PARK CITY — It wasn't so long ago that Bruce Jensen's grandfather was telling tales of his work in the Silver King Mine, stories of hard work and sacrifice that seemed fitting at the 110th "Funky Old Miners Day Celebration."
Jensen, a St. George resident who visited Park City Monday with his friend, Jeanie Fitzgerald, said his grandfather, Ephraim McMillan, worked his entire adult life in the mine feeding, watering and grooming the mules that toiled underground.
"He said he was sad when they had to bring the mules back up because they had gone blind from being down there so many years," Jensen recalled. "I would never go underground — it's dangerous work."
The hardship and strength that are part of miners' lives were prominently on display near the city's library during the Mucking and Drilling Competition, in which men tried to move piles of rock and rubble with a 1943 pneumatic machine and heft a heavy, water-spouting drill to bore through a target.
Although the annual event sponsored by the Park City Rotary Club featured its typical music, food and fun, there was a bittersweet air about the event in light of the recent deaths of nine people at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington.
A. Flint Decker, who heads the Rotary committee sponsoring the Labor Day activities, earlier said the event has always been intended to not only have fun, with bands, games, a parade and good food, but also to honor miners and the work they do.
Richard Martinez, 72, a miner for 50 years and the master of ceremonies for the competition, tearfully dedicated it to the memory of the six men who died in the original collapse at the Crandall Canyon Mine and the three who lost their lives trying to save them.
"Mining is a tough job," he said in an earlier interview. "It takes tough people. Those people down there (in the Huntington area), they're going to come back. It takes a little time to heal all this hurt that they're having now."
The cheerful crowd assembled for the competition became subdued as the Rev. Robert Bussen, priest at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, called for a moment of silence for the lost miners and read passages from the Old Testament Book of Kings, in which Elijah finds the Lord in a cave, not in a strong wind, earthquake or fire, but in a still small voice.
Like Elijah, miners are no strangers to foul air, earthquakes or fire, he said. The Crandall mine has been called "hateful and evil," but Bussen suggested that God can be found in the mountain, and the place where the dead miners now lie could be considered holy ground.
"Hold them close, keep them safe and let their families rest secure," Bussen prayed.
The competition itself was clearly arduous work, with men from Idaho, Colorado and Utah taking turns to hustle amid the dust to either hoist muck with a mechanical scoop and toss it into a small metal cart, or drill a hole through a target, before the judges' stopwatches clicked. Winners and losers both were applauded.
"I think it's good for people in Utah to show interest and appreciation for this industry," said Park City resident Michael Witte. "The recent mining disaster has heightened everyone's awareness of what these miners sacrifice on a day-to-day basis."
California resident Jim Harsch, who was here visiting relatives, said he admired the tenacity shown by miners. "I think they're a very strong group, and they sure have a hard life."
Tammy and Willie Murnin of Salt Lake City said it was a family tradition to bring their children to the activity each year. "It's interesting to have our kids see this," Tammy Murnin said.
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