German Thunder

Saturday we tried to see Mt Rushmore but it was socked in. No part of it was visible. There were plenty of other disappointed folks. We looked at the other parts of the monument, but it was pretty anticlimactic with no guys on the wall! We left the wipers on and went the few miles down the hill to Keystone where we toured the Big Thunder Gold Mine.

2 German guys who were pyrotechnicians (the guys who loaded and blew up the dynamite) in Keystone, decided they were going to stake a claim adjacent to a known successful mine. They worked it for 35 years until one of the partners decided to go back to Germany and sold his half to his partner. At that point they had gone several hundred feet into the hill and only made a few hundred dollars. The now full owner, lamenting the loss of his partner and best friend was playing poker. Towards the end of the evening, the pot grew and he bet the mine. Several other miners were doing the same thing. He won that hand and eventually one of the mines he had won became profitable and he was able to retire.

The tour made it very clear how hard they worked and what was involved in separating the gold, the hazards of Mercury, darkness in the mines and hazards of the dynamiting.

The mine got it's name because the owners knew to put a metal plate at the base of the dynamited area to make it easier to shovel out the newly exploded ore. The 660 pound steel plate made the explosion much louder and the nearby town folks said it sounded like thunder.

The picture below shows rebar poking through the wall of the mine. This was an indication to the German miners that they were getting too close to the adjacent mine.