Any had a chance to meet the famous "Skinner" yet?

[ExpUt]

My next door neighbor (also a huge mining history enthusiast) got to spend some time with him last week. Sounds like a really neat gentleman. We are planning to get out and visit him in the coming weeks, anyone interested in a meet and greet?

[rhartill]

Visit with skinner and/or fellow mining enthusiasts

I'm game, Just say when and where...altho I missed the thread on "Skinner..."
-Russ Hartill

[Stuart]

Oh yeah, I am there! I will be posting a video today about the Buckhorn tram house, guess who has his name on a poll all the way up there? John Skinner! That's quite a hike, but sure enough he has been there. I find his signature all over the place.

[ExpUt]

Lynn (my neighbor) says that its his MO to leave his name in mines, been doing it for year and years. I'll chat with Lynn today and go from there.

I know mid-week works best for some of you? Any day better than others?

Also, I've told Lynn all about MU and your access to Ophir Hill, he mentioned that to Skinner and he said he would like to show us around Ophir Hill and mabey some other area mines. Think we could do it at the same time?

[tunnel rat]

Skinner

I have ran into John skinner quite a few times in Ophir, he even helped me fix a flat tire on my truck. Every time I run into him he has a wealth of info to share it would be nice to have him give us a tour of what he knows.

[Mike]

Wouldn't miss up a chance to talk to Skinner. I'll be in Ophir all week long this week. Give us a day and time and I'm there.

[UnderUtah]

John Skinner

Well Derek and I were in Ophir on a fruitless trek to find blue crystals near Mercur and ran into John pruning the tree in his front yard. We introduced ourselves and after some discussion of the Ophir Hill, Buckhorn, and Hidden Treasure and his responses to my endless string of questions we were led into his basement / time capsule to review some maps and photos. What a treat! Miners caps; one removed from the Kersage dating back to the candle-on-a-metal-stake days sat atop a bookcase with a dozen binders devoted to mines and mining histroy - much of it from the Ophir District. We reviewed many photos and sketches of the earliest workings in the area as well as more recent photos of John's explorations - his grandfather atop a rocky knoll in Jacob City, he and his cousin, pint-sized next to his father's buick, even John himself operating the large haulage engine inside the Ophir Hill during his employment there. There were one-of histories and district biographes we thumbed through, old letters, stock certificates, and checks. It was a visit akin to Harley's basement - every object and every page had a story to tell.

He cleared-up a few burning questions of mine, like what blocked his attempt to reach Josh Dennis from inside the Buckhorn - all associated lore says that there was a "collapse," John said that there are several raises and shafts that have to be ascended to reach the level of the Hidden Treasure, and that when he made his attempt the ladders and structures were in too poor a contition to allow access. The shafts and winzes are still there, in theory, but lack the wooden ladders to make the connection easily traversable.

He unfolded his copy of the Hidden Treasure map and pinpointed "our" entrance. We looked at photos of the huge boarding house that stood on the mine dump flat, the "hotel" that was apparently moved, log by log, from higher up on the mountain to it's present collapsed position near the Utah Queen. He also told us that it was not mine closure contractors that brought the hotel crashing down, but heavy snows. He and another fellow had plans to brace the building to keep it standing but the spring trip they made in order to begin the work found the boarding house collapsed by the winter's snow.

Another section of one of the histories detailed the avalanche that destroyed a building and killed several men at the Hidden Treasure, complete with a diagram of the avalanche path and photos of the destroyed structures.

We learned where Stanley had been killed by porphory rock blow-out deep inside the Ophir Hill - a spot we have been near in our travels. He had been drilling when the weakened rock around him exploded into the empty space of the drift, breaking his neck for for one and partially burying him. John said that was "a bad day" and that it took a lot of work to recover his body.

He also told of his involvement with the Jeremiah Etherington fall in the Honerine, and a conversation with Jeremiah's uncle, the man who finally recovered his body. This was a sobering and explicit side note to our conversation on exploring.

John was an exceptionally friendly fellow to meet and really took some time with a few strangers to share tales and talk history. John expressed frustration with the closure programs and the EPA work done in Ophir, another concerned person on our side is always good. Why is it that the government knows what's best for us? I just don't understand why mining is such a dirty word and it's histroy; a history as old, colorful, and intertwined with this state as, say, Mormon history, deserves to be bulldozed-over, gated, and forgotten. Relegated to a few pages in a text book or a rediculous, non-mining-relevant "funky parade" each year in Park City. John and Harley's photos, oral histories, and artifacts wouldn't mean HALF as much to me or any of us had we not stood our very selves in many of those same places. Why do we visit historic battlefields, recreated frontier towns, national monuments, and other historic places? It is the first person experience we seek - to go and be there, to smell the smells and see the sights. Mining history CANNOT be appreciated by posing next to a mine cart sitting atop a pile of gravel on some forgotten interstate rest stop!

Let's bulldoze and cap the war fields of Gettysburg, there's too much lead in the ground. Let's topple the Washington Monument, someone may fall over backwards looking skyward to take-in it's impressive height. Why not demolish the Paul Revere home, last time I saw it there was a dangerous list in it's south facing wall, and two of the dozen people in my tour group stumbled on the non-OSHA standard stairs. The list could go on forever, and is as rediculous as the destruction we have seen taking place. Mining is as big a part of Utah and the West's history as the examples above are to our nation's - and there is no proposal I know of aiming to make US history safer by destroying the very fabric of it. Cutting off the nose to "save" the face from itself as it were...

Well, I digress. I got a card from John, and we should schedule a meeting, a long meeting, to talk more history.

[Derek]

Even though our initial purpose of the trip was fruitless, it was well worth it to meet John and see his basement. Hopefully we can set up another trip to visit with him in the future.

[UnderUtah]

Indeed. I didn't mean to poo poo our initial trip objective, it's just part of the narrative...