Sense Of Place: With One Last Stick of Dynamite, Two Miner's Decided Joplin's Fate
Today, the City of Joplin isa thrivinghubfor health care andtransportation. But there was a time when it was nomore than acollection of tentshuddled aroundaseries ofmines.
Walking into the Joplin History Museum, you’re greeted by the two resident cats who watch over the building—andan entirewingdesigned to look like an old mine.
Oldmining equipmentrests in the front lawn. It’simmediately obvious how much the miningindustry once influenced thearea.
Isitdown to learnmorefrom museum director,Christopher Wiseman, who was curatorof the museumfor twenty years.
He said that theindustryreally startedin the 1870saftertwoleadminers, known as“Sergeant”and“Moffat,”won a prize for how much they produced in another minein Missouri.
With this prize money, they leased some land from a Mr. John C. Cox, who had more than an inkling of what was underground.
"One of John C. Cox's slaves before the Civil War had found lead down by a creek while digging for fishing worms."
After a lot of digging on the part of the two miners, according tolocallegend, a “Eureka”momentoccurred.
"Evidently they're ready to give up. They're on their last stick of dynamite. And with this last attempt they hit a rich seam. And in 90 days they pull out $60,000 worth of lead."
That’s about $6 million today, according to Wiseman—andonce word got around,people from as far away as Germany and Ireland flocked to seektheir fortuneswithin the Joplin lead and zinc mines.
Joplin became a boom town, not unlike those along the west coast foundedduring the Gold Rush. However,Wisemansaidthat therewasa key difference.
“The difference between that and gold is to get rich with gold you have to dig up ounces – to get rich with lead and zinc, you have to dig up tons and hundreds of tons at that.”In the 1920’s,Joplin became one of the largest mining districts in the world, accordingto Wiseman.
“Miner’s Child”is an Ozarks song performedby Ollie Gilbert. It’s archivedintheMax Hunter Folk Song Collection,and givesa bit of insight into the worry that went along with this kind of work.
Whileaminercouldcertainlymake his fortune here during the late 19thand early 20thcenturies, the workcame withquite a bit of risk.
“No one gets a paper cut in a mine, it’s ‘blown up by dynamite’ or ‘five-ton boulder fell on person.’”And there were long-termhealtheffects,too, from spending all day in the bowels of a dark, dusty mine.
“It lead to a condition called miner’s silicosis, or brown lung disease, and we really don’t know how many people left the area and then died of complications from the scarring on their lungs.”After the Joplin tornado of 2011, much of the soil that was picked up and tossed about was full of lead chat. That meantentire yards had to be dug up and replacedwith clean topsoil.
Thelast mine closed in1970,and most the mines are flooded now due to a lot of groundwater near the surface.Butthe largestcollection oftri-stateoreis still housed in the museum.
“Joplin wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the mining at all,” says Wiseman.
Today, you can see that reflected in the city’s seal,and in Joplin’s motto, “Zinc is King.”
Copyright 2021 KSMU. To see more, visit KSMU. 9(MDA3OTgyNDI4MDEzMTM0MjQzMTZlNDI0Mg004))