Mr. T. C. Hearn
Recorded by the Natrona County Historical Society
Life of an Early Coal Miner

SIDE I and II Natrona County Historical Society October 1979


PR..O.K. So you are one of the old original one of the old coal miners o£ Rock Springs..'. TH..Yes, but I will start now from/from the time that I was in school in the early days in Wales. I guess I'll, I guess I'm close enough to this aren't I.
PR. Yes, you are fine
TH.. I was brought up in a village called Sketty, South Wales, Great Britain
PR.. How is that spelled?
TH..SKETTY, its a village outside of Swansea, South Wales, Great Britain; and I lost my father when I was 7 was 6 years of age, and in the early days we had a vegetable garden and we grew potatoes and vegetables; and mother stood on the open market, what I mean by the open market was a big market place where it would be about a mile in circumference, you know, and she'd put the vegetables down on the floor and people would pass along side of the vegetables end they'd pick up a cabbage or pick up some potatoes or anything.. Kidney beans or anything in the vegetable line so that mother made enough to buy the groceries and pay the rent, out of the vegetable garden, and that's how I was brought up in the early days. We had to tend to the vegetable garden and grow all these vegetables in the first place, but she was able to into the market on Wednesday and Saturday and sell the vegetables and whatever she had to sell, she'd made enough to pay the rent and buy the groceries and then till we got grown and through school the school years, you knew, till we were 14. See when I was brought up you only went to school ‘til you were 14 years of age, there was nothing else for you. You had to go out and make a living the best way you could. So then when I was 14, I got my first job. I was working / for some very rich people, and after I had worked for them for about 3 months, weeding in the garden and around the flowerbed and so on. The lady of the house, she came to me and she said...'We’re getting confused" she said, "in the house, my husbands name is Charles and your name is Charles, " so she said, "my regular initials are Thomas Charles," so from now on she said, "we are going to call you Thomas" and then her husband's name was left as Charles you see, so there would be no confusion. It was an estate that I worked on, and then from after about working there for a year I got a job in a large copper mill in Swansea and we'd roll the plates of copper that were about 4' thick by I would say 6' wide, and they were put into the furnace and a red hot furnace and I attended this furnace and got them these big copper plates up to a certain degree till they were/till the copper was/ was red hot and then that block of copper was brought out through the rolling mills and it was rolled/that block was rolled out to half inch thickness from maybe 3” in the first place, then it was oh/it was 9" thick; and it was brought down by different processes like putting back in the furnace, then bringing it out then rolling it out again till we got the proper width and the proper thickness for the whole thing it was intended for, and these copper plates were made for engines, like the bottom part of a steam engine. I worked there for about oh.. I think it was about 3 years, then the First World War come up in 1914 and I wanted to be a volunteer. So, Lord Kitchener was a well known general he asked for a 100,000 volunteers, and after we had 12 months training, but in the meantime, at the end of this training they were bringing over American boys over to Great Britain, with only 3 months training, because the Germans were over running Belgium and Holland and the low countries. We were shipped from this training ground to France and I was in the trenches in France up in a place called Ardennes. That's in France and we were only in the trenches off and on for about 3 weeks, then we were shipped down to Marseilles, that’s in France, then we were shipped from Marseilles through the Mediterranean up into Greece and that was in 1915 after this, because I volunteered in '14 and in 1915 we were shipped overseas. Then we got into this, into what we called Salonika, in the bible its called Thessalonica, and we were sent up on outpost duty and we’d/I'd had a full pack of 80 lbs. on our backs and a rifle and we'd march 18 miles in the day and then I had to go out on search on that night, right up into what we call No mans land and the enemy's on the other side and then we would, there would probably be about 9 of us altogether, but of that 9 there was only 1 on duty and he stood up there pitch dark with his hand grenades and his rifle full of/the breech and the and the rifle all ready to shoot any enemy that were coming, and the enemy was the Bulgarians.
PR.The Bulgarians...
TH.. Yes, and the Serbians out of Serbia and these poor Serbian women were having children born right on the side of the what we called the Monster Road On the banks of the railroad tracks and they were driven out of homes just like you are today and I got and then after being up in Salonika about 12 months, I got down with malaria, we relieved a French battalion and they left the ground and it was in a ravine, a ravine is like a valley, and they left the ground all full of garbage and it brought a lot of mosquitoes; and that led in to malaria, and when I got that malaria I fell on my face with a temperature of 100 and then after
PR..I bet quite a few people didn't survive that
TH..Oh yes, and I was drove down to the hospital with this malaria into Slonika after being out on outpost duty up in the hills where the enemy was you know, and when I got /after I had been in hospital about 3 days there was an English officer in the same hospital as I was with an English bullet in his body. One of his own men had shot him. I never, did find out what/what caused that incident between them, but the soldier must of got/lost his temper and shot his own officer. Then I got well again over/after they give you whiskey and quinine for malaria fever. I was back in my/with my regiment again, after about I think it was about 7 weeks of being in the hospital. Then, I still worked up into the up into what they called the No mans Land, as I said we had marched 18 miles in the day and then, go on searches at night, and then one day there was a message that came from where I used to work, in the rolling mill, this copper mill, and they got short of qualified men/that was men that understood the work that you hand to do. There was so many men had volunteered; and now the owner wanted to bring men back to fulfill orders for the war you know, and copper was used for war in them days. So, I worked about a year in this copper mill again after 1918, I came from Salonika in 1917 then around about 1918 I was shipped back to Sketty, South Wales again and I worked at this copper mill for about a year again and then this order came for to come back and with all my expenses paid, the company that I worked for they paid all my expenses and I started back at work at the same hot work in the copper mill again and then I was friendly to a young woman, and English Miss Walker and she had been waiting for me all the time that I was overseas and we’d been going together for 5 years till it became 1919 and we got married and we lived with her/in the same house as her father and mother. Her mother said one day, she said to the both of us, she said, “If I was a young couple like you, I would emigrate to America. So we thought, my wife and I thought it over for a week, and to come to we decided to come to America, so we left, we went up from Scotty up to London, and from London to Liverpool, that’s a big English harbour, and then we quartered/we got passage then from Liverpool to America. I’d saved enough money in the meantime to pay for our passage. Then we..
PR.. How much was it, do you remember?
TH.. About..Oh I would say for Mrs. Hearn and I it would be about 10-15 Pounds in English money, like the whole trip from Sketty, Swansea to America and then after we got into New York we had – Mrs. Hearn had a brother living in Rock Springs and his wife, Mrs. Eva Walker (Auntie), so we bought a ticket then from New York to Rock Springs and that probably was about I would say roughly $150 for the both of us from New York to Rock Springs. But what amused me was, we got to Rawlins, you have heard of Rawlins, and we got out of the train, after we had been on the train for about 11 days, that included the boat and all, and we stepped out of the train to stretch our legs because we were tired you know, and I asked the conductor in Rawlins, how far is Rock Springs I said, he said, “There’s no such place, “he said (laughter now I was confused because I didn’t know where we were going at that time, if I had him how far Casper was he would have said the same thing. So that was in 1920. So in 1920 after I for into Rock Springs, I stayed with Mrs. Hearn’s brother and his wife for about 2 months, 2-3 months if I recall
PR.. Was it wintertime or summer time?
TH.. In May 1920. Then I saw a home on Center Street in Rock Springs being built, and this carpenter was putting the roof on that time, so I asked the carpenter, no I asked the banker rather, after I had been Rock Springs for about 3 months, I said, “Can I have a loan, I haven’t got the money,” I said, “ but I will do all I can to pay the loan off the best way I can,” I said. “Alright, “ he said, “you can have a loan, “ and the house got completed and we lived in that house and paid so much and it took us 13 years to pay for that loan. In them early days, the mines didn’t work sometimes only one day a week, but in the wintertime we worked a little better, but anyhow, I paid that loan off and going back to the time that I started paying off the loan, I went to the man one day and we were having our lunch about 12 o/clock and the man started to make fun of me for buying a home in Rock Springs, for they said, look at Charlie there, they said, he's gone and bought a home in Rock Springs and it will be a ghost town 30 or so years from that particular time. I kept on living in the house and we had a little family coming on, we had 2 boys and 2 girls. Then I got a job in a place called
Winton, that's about 14 miles north of Rock Springs and I worked for the Union Pacific
RR in the mines at Winton, and we had the house rented in Rock Springs, and the money that these renters were paying into the bank that took to pay the principal off and with what I could send from Winton as I worked, but I could save in Winton because my rent was only $12.00 per month for a 4 room house in Winton. So after I had been working in Winton for about 3 years, we came back to Rock Springs and lived in our own house again. I worked in the mines again in Rock Springs, When '
PR. .How did you get the job the first time?
TH..Beg pardon..?
PR..How did you get your job in the mines at the beginning..?
TH.YOU applied. I tell you how I got my first jobs in the mines in Rock Springs. As a check weigh man, they had a check weigh man there working, but he was cheating the company, and the miners were paying him to give them extra weight, so when the coal went over the railroads there, the company got to find out there were so many tons of coal missing, so this man got fired, the check weigh man got fired, and I had only been in Rock Springs 3 weeks then, I applied for the job, and I got that job after he was fired, and I belonged to the union and I weighed the coal for the company any as fair as I could weigh it, and I'd give the miners the correct weight, and I treated the company the same way, and they paid me as a union man to weigh that coal, without cheating either side, and then after/after I had worked for oh for about, until about 1952 the mines started closing down. And, the meantime I had put my application into the high school in Rock Springs coos I knew these mines were going to close any time you know, the U.P. had started using diesel, and that finished the mines. The mines had to close down and they started using oil and the mines didn't have the orders you know, because there was no demand for coal. So, in 1952 I, 1952 yes that's right, I got let’s see. In 1952 I was just trying to think what happened after that ...Oh..I worked at the high school, that was it, and I worked at the high school for 10 years as monthly man, and in the meantime I couldn't build that social security up the social security started in '37, so when I got this job as a custodian in the high school, I was paid by the month, and I was starting to build my social security up and I was about/I was about 62 then, but then I worked 10 years for the school board in Rock Springs and ‘til I become 65. Then I went to the superintendent and I said 'Mr. Thompson, "I said, 'between my war work, service on my work," I said, "I have 50 years all completed," I said," I would like to retire," and so I retired, but when I told him that I would like to retire, he jumped off his desk, 'Mr.. Hearn," he said, "I can't afford to leave you go," he said, 'You are in better shape than the man I got, " he said, and you know I was doing my work, and he could always trust me to take care of the school, that I was taking care of, but the only thing $175.00 a month, and I was cleaning 14 rooms a day, from 6 till 6, and as I say, I was working on a monthly basis and I paid, I was able to build up my social security and then I retired and now I am 88 years of age, but in the meantime I was quite a church worker as well, and I put 45 years as an usher in the Congregational Church in Rock Springs, and I worked under 16 ministers in Rock Springs as a faithful church deacon, and Mrs. Hearn would sing in the choir and we’d when the children were small we'd put them in the buggy and put them in the lobby and I'd go and usher and they'd go to sleep, it was 7 o/clock in the evening then. They would go to sleep, Mrs. Hearn would go in the choir and I would be ushering, but I in them days there was no organization of any kind in the church, and I asked a man to help me he was always willing. I never had anybody turn me down, and I could always get folk three; more gentlemen life time members to help me to do this ushering, and the minister would say, whenever they came to the pulpit, they could always see Mr. Hearn ready to go to work, and that was one reason why I have so much faith in the one above. If I pray for you or anybody the Lord answers my prayers, up to the present day, and for my good works my own minister said "For all the work that you have done in the church," he said, "that you would meet Mrs. Hearn in Heaven." That's the words he told me, and here I am, I’ve got good children and they are good to me and I spent three years now living in my own home in Rock Springs, but in the meantime I come up and spend a few months every year with my children in Casper. Then I have a daughter in Rock Springs that is very kind to me, her name is Doris Zelenka, I wake her every morning at 8.30 to tell let her know I'm alright, you know, and then after/towards the end of our conversation she will say, 'Dad, I want you to come up to supper tonight," so I'll go up to supper with them. Maybe three times each week, but then in between I do my own cooking, I'm my own housekeeper and pay all my bills and I will say that up until the present
time my memory is quite good, at 88, and I have good health, but I have this black lung, from the mines....Yes, from this coal dust, working around the mines, and/but I take tablets. I take a. tablet/its a pill I take one at 7 am and one at 4 pm and there was a Dr. in Casper. Well he prescribed this particular drug for me, and I had never taken drugs in my life, but it breaks up all this mucus on my chest, and I can I can get rid of it after it breaks up and that helps my breathing and that's prolonging my life..
PR.. What was it like working in the mines, breathing that dust?
TH.. Oh, the air was very bad; see the air in the mines is not like the air outside you
knew, and then you have a lot of to contend with. I used to drive a mule in
them, in the mines, and it was very dangerous work. I pulled the coal from the miner.
They had a mine car I got 4 mine cars and I drove the mule to the crevice on the on the edge of the mine car and he would pull all these loaded cars out to the bottom of the slope, and I'd go and take 4 empties in and bring 4 loads out again, and then /I also load rope, and that was another dangerous job. : See I ‘m not very heavy and I could jump around oh, sometimes twice as fast as some men could you know, and if I could see danger I could always jump in the clear, but one day/I'm going to give you what it means to work in the mines. I was working in a room loading coal and there were two men, two brothers they were, they were loading coal above us, and we were coming back with what they call pillow work and this place where they worked started caving in and when it started to cave in it created a lot of dust and when them rocks hit the mine floor it lit up the dust, the gas got lit up and it started to the men with a big ball of fire over head, but if you keep down like this, and run, the best way you can near the rail, the air is better down there, you can breathe, but this fire was right over my head. Then I ran as far as I could for about 300 feet out to the slope, as we call it, and the air was good and soon as this fire hit that good air it went out, the good air smacked it out you see. You know, in the early days in Rock Springs they were killing men, there was somebody killed once a week, Yes, there was somebody killed, Cos there was a big demand for coal Cos the Union
Pacific was shipping coal; there was a trainload of coal went out of Rock Springs every 30 minutes. There was mines at a place called Sweetwater there was one/two/three/four/five, there was five mines in Rock Springs and then there was a place called Stansbury and there was a place called Reliance, course all of this is shut dawn now, but at/it could open all these places again/what we call coal towns and then there was Stansbury, and Winton, and Superior and/in Rock Springs in them days they had about five switch engines, and they were making up these coal trains and they ,as/they'd shipped this coal back east up until the time the diesel started on the UP trains...

I was a member of the The United Mineworkers. And then in 1952 I applied for my pension, my miners pension and I answered all the questions according to the form that I was sent, and I got my miners pension, in 1952, but while was answering these questions I was secretary of the local, the Blairtown local, and the number of the local was 2516 and we were in district 22, that district 21 now comprises 11 of the Wyoming and Colorado and Utah and Montana at the present time.
PR..Did you have strikes?
TH..Oh yes, even in 1922 when I was paying for this room, we were out 5 months on strike, and the conditions got so bad that the and coal operators wouldn’t settle, I don't know ‘why they wouldn't settle because there was a demand for coal. I will say this about a strike, both sides loses in a strike, so we went back to work after being out for 6 months under the same conditions as we started, and we couldn't get any satisfaction from the mine operators, .So we had to go back to work. Then in `45 we was out on strike three times in one year and then it was when John L., he was fighting the operators to pay so much into the into the miners welfare, which they are doing to day. And with that money that they pay so much a ton, the mine err the union/the United Mineworkers treasury was built up, and that provided myself with a pension and not only myself but thousands of others old coalminers like myself up to the present day.
..
PR..Now at that first strike, how much were you getting paid, in 1922? Before you went out on strike.
TH..Oh. $6.72 a day, and now they/they are paying miners $60, a day for the same work that I was getting $6.72 a day, in 1927. See how. . everything has, changed. Course the price of everything has gone up too, you know. In them early years, you could buy butter for $.37 a pound. And a loaf of bread for maybe $.30 compared with today, a loaf of bread It is now up from $.6S to $.75, and everything went up and of course wages are up now compared with prices, but I will say this now ...as soon as wages go up, then prices go up if prices would only stay at a certain level, people could/could get by much easier and pay their way and pay their bills and buy a home and do the things they want to do. Like the present day but now, what does happen here even with this last raise in social security, see we got a raise in social security last month, prices still goes up, and your gas rates goes up your water rates goes up and price of food goes up.
PR.YOU can never catch up.
TH..I'm going to say this what I notice is the large corporation they can/they have lobbyists and they go to the legislature and they can change these peoples minds from what they intended to do towards their/to the people what put them in there in the first place. See if, a corporation can pay a lobbyist a big sum of money, just to get an advantage from the legislature or from the commission that sits in Cheyenne or to give you and I a reasonable way of life and living, but I what I have noticed is.they are always willing to give the corporation a raise and forget all, about the consumer, the man That has got to work and pay for his way.
PR..That's right...
TH..And that's what bothers me, it keeps/it keeps the corporation making more profits at the expense of the; miner and the producer. The producer is the working man like I have been
PR..That's right...
TH..And that way you will never get a chance to/to raise up and save a big amount of money, not like these corporations do. See the corporations of today, they can make millions of dollars, and wish a working man and his wife they stay on one level, throughout the biggest part of their life and then, even after he is too old to work they/these poor men after they have been crippled up in the mines and too old to work they/they what happened to the miners in each state see each town in every state in the country has what we call an old peoples homes, and its a place where they don't get no exercise, and they just wither away like a flower. See the our bodies are just like a flower, we wither away inside, from the time we are born to the time we grow to the grave and that is the end of the working man today and his wife. It goes on from one generation to the other. I suppose it’s the way the Lord intends things to be.
PR..What was the town of Rock Springs in the early days did the Union Pacific, were they hard people to work for?
TH..We11 they controlled everything. Oh You could work for them and they would pay you the rate like, for that particular time, until up til 1960, then they were changed over to these diesels and that finished the coal turning, there was no coal mining after that PR..Did the Union Pacific own the, did they own the stores?
TH ...Yes, they had company stores then, in them days.
PR. How did that work?
TH..We11 you could go into the store and order, like say, $5.00 of groceries and that was charged against your wages, it was deducted from your wages every pay day for them groceries, and chats the only way some people could get groceries to keep to provide food for their family.
PR..Were the prices high?
TH..NO, not in those days, no the prices weren't high, and rents weren't high then in them days.
PR..How were they compared to company stores compared to regular stores, were they about the same? price wise?
TH..We11, see prices had been raising I would say from Oh ...from 1960 up until the present time they have been going up every month and I can't see that there will be any way that they will came down again because they are some people, some of our cleverest people claim that we may have a recession and if we do have a recession, a lot of people are going to suffer, and it will be
PR..With the people
TH..Yes, things will be going the opposite way, which I hope will never happen. PR..That's right..
TH.. Because I have seen hard times myself.
PR. .How was it during the 1930s, was it hard?
TH..Oh yes, it was difficult days..
PR..What was it like in the mines in those days?
TH..Wages were small then in 1930, up until 1950 and 1960 then wages started to raise, but John L. Lewis was the man that helped, he not only helped the miners, but he helped all other, trades, he was one of the best. I would say one of the fairest and one of the best union men we have ever had in America, that is for the working man, and by his determination, he showed the operators like er/what poor conditions cos he was a miner himself in the early days, and he was a man that was very fluent in his speech and he made the operators understand that they what conditions that the miners worked under were very poor in the early days. And now the present day people are getting, are educated and they can't get enough, miners to go into the mines. They can get better jobs outside the mines, and probably just as much wages outside as what they get inside. PR..Huh Huh. Then you were in the mines, working in the mine, er/did you how did the level work. Did you start at a certain job and work up or how did that work? or was it seniority?
TH..Yes. I started in the mines in what they called a trapper, a trapper is opening the door, see they have got to divide the air, on one side is the bad air and on the ocher side is good air, and you have got to let this good air go to where the men are working. So after the mine developed there would be two slopes, one was the main slope where they pulled the coal, and the ocher slope was for ventilation, and I would as the coal truck went through I would open this door and let that coal track go right through, then soon as the coal truck had gone through I would close that door and I could hear the next truck coming, and I would open the door again. That was my first job in the mine. Then I went as a Wagoner...we would push the cars from what we called the bottom of the slope, right into where the men were working, and we'd load the coal ourselves and then push that car out through the bottom of the slope so it could go outside, and we were paid for the distance that we pushed that tram, only one tram at a time, but we were paid far every yard that we pushed that tram. It wasn't a very big wage in them days, but the mine engineer would come in and he'd measure the distance that we had to push the car, but now that's all changed now, see today they have got motors in the mines, and the motor will pull 40 cars at a time, 40 empties into where the miners are working and then there is very little coal loaded by hand. See when
PR..That was all loaded by hand in those days.
TH .. Yes, when I worked in the mines everything was done by hand pick and shovel, now its all machinery. They got machines that will go into a room like this and cut that coal this way and that machine will cut the coal and load it and it goes out on to a conveyor, and the conveyor takes it right to the ripple, where the coal is processed info different sizes. And, shipped into the railroad cars.
PR. .What kind, what kind of equipment did you wear/did you wear a hard hat.
TH. Hard hat, and I had a battery here, and a tube like an old electric dryer in a tube up to
the light. I had a light right on/which fitted in to my hard hat here, and that was the only
light that we had to work with.
PR..What kind of light was it, was it carbide light?
TH..No, see a carbide light is different again, this was a battery.
PR..Battery?

.
TH..Like you were providing the power for the light. But it worked with carbide too, in the early days. You had a / a it was like a little lantern affair, and you would turn the bottom and you would fill that full of carbide and then there was a wick going up from that carbide up in to what we called the globe of the lantern and that provided the light that we had to work in the mine, you see then
PR..Was it a very goad light?
TH..They install overhead wires and there is lights going right through the entries and up the slopes, as I said, everything is changed because of the demand for coal and the prices have gone up, but in the early days everything seemed to have stayed at one level. There was no demand and we just a small, you see..?.... Yes, right up until as I said, I have been a faithful church worker and I worked in the church for 45 years, and the Lord is/has blessed me, I will say until the present day. And I am able to enjoy life, I work about 3 to 4 hours in my yard in the morning, and I take a nap and I feel refreshed again, and he provides me food for the next day, and that's the day I go along.
PR..That's great..
TH..But as I say, I have a lot of faith in the one above, and if people had faith, like Charlie Hearn, this country would be a different country to live in. But you most, whatever you are, whatever city you are in, in any part of the world, you must have churches or the people/if there is no place for them to worship, the people change their life/their lives changes. They are not educated. Now you take India, Africa where there are very few ministers, very few doctors and er/the conditions that the people work under, are very poor, and take India and Africa a woman is considered very old at 40 years of age. PR That's right..
TH..And that's too bad you know, I will say that. .On account of no doctors, maybe .
PR..In Rock Springs in the old days where they’re a lot of miners from foreign countries,
TH..Oh yes, what we called emigrants. Come in from all the different countries, and..
PR..Did they have, how did they get along with the other miners?
TH..Wel1, I am going to give you what happened. That was before I come to Rock Springs / see the Chinaman used to work in the mines in the early days, and the Chinaman were paying were giving money to the mine officials in the early days, and these mine officials was giving the Chinamen the best place in the mine and if I come in from another country, and if you come in from another country and got a job in the same mine, you would have a place work, where you could hardly make a living. But these Chinamen were giving money to the mine official, course everything was on contract, you were loading coal on contract, mining it and loading it in they days, as there was no machinery like there is today.
PR..Was every miner in those days a contract worker?
TH..Beg pardon?
PR..Was every miner a contract worker in those days?
TH..Yes, in then days, yes. In the early days they were all paid for the amount of coal they turned out, in them days. As I said, they didn't provide water into the mine, like to keep the dust down like they do today, and conditions have improved Oh..I will say SS& to what they did in them days. See, now today as these men go along and take this coal out, they use what they call, roof bolts; they can drill a hole up into them big slabs. and these roof bolts will hold them slabs up, so they can work underneath. When I worked in the mine, we used props, wooden props and sometimes we couldn't get enough props and we worked order dangerous conditions, life you know. I went in under some places where it there was gas like you know, and you could light up, I see a man one day the boss told him not to go into that certain room, course I was standing right by him, I said/he said, "Don't go into that room, ‘til I come down, " he said, and he went in there and lit that gas up and he burnt all his arms hair and his face was all burnt, just like a piece of beef. I see the man come out of there, and that fire boss had told him, not to go in there, till I come down he said. He was going to try and clear that gas so he could put his days work in, which he/he er/the man would have. If he hadn't gone in there to do it himself, but when he went in there he lit the gas up because he had an open light, you see.
PR..That's Right....
TH..Yes..
PR..How about when you were working in the mines, did you/did you have friends who were like Italian or/or er/German or pretty much did people who were English stay with people who were English, How did that work?
TH.. The men that we worked with, they were all a friendly group like, you know, course they belonged to the same union, and they were trying to make a living just like I was, but as I said, we only worked sometimes one day a week, course there was no orders for the coal, and we had/as I told you in the first part of my story, it took me 13 years to pay for the room I got today and if have lived in that same room over for 59 years, and but its worth 8 times more today, than what I paid for it.
PR..How about that.
T.C..What do you think of that?
PR.That was a good buy then.
TH And er/I've always tried to live a clean life. Recently, I have lived a full year in Casper with Mr. Leslie Hearn.
PR..He's principal of Willard School
TH..And that's my life story as long as the Lord allows me to live. And people ask me how do you feel Mr. Hearn, I says "I mustn't complain," I says, "I'm just living from day to day," (laughter), still going on, and I don't know how long they will go on,
but as I said, I have a lot of faith in the one above, and he provides me with that faith and
I/I go to my church even now, while I am retired. I give my church $40.00 every month, what do you think of that? I give $40.00 to the building fund, and $20.00 to the building fund and $20.00 to the church, every month.
PR..In the old days, in Rock Springs, was there a lot of crime, back in the early days?
TH. Quite a lot.
PR There was?
TH ..Oh Quite a lot, yes. Oh there was a lot er/the police was paid very poorly, and
Conditions like was/the way people were living created crime, but.
PR. What kind of crime was it pretty much?
TH..Let me put it this way, er/I believe the people that makes the liquor for all that crime,
that's the way it starts in the first place. Most crime starts from people drinking liquor
and they drink so much then that they get into an argument, but if that liquor wasn't available they wouldn't be able to get into crime, but liquor is so easy to get and that provides at goes up to these people and changes their mind, one word leads on to another through intoxicating: Liquors. Now I was taught to avoid intoxicating liquors
PR. How?
TH..I support what they call The Band Of Hope, it was an open meeting for all young people like I was, from 8 until about 17 years of age, and these people that taught us to avoid intoxicating liquors, they told us what it led up to, and that helped me up until the present day. If somebody offers something that~I don't want, I can always say no through the teaching I have had in the early days.
PR..How was it: in the mines, were there any problems with miners getting. Oh... intoxicated in the mines?
TH..Oh yes, let's see now, in the early days, same of these miners they used to gamble their wages and the poor wife never seen the check.
PR..Did they gamble/where did they gamble there in the mines or after work?
TH..Oh, anywhere course there was/the police conditions was poor you know, its much better today, police are paid better and er/er its safer even in Casper in the early days, after 7 o/clock in the night, and the same in Rock Springs. It wasn't safe for a woman to walk the street, on account of so many/so much crime and no lights of any kind like there is today, and no police to police these streets like we have today, and up until the way things are now, as I said, everything is changed almost 95%. Which I am proud of. PR..Today is July 9,1979, and I have just completed an interview with Charles Hearn, a longtime resident of Rock Springs, who told about coal mining in the 1920s. The interview was conducted in his son's home Leslie Hearn's home in Casper, Wyoming The interviewer is Phil Roberts.

Footprints

Mr. T. C. Hearn, I proud to say, is my Grandfather. He lived to age 99. He always said, Time I is my side.” The Blairtown roundhouse my Grandfather referred to was just a shell of bricks in 1960. One day, my Grandpa asked me to get my truck (that was my red wagon). Grandpa and I crossed the main line of the Union Pacific tracks to load bricks into the truck. We took the fully load truck back across the tracks to my Grandpa’s home in the West Flat part of Rock Springs. We used the bricks to build a base under my Grandma’s clothes line. Oh, yes Grandpa always had a lot of flowers in his garden…just as he said in what he called his Reading. Also, my Dad’s grandfather was a coal miner as was my Dad, uncles, relatives and other Rock Spring’s residents who are “ The Home of 56 Nationalities.”

After, my wife, Isabelle and I were married, Grandpa said, “ I want you to always take care of each other.”

History repeats itself. Open pit mines near Gillette have replaced bituminous coal mined in Rock Springs in the early days. Today’ machinery used to load the coal now has tires about the size of a two story building. The same only different!!

Coal is America’s “Ace in the Hole”. There is enough bituminous coal in Wyoming and surrounding states to meet America’s needs for over 100 years.

Grandpa always said he was an old-timer. He was an old- timer with wisdom and forethought!!!

Oh yes, we still keep the red truck in my Mom’s (Mrs. Marjorie Love) garage. She has lived Casper for the last 45 years in the same home!!

Fascinating oral history of coal mining in Wyoming. The note at the bottom serves to underline the point that coal still plays a crucial part in the global energy mix -- accounting for 25% of total primary energy consumption in the US, and 28% of the world total. For the purpose of this debate, the central question is whether continued reliance on coal can be compatible with efforts to reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants.