![\"A](\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4037\/4338756581_4ab7be6efb.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a>A mine with chat pile looming beside it.<\/p><\/div>\n
In James Norris’ \u201cAZn: A History of the American Zinc Company\u201d he noted that \u201cIn 1897 soaring prices and continued active demand produced large profits for miners in the Joplin zinc-ore district, and the following year was one of the most prosperous in the history of zinc mining.\u201d This boom in lead and zinc mining attracted the attention of wealthy Eastern investors. In 1899, a group of Boston capitalists formed a corporation they called American Zinc, Lead, and Smelting Company. American Zinc, as it was commonly known, became one of the major players in the Tri-State Mining District.<\/p>\n
In 1902, Harry S. Kimball was sent to Joplin to evaluate the company’s prospects in Joplin. He later recalled that Joplin was a, \u201cbleak prospect for a tenderfoot to see as his first contact with a mining camp.\u201d Hugh chat and slag piles littered the landscape. Miners were using \u201crelatively simple and inefficient\u201d mining methods.\u00a0 Thus men who were on the cusp of a century that heralded rapid technological and industrial innovations were operating as if they were still in the Dark Ages.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2462\/3684396405_d26ae98e16.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a>An example of the primitive technology at play in the mining fields. Here a hand-powered jig.<\/p><\/div>\n
Historian Arrell M. Gibson describes the various mining techniques used in the Joplin area in his book, \u201cWilderness Bonanza.\u201d Shafting, which required miners to create a vertical access shaft into the earth, was dangerous work. Miners drilled openings into the rock face and then inserted sticks of dynamite into the holes in order to break up solid rock. Dynamite, if handled incorrectly, was deadly. Miners sometimes had to tamp sticks into place.\u00a0 This involved tapping the explosive material into a firmer or deeper position. If they neglected to use a wooden stick to tamp in the dynamite, often using a metal bar instead, it could create sparks and cause a premature explosion with devastating effect.<\/p>\n
Adding to the danger, miners also used giant powder, which was more powerful than regular black powder, to break up solid rock surfaces. Gibson states that many miners complained that giant powder caused headaches and nausea. But if a miner was fortunate enough not to die in a mine collapse, premature explosion, or suffocate, there was a good chance he would die early from silicosis. Silicosis is a condition caused by breathing in crystalline silica dust.\u00a0 After a controlled explosion, miners often failed to wet down the rock and as a result, inhaled minute particles of rock dust, which damaged their lungs like invisible razorblades piercing through their lung tissue. Miners who suffered from silicosis experienced shortness of breath, coughing, fever, and even a changing of the color of their skin. Of the many miners who eventually succumbed to the manufactured disease, one was Oscar C. Rosebrough. The thirty-six-year-old miner died of \u201cminer’s consumption\u201d in the summer of 1917.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2596\/3684385365_ed6365682e.jpg\" "\\"Zinc")
<\/a>![\"Photograph](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3054\/3684397425_cd0df98ce4.jpg\" "\\"Photograph")
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