Fire in the Water!                          by Jack Pardee '36 Our crew had put in the hardest day's work during the 1934 summer mine surveying course in the Edgar Mine. I'm referring to the notorious Brown Raise that connected two levels in the mine. This inclined raise might bear the name of the long forgotten miner who drove it, or the color of the slimy mud that coated the entire bore from top to bottom with several changes in bearing and vertical angle. I would bet that the raise was driven without benefit of a survey, and the upper level drift probably driven from the top of the raise. In any event it was a tough exercise to run a traverse through the raise up or down. So, Ted Lawson and I were up late that night grinding out numbers from our notes on the rental hand crank calculator. We had a front room on the upper floor of the old two-story American Hotel, which had been reopened after some years out of business to accommodate us Mines men in Idaho Springs during the survey course. This clapboard building was located immediately on the west bank of Clear Creek. There were verandas along the full width of both floors so close above the water that you could lean over the porch railing and spit in the creek. While we were working, we heard someone on our floor padding quietly out onto the veranda in the dark and return inside minutes later. Suddenly came a violent blast outside that rattled the walls and splashed creek water on our front window. We rushed outside with a flashlight, but found no damage so returned to the calculator. We surmised that one of our fun-loving classmates had made a bomb using about a quarter stick of gel dynamite, and tossed it into the creek to create a little excitement in celebration of the Fourth. Soon afterward we heard footsteps on the stairway, and presently the night shift town constable appeared in our doorway. Since the place was dark except for the light in our room, he just knew that the explosion was our doing. Thus we must be guilty of this major act of disturbing the peace. We soon calmed him down. He grudgingly accepted our alibi and departed. However, this interruption provided sufficient excuse for us to postpone further Brown Raise calculations to another time. Now I have a hunch who it was that dropped the bomb, based on his pleasant personality traits. In our student days he was a California resident, and in his retirement has returned to the Golden State and lists a Carpenteria address. Unfortunately he is not a current member of CSMAA, so probably will not be aware of this revival of that late night excitement. Otherwise I would suggest, as the young baseball fan implored Shoeless Joe Jackson many years ago, "Say it ain't so, Mickey", or give us all the details so we can all share a chuckle. Mines Magazine March/April 1996