Nederland Miners’ Days
Hard rock mining skill competitions
The theme of Nederland’s 40th Miners’ Days this past weekend on July 24-25 at the Guerico field was “Reclaiming Our Heritage,” and participants labored hard at demonstrating their tough hard rock mining skills. The Miners’ Days celebration included other town events such as a pancake breakfast, parade and a silent auction benefiting the Nederland Historical Society.
A memorial dedication to Jim Bennett, who was a long-time resident of Ward and passed away on May 29, took place on Saturday. A local quarry donated the monster rocks for the competitions and one of the smaller ones was painted on top by Tom Roczen as a memorial to Bennett with his name above a colorful mountain scene. Family and friends then autographed the sides of the rock with loving words of remembrance. The memorial rock will be on display at the Mining Museum in Nederland.
Among the timed competitive events were bow sawing, drilling, log splitting, mucking, and spike driving. All of the events related to hard rock mining which usually meant drilling holes for explosives, traditionally dynamite.
Hand or percussive drilling was featured in the Single Jack and Double Jack drilling events. In Single Jack drilling a participant holds a steel with one hand against rock while using the other hand to hit the steel with a hammer. The steel is slightly rotated by hand between hits. As the steel bit hits the rock a dust is created in the hole. Water is continuously funneled into the hole to help remove the dust. Double Jack drilling repeats the same procedure but requires two participants, one to hammer and one to hold and turn the steel.
Another tool used for boring was a Jackleg drill, a pneumatic or compressed-air drill that bores quickly and deeply into rock. These drills—known for their noise, torque and vibration–were featured in the Jackleg and Team Jackleg competitions.
Once ore or rock is broken by explosives it’s called muck and it needs to be removed from the site. The mining term for removal is called mucking. The Miners’ Days competition involved standing on a high pile of dirt, shoveling dirt into a small ore cart to a certain level, pushing the loaded cart down rails a short distance, and then pushing it back to the pile as fast as possible. Not an easy task.
The well-earned event winners and their cash prizes were:
Men’s Division:
- Bow Sawing: First Place, Cliff Jaramillo ($255); Second, Tom Hendricks ($155); and Third, Rick Thomas ($130)
- Jackleg: First Place, Rick Thomas ($290); Second, Chris Lamb ($190); and Third, Emmit Hoyl ($140)
- Team Jackleg: First Place, Emmit Hoyl and Cliff Jaramillo ($175 each); Second, Chris Lamb and Rick Thomas ($125 each); and Third, Rick Thomas and Chris Lamb ($100 each)
- Mucking: First Place, Jesse Pattridge ($250); Second, Emmit Hoyl ($150); and Third, Freedom DeShincoe ($125)
- Single Jack: First Place, Emmit Hoyl ($320); Second, Jesse Pattridge ($220); and Third, Eric Clifford ($170)
- Double Jack: First Place, Casey Clifford and Emmit Hoyl ($162.50 each); Second, Freedom DeShincoe and Jesse Pattridge ($112.50 each); and Third, Cliff Bennett and Rick Thomas ($87.50 each)
- Spike Driving: First Place, Cliff Jaramillo ($255); Second, Cliff Bennett ($155); and Third, Emmit Hoyl ($130)
Women’s Division:
- Bow Sawing: First Place, Carrie Jo Saunders ($126); Second, Tina Robinson ($101); and Third,
- Belinda Binette ($76)
- Mucking: First Place, Dorothy McCarty ($130); Second, Carrie Jo Saunders ($105); and Third, Dayna Larsen ($80)
- Single Jack: First Place, Tina Robinson ($123.33); Second, Carrie Jo Saunders ($98.33); and Third,
- Casey Saunders ($73.33)
- Spike Driving: First Place, Hillary Kysar ($123.33); Second, Carrie Jo Saunders ($98.33); and Third, Barb Hardt-Zeman ($73.33)
The All-Around Winner in the Men’s Division was Emmit Hoyl, who donated his cash prize of $500 to the Bennett family. Carrie Jo Saunders was the All-Around Winner in the Women’s Division and received a cash prize of $250.
Throughout the entire event competitors actively yelled encouragement to each other, showing great team spirit even when they were in direct competition against each other. One of the participants remarked that it was like summer camp seeing the same people every two weeks during the mining competitions.
In case you missed this event, the next one closest to home will take place at the Hardrockers Holidays festival in Silverton from Friday, August 13 to Sunday, August 15.