This entire region was settled pretty much for the mining and it’s an important piece of the history here. So we headed to the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine for a tour. After getting outfitted with hard hats and yellow slickers, we were loaded into one of two cars on a tram (stride it like a saddle and don’t stick your fingers outside the bar, as the rip comes close!). Our guide was a hoot, constantly quipping (“did you get the round trip ticket?” “let’s start ‘er up, she usually does”). We were riding a drift where the miners followed the seam of ore. At some point the drift has been expanded and brought to the surface so the railroad could be put in. The ride to the stop in the mine was loud, and bumpy. Our car was unloaded first into a room-sized space scattered with mining equipment. When he went to move the tram forward to unload the last car, the engine wouldn’t start. So much for the quip.
He tried the engine many times, but it wouldn’t start. Fortunately there was a phone there, so he rang up the front office. It took awhile, but someone finally arrived and started the engine. Courtesy of the delay, he did a very impressive job of cramming 45 minutes worth of information into half an hour. The mine was started by three guys, who joined together to drop down a shaft in a likely location. They dug 200 feet down and they ran out of money, so one of the guys dropped out. They found another investor at $2,000, which was an incredible sum for a non-producing mine (around $100 would have been standard). They went another 50 feet down and struck it rich. At that point they followed the ore seam vertically. Then they dropped the shaft down till they hit more ore. There are 10 levels to this mine. It was interesting to learn how US and global history have changed mining. In 1878, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Silver act which backed our currency with both gold and silver and required the treasury to purchase $2 to $4 million worth of silver bullion monthly. This pushed up prices dramatically till the act was repealed a few years later, causing the bubble to crash. Most of the intense mining in the area was done in this time period. There were some other times of flurries of activities, as well, but the big push was after the silver act. The life of a miner was one of 6 – 7 10 hour days a week, until they switched the pay from hourly to a percent of the ore you brought out, when most miners worked 12 – 14 hours a day. Most miners didn’t live long, as they got lung disease. This mine was considered a good one to work in, as it was producing well and the air was clean.
This entire region was settled pretty much for the mining and it’s an important piece of the history here. So we headed to the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine for a tour. After getting outfitted with hard hats and yellow slickers, we were loaded into one of two cars on a tram (stride it like a saddle and don’t stick your fingers outside the bar, as the rip comes close!). Our guide was a hoot, constantly quipping (“did you get the round trip ticket?” “let’s start ‘er up, she usually does”). We were riding a drift where the miners followed the seam of ore. At some point the drift has been expanded and brought to the surface so the railroad could be put in. The ride to the stop in the mine was loud, and bumpy. Our car was unloaded first into a room-sized space scattered with mining equipment. When he went to move the tram forward to unload the last car, the engine wouldn’t start. So much for the quip. 
He tried the engine many times, but it wouldn’t start. Fortunately there was a phone there, so he rang up the front office. It took awhile, but someone finally arrived and started the engine. Courtesy of the delay, he did a very impressive job of cramming 45 minutes worth of information into half an hour. The mine was started by three guys, who joined together to drop down a shaft in a likely location. They dug 200 feet down and they ran out of money, so one of the guys dropped out. They found another investor at $2,000, which was an incredible sum for a non-producing mine (around $100 would have been standard). They went another 50 feet down and struck it rich. At that point they followed the ore seam vertically. Then they dropped the shaft down till they hit more ore. There are 10 levels to this mine. It was interesting to learn how US and global history have changed mining. In 1878, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Silver act which backed our currency with both gold and silver and required the treasury to purchase $2 to $4 million worth of silver bullion monthly. This pushed up prices dramatically till the act was repealed a few years later, causing the bubble to crash. Most of the intense mining in the area was done in this time period. There were some other times of flurries of activities, as well, but the big push was after the silver act. The life of a miner was one of 6 – 7 10 hour days a week, until they switched the pay from hourly to a percent of the ore you brought out, when most miners worked 12 – 14 hours a day. Most miners didn’t live long, as they got lung disease. This mine was considered a good one to work in, as it was producing well and the air was clean.
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