Down in the Mines

This week, I've been at a conference sponsored by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE).  Looking at "Boom and Bust in America," we visited Butte, Montana--"The Richest Hill on Earth." Butte is built over what may have been the world's biggest deposit of copper ore. Over the years 500 mines operated in Butte beginning in the late 19th century.

While mining in Butte peaked in 1917, in 1956, there were still miners putting on their headlamps and hardhats do travel up to 5,700 feet down into the mine shafts. That's when Ed Drabant began his career as a miner.

Ed was our guide at The World Museum of Mining on Montana Tech's campus in Butte. Born in Minnesota, Ed traveled west because the mining work was steady at the time and, due to it's inherent danger and the strength of the miner's unions, it paid very, very well.

Ed worked in six different Butte copper mines till the last one closed. Then he mined in Arizona until mining there closed down. Finally he mined till the bitter end in New Mexico after which he moved back to Butte to retire. He had "been underground" thirty-six years.

Now, in his eighties, he leads tours at the museum. When he guides groups around, yelling, "Fire in the hole!" just as he did in his youth. He waxed rhapsodic about seeing rock that was azure blue with copper ("It was so beautiful!") and told us about knocking down a wall of rock that revealed a stable for the mining mules thousands of feet below the surface.

"Do you miss mining?" I asked. No, he told me, but, he said, he got "all worked up" telling the old stories about drills and picks and dynamite and old friends.

Ed appears proud of what he did for a living, proud of his place in Butte history, enthusiastic about his job, and contented with his life. It was a privilege to meet him.