of the 91 dead. Also interesting is the fact that the man who created the sculpture for the memorial used to live in our house. We found slides of the sculpture, and others he has done, tucked back in the attic. Small towns are cool.
GBCH