The Games Miners Play

Contests Display Drilling, Mucking & Spike-Driving Skills.

- Steve Voynick

Mineral collectors, rockhounds, gold panners, and amateur prospectors who travel the Western states to and from gem and mineral shows, museums, field-collecting sites, and mining towns might consider taking the time to experience one of the West’s more unusual traditions: mine-drilling contests.

The Games Miners Play

Drilling contests are public exhibitions of underground mining practices. They are tests of proficiency in the core skills of mining, which include hand-mucking, spike-driving and, most importantly, manual drilling with traditional hammers and hand steels, and mechanical drilling with modern pneumatic rock drills.

These contests, which demand strength, stamina, experience, skill and nerve, originated in the Western mining camps in the 1880s. Like the original, frontier era contests, today’s events involve excitement, substantial cash prizes, and physical risk. The contests, which are fun and wonderful photographic opportunities, are also educational, as the hand-drilling events are a real-life demonstration of the remarkable physical effort that made frontier-era mining possible.

Although the mining industry has changed radically since the late 1800s, mine-drilling contests have managed to survive. Today, 18 professional-level drilling contests are held annually in eight Western states. Colleges and universities with mining-engineering programs also hold mine-drilling contests to prepare students for an annual international, intercollegiate competition.