The mine is dark. An ore car sits on the track waiting to be filled. Some tools lean against the rock wall, as if waiting for the miners to return.
These miners, however, won't be coming back.This mine is only a replica. The "Migration and Mining Exhibit" is the latest display to be completed in the Hellenic Cultural Museum, which is housed in the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 279 S. 300 West in Salt Lake City.
The display reminds visitors that mining started a migration to Utah. It also tells a story that, for most Greek families, ended after the first generation of immigrants.
At the turn of the century, labor agents came to the villages of Greece looking for strong young men to go to America. The agents actually promised streets paved with gold. "It sounds like a fantasy," says Chris Metos, president of the museum's board of trustees. It was a fantasy the young men needed.
If they were to leave the poverty of their villages, to travel half a world away, they had to believe they could dramatically improve their lives and send money back home. Only later would they learn of the risks.
"For my father and uncles, it was a dreadful experience," says Metos. They came from an agricultural area of Greece. "They had a great apprehension about mining. They'd never put two electrical cords together" to set off a charge. The Metos brothers came to Carbon County to mine but took the first opportunity to begin raising sheep.
Historian Helen Zeese Papanikolas wrote the script for the recording that accompanies the new display. She explains how the Greek odyssey to Utah began:
The discovery of the immense coal fields in eastern Utah and a new method to extract copper from the ores in Bingham Canyon required thousands of workers. Mormon Church authorities counseled their people to stay on the land. Companies then began nationwide searches for labor. They realized, however, their greatest potential lay in immigrant laborers who would work for less than the English-speaking miners.
Agents were sent to immigrant enclaves in big cities, to Ellis Island, and to Balkan and Mediterranean countries. Powerful labor agents working with management became pivotal players in the industrial drama. When English-speaking miners went on strike, they brought in Finns, Italians and Yugoslavs. When these groups struck, they transported Greeks to break the strikes. When the Greeks turned from strike-breaking to striking, Mexicans were dispatched by a Japanese labor agent. The most efficient labor agent system was that of the Greeks and resulted in their becoming the largest (ethnic) labor force in the state by the time of the First World War.
At first, the young miners talked of going home as soon as they were rich. Eventually, they realized they'd not be going back, and began to build a life in Utah. Some took a visit home to look for a bride. Others would see a photo of a friend's sister or niece and write to Greece to ask her family for her hand.
Such "picture brides" were not uncommon. If they didn't like each other when she got to Utah, he could send her home. This happened rarely but was a catastrophe much talked about in the community, says Metos.
Con Skedros' mother was one such "picture bride," who settled in Utah and raised a family.
Skedros, a retired history teacher, is historian and archivist for the museum. It was Skedros who did the research for a memorial outside the museum, one remembering more than 200 Greek laborers who died in industrial accidents. The largest number of them, 49, died in the Castle Gate Mine explosion of 1924, which claimed 172 lives.
Andy Katsanevas' mother came from Greece with her first husband and three children. He died in a mine in Sunnydale. A marriage was arranged for her with Katsanevas' father. Andy was 15 months old and his brother was 5 days old when their father died at Castle Gate. Their father's brothers, also miners, helped support the widow and orphans.
His mother forbade her children to become miners. Katsanevas went to college and was a manager at Eimco before he retired. Today, he is the secretary-treasurer of the Hellenic Cultural Association.
On a recent weekday afternoon, Katsanevas, Skedros and Metos were giving tours of the museum. The museum (ususally open by appointment on Wednesday mornings and Sundays after church) will be open constantly during the annual Greek Festival, to be held Sept. 10-12 at the Holy Trinity Church.
While the history committee members talked to visitors, preparations for the annual festival were in evidence throughout the building. The mining display was nearly complete. Its designer, Gale Hendry, was looking it over. A group of women was in the church kitchen, baking pastries.
As Skedros, Metos and Katsanavas sampled some cookies, they talked about the difficulty of putting on a festival with grandmothers getting too old to do the baking and so many young women with jobs outside the home and unable to help their mothers with the work.
They are the second generation, these men in the museum and these women in the kitchen. These are the people whose fathers came to Utah to mine. They talked about how they've passed on the Greek culture to their children - sending them to Greek language classes, teaching them to make baklava, guiding them in the ways of their elders - except when it came to mining.
Louis Cononelos, manager of community relations for Kennecott Corp., says proudly, "I am a third generation miner." He is, he adds, an exception. Greeks, as other immigrants, came seeking a better life, took the jobs available, which were laboring jobs, and set about learning English and "making sure their children got an education and advanced in soci-ety."
Cononelos sees the Hellenic Cultural Museum as a valuable reminder - not just for the general community but for the young Greek-Americans as well. "It gives us a sense of our roots within Utah society and reminds us of the beginning that most of our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents had. It reminds us of their humble start in this country."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Coming to Utah
The first immigrants from Greece began arriving in the Utah Territory in the 1870s. The largest numbers came during the decade of 1910-1920, then began leveling off with the passage of strict immigration laws. As the number of first-generation Greeks decreased in Utah, the numbers of second- and third-generation Greek-Americans increased.
Foreign-born Greeks in Utah numbered:
4,039 in 1910
3,029 in 1920
2,197 in 1930
1,882 in 1940
1,682 in 1950