It's All About the Setting

Nothing inspires a good story like a unique setting. Shirley and I had some extra hours to kill while driving through Pennsylvania and the folders we had gathered at the state line gave us some unusal destinations. Off the Interstate and winding down through the old coal bearing hills we came to the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. It was named for the Olympic champ, a native man who was treated shamefully by the various sports bodies who governed the many sports Thorpe excelled in early in the 1900's. (they say his records for pentathlon and decathlon still stand today) Thorpe's widow, as it happens, was a scam artist who conned the town into renaming itself to Jim Thorpe in honour of her late husband, who died drunk and penniless. She promised many financial benefits to the town, such as huge amounts of tourism, and a hospital. The town name was changed, (and considering the previous name of Maunch Chunk, it was well they did), and the body of Jim Thorpe was disinterred, moved to Pennsylvania, and buried in town with full honours. Unfortunately the tourists failed to show for many years, and the hospital was not forthcoming. Not to be discouraged, the ambitious town fathers changed a five mile coal train loop with a mile long cable ascent into the world's first roller-coaster, where people loaded into special cars and were dragged uphill and then sent down for a fast five mile trip down the mountain. The train is still operating.

The town is a great place to see. It is like old Quebec City. The streets wind around the narrow folds of the valley and the buildings are designed to fit into the limited spaces. Yards and laneways end in neat home-made stone walls. The houses are wood and painted with generous amounts of colour. Some of the colours match. Check it out. Art shops and law offices abound here, so there is plenty of money and people to spend it. There is a gothic-looking jail where some Irish miners, the famous Molly McGuires, were hanged for promoting violence against the mine way back when mining was controlled by rich financiers and the local men worked in near-lethal conditions. A mine museum nearby had some cool artifacts. This is a great place to visit if you have some hours to spend. Today we are visiting Allison and John Sullivan, with son Jake and daughter Lilyanne, in Triangle Virginia. Tomorrow John, a US Naval Commander will show me around Washington D.C.

Driving long distances gives me time to think and I'm getting some ideas to add to the "Dan Time Boy" story. Got some new ideas about that, but we'll see what happens.

A Rejection and a New Trip

I finally heard back from one publisher (whose name starts with Schol and ends in astic) and they have rejected my manuscript for the "Escape the Mine" story. The senior editor, an old friend, liked the writing but said it was more suited to High School age readers, and their market ends about Grade 8 or so. Now there are still two publishers looking at it, so all is not lost, yet. Scholastic does a great job in selling both in the USA and Canada and their business was something I was looking forward to. Obviously that is not to be. Writing is actually one of the easier parts of this business; I find it much harder to be patient and wait for a reply...
However! Tomorrow Shirley and I depart on a road trip to see various members of Shirley's family, and this will involve passing by the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Washington D.C. and Raleigh, North Carolina as well as Shenandoah National Park in the Smokey Mountains. We will take lots of photos, especially in Washington.

The Outer Banks, North Carolina

Putting it all in writing...

Now, armed with all the photographs I took, plus sound recordings of conversations and the shriek of machinery at 1000 feet (Wabowden) and 4550 feet below the earth (T-1) I am trying to sort out everything. I have corrected some mistakes in the manuscript for "Escape the Mine" and I am working on some changes to three other manuscripts which are in various stages of writing. (Not all of them are about mining) As a long term project I was hoping to hear some more creepy mine stories, mine lore and pranks played by those who work underground as part of my research but I wasn't as successful as I would like to be. When I was first working there (37 years ago!) I got to know a lot of guys who could spin tales - most of them in the b.s. category - of mining and miners. Now the typical miner is more educated, more serious and less likely to play pranks on their fellow workers...

This first ladderway is an escape manway which goes from surface to the very bottom of the mine. It is one of the ways out of the mine in an emergency. In my novel, a young fellow will sneak underground by descending these ladders.

Below is a scoop-tram loading ore into a mine truck

A rock face ready for a blast

The escape manway at 4000 feet. It is much wetter and slimier, but also much warmer.





















This is a small platform above a mine drift, where the young heroes will hide from the murderers in the "Escape the Mine" story.



Don and Joyce Belton. Don is wearing the gold helmet he was given at retirement. Don was a great source of information.

Thoughts on Thompson

I'm in the Winnipeg airport, having left myself lots of time between flights in case of delays or whatnot. (No delays, no whatnot) I spent a night here once, many years ago, and things are still a bit on the small side, but a new terminal is being completed as I type. The flight here on a small SAAB passenger aircraft was smooth and pleasant and it actually felt like flying - unlike the bigger jets.
Thoughts on Thompson: Thompson is changing from when I was first there. The roads and foundations of buildings have improved. Discontinuous permafrost used to lie in patches here and there and when buildings or roads were put there, they would heave or drop noticeably as the ground beneath melted. Sunlight beaming down on the exposed boreal forest soil, which is very thin, melted the ground beneath, causing many of the problems. Gradually over time the soil has become stable. In other areas of town exposed bedrock of Canadian Shield is a great place to build on and the three tall apartment buildings are put there. As I mentioned, artwork now graces what used to be painfully bare walls of siding on most of the buildings. Schools almost entirely without windows are still a common sight. Their resemblence to jails is easy to see, for me. I am sure the teachers do much work outside the building when the weather permits. But that north wind is awful cold in winter! Government, both Provincial and Federal, is putting a lot of $ into the town with infrastructure projects such as buildings and head-offices located all over. Thompson's multicultural flavour is as evident as before. Sikhs, Muslims with women wearing the hijab, and Indians (from India) are very common here and are taking good advantage of the opportunity for jobs and good pay. VALE/INCO needs workers badly and is hiring. Everywhere in restaurants and stores the tunrover is very high and help wanted signs flourish. A twelve-year-old boy who recognized me from a school visit (You're that author, right?) served me my Bagel BELT in Tim Hortons. He's been working there 3 weeks already.

This photo, taken from the headframe at T-1, shows the open pit excavation beside the mine. When I worked here that was a lake; it has since been diverted and drained and the top layer mined out. From the aircraft this morning it is certainly noticeable, but then, seeing the million of acres of vacant and unused land, I must disagree with my brothers & sisters in the extreme end of the environmental movement. Development helps people most of all, and when done sensibly, should be a net benefit. Now having said that, there is still a lot of abuse. Why anyone would drive a Hummer is beyond me. To my mind, unless a person needs to travel constantly over rough terrain, driving a Hummer is like flipping the bird at everybody.
More later.

Touring Underground at T-1 Mine

Today I got underground again, and because of the novel I'm working on, it was important to see if the memories I had were accurate. Stu Cunningham met me in the security office and soon I was in the 'Dry' getting changed into mining clothes and hauling my backpack and street shoes up into the warm breezes which dry mining clothes all day long.


The Dry - many fewer buckets than in the 70's


The cage was smaller than I remembered and travelled more slowly. In my memories it almost did a free-fall downward and slammed around a lot more. That probably was the case, as so much about safety and the permanence of the place has been improved.
Stu Cunningham on the Mine Cat - a noisy diesel monster which travels maybe 3 KPH


The cage & in the cage.

Stu Cunningham brought me to 4000 level and together with another shift-boss, Mike Vallance, we rode a Mine Cat down declines to 4550 level. Mike showed how they are using newer methods of mining to extract the ore. Down here the cut and fill methods are not used. I spent a couple of hours there, and then returned to the levels the way I remembered them. An excellent day for good information. Many thanks to Stu & Mike, and also Don and Joyce Belson, (Keith's parents) who have been very helpful. Don worked his way from being an ordinary miner to being in top management and he knows the mine very well. He answered a lot of my technical questions and is good at explaining things to amateurs.

Looking Around Town

The statue of the "King Miner" greets you as you drive into Thompson. A lot about this town is a celebration of nickel mining, the main source of community income and a huge revenue source for the Province of Manitoba. A big event every year in Thompson is the "Nickel Days" festivities - and I missed them by a week. Apart from a lot of other events, the King Miner Contest is quite popular. Miners from all over Western Canada and the north come to compete in traditional mine jobs such as jack-leg drilling (you can see the block at left which they drilled into) stoper drilling (drilling upward - see next photo) crib building, ladder climbing, hand mucking (shovelling sand into a small mine car) power mucking (using a mucking machine to drag ore toward a chute) and similar events. I'd like to see wiring and blasting a big boulder in there, but I don't think the idea would pass. The bits and pieces from the contest are left in the field next to the arena, and boulders full of drill holes (they used to use real boulders instead of concrete) are to be found all over. As I mentioned before, there are murals painted on many buildings which celebrate the aboriginal past, the wildlife to be found here, and the history of mining in the area.

Mining as a profession is a lot more respectful than it used to be; I can remember our parents threatening us - "If you don't work hard at school you will end up working in the mines!" The irony is that two of the Schmidt boys did actually work in the mines...

These days you need Grade 12 education to get even a beginner's job underground. Times sure have changed, but the job has changed too. Miners now use a lot of sophisticated equipment. After tomorrow's underground visit I can tell you more.

Visiting Wabowden

Finally there were cars for rent in Thompson for those, like me, who didn't pre-reserve. I got a Cobalt and promptly took it south to Wabowden where, through a friendly contact from here, I was allowed to come for a tour of their small nickel mine. (Small compared to Vale INCO mines around here) It has recently been 'de-watered' - IOW it had been abandoned by the previous owner and water had done its thing and entered the mine and filled most areas. The contractor, Dumas, had drained it and was busy mining new levels. Here are some pictures.
The mine site has a shaft to enter by and also a ramp
entry. The cage was getting new 'ropes' - which are 1 inch thick braided steel cable - so we entered by the ramps, which was cool because I'd never done that before.





Here I am with "Peanut" (mine captain Noel Morin) who spoke English like Jean Chretien. They even let me keep the brand-new coveralls I was given. The coveralls are great, fit well, and have DUMAS written in reflective lettering on the back, along with lots of stripes. Anyone who has seen the Shawshank Redemption will rememeber the scene when the guy picks up a book by Dumas and reads; "The Three Musketeers by Alexandree dumb-ass."