OCR Text |
Show Although the hidden rock fracture marked by Hot Springs apparently produced a couple of minor quakes, the memorable local shake came from the mine. After the best ore had been blasted out, the miners pecked away along the margins hoping to hit new veins and pockets. They found none of much value. So they did the thrifty thing: they whittled away at rock pillars that helped support the rock above. They didn't timber the ceiling. These pillars were, we understood, high grade ore. They dwindled and vanished into the ore buckets. Something had to happen. But in one way the Horn Silver luck still held. One morning just as the night shift reached the top and the next shift was ready to go down, the bottom fell out. No miner was injured but the shock must have knocked the men off their feet-it broke windows 17 miles away- That collapse of thousands of cubic yards of rock into the "glory hole" was something. It made the mine too expensive to operate as a major undertaking, considering the lower grade ore that was left down there. Also the mine had earned a bad reputation for the "con," lung trouble caused by dust of drills. The miners straggled away. Since the peak of the boom, stores, bars and houses of prostitution had been dwindling. A new shaft was sunk but the miners lived in Milford and drove out in "tin lizzies"-Model T Fords. All that's left in the Horn Silver neighborhood is one of those bejiive stone ovens built to produce charcoal for early-day smelting. That and some ruinous buildings and cellar holes, mine dumps and the |