Prostitution or mining – choices.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
Gar and I enjoy traveling, even if it’s just
for day jaunts. I think Gar mostly likes vacations
to keep from eating my cooking. He
wouldn’t say that though because he knows
at some point, he has to come back to share a
bed with me, thus, he’s not completely clueless.
One spring day we strolled through South
Pass City, a fun old boomtown, developed in
the summer of 1867 in the midst of a gold
rush. This unique Wyoming ghost town, that
has been fabulously renovated and preserved,
is empty, save the few families who stay on
site as caretakers. In its heyday, South Pass
was a thriving hub of 3,000 people, with 300
homes and businesses. Now, there are just
over 20 buildings: a schoolhouse, livery stable,
hotels, butcher shop, family dwellings,
dry good stores and a few saloons. At one
point we passed by a sign that read, “During
the height of the South Pass gold rush, there
were few employment opportunities for
women.” I didn’t quite get the gist of what
the sign was trying to convey until I walked a
few steps further down the boardwalk. There
was a saloon, and beside it was a notice informing
everyone that at one time, it had also
been utilized as a brothel. The sign simply
said, “Prostitution always flourishes where
men and money coincide.” I became a little
indignant and told Gar in no uncertain terms
that there is always a way to make a living
without resorting to that. I was adamant
that I would never have done such a thing. I
spouted morals, values and decency and said
I’d have found another way, even if it had
been working in the mine. I stayed on that
high horse until about halfway through the
mine tour.
Listening to the tour guide tell us the highlights
(horrors) of gold mining, the first thing
that became immediately apparent was that
OSHA was not around in 1867. Cyanide was
mixed with water because it adheres to gold,
so naturally, there were four huge vats of it.
Exposure to cyanide causes the body to more
or less suffocate, as the tissues eventually are
unable to use oxygen. Super.
To make the gold let loose from ore, it had
to be put through zinc. To be clear, zinc in a
regulated pill is good for us. We need zinc to
live and it’s found naturally in foods and is
essential to our health. In large doses, in dust
form, it’s lethal.
There was also a tub where sand passed
through, full of mercury, which grabbed the
gold. To make it let loose, it was burned off.
We all know mercury is deadly, and do you
suppose it miraculously got healthier when it
was burned off and got into the lungs? I bet
not. Boy, what good times.
There were four diesel generators enclosed
with the miners and no ventilation because
the heat was needed to keep the water
from freezing. Who doesn’t just love diesel
exhaust?
The water was too acidic, so to keep it
from turning the liquid cyanide into a gas, it
had to be mixed with lime. Be still my beating
heart. Do we really need to discuss what
lime does, not to mention cyanide gas? Was
there protective equipment, clothing or eyewear?
Please.
If this wasn’t enough gratifying delight,
men had to climb a vertical ladder 45 stories
down at the beginning of every shift and 45
stories back up at the end. I wasn’t feeling so
uppity anymore.
Then there was the noise from the ball
mill, which was hundreds of spheres resembling
No. 12 cannon balls spinning inside a
steel globe, breaking down quartz to release
gold. Cloth was dipped in wax and cooled,
then poked into ears to keep from going deaf.
Such help, those ear protectors. If you weren’t
rendered incapacitated in the mine itself and
managed to live through dynamite and gun
powder blasts, there were picks, shovels and
the pushing of 100-ton ore wagons to make
a man out of you. But I saved the best for
last: In three weeks, these men may or may
not produce an 80-ounce gold bar worth $32
an ounce. Spread that between 20 miners, the
owners, overhead and business-related items.
It was about here in the tour that I turned to
Gar and said, “Perhaps I was hasty in my
judgment of the ladies of the evening and if
it’s not too late, I’d like to revisit that topic.”
Contact Trena Eiden at trenaid@hotmail.
com.