A gentle snow fluttered silently outside KDNK’s classroom on Sunday, Jan. 7, as four former coal miners took about two dozen listeners deep into the harrowing history of Carbondale’s 1970s coal mining days. This panel was the first in a four-part series organized by the Carbondale Historical Society with a focus on capturing living history directly from longtime area residents.
Sunday’s speakers, Robert Congdon, Smiley Wise, Gene Schilling and Mario Villalobos, described a not-so-distant Carbondale that newcomers may have a hard time imagining. Main Street was unpaved and the economy was almost wholly sustained by a gaseous — and thus very dangerous — coal mining operation run by Mid-Continent Coal and Coke Company near Redstone, as well as the Thompson Creek Mine, closer to Carbondale.
Back then, the cowboys would fight the hippies and the coal miners would fight everybody, including each other. Wise said there was once a Christmas party at the Hotel Colorado where the waitress was “really nervous.” She told him, “I’ve heard about you coal miners.” He assured her it would be a “nice, quiet night.” About 10 minutes later, “one table went upside down and the fight was on.”
“I’m glad that it’s not like that today, and I’m glad I didn’t miss those days,” Congdon remarked.
He described the claustrophobic feeling of first entering the mine. “I puked,” he admitted, and it took him weeks to acclimate. Decades later, however, Congdon continues to prospect. When he first began, prompted by a baby on the way, Condon was a hippy with long hair and a school bus with New York license plates. He cut his hair and sold the bus. “I had to clear my past up so I could move forward,” he said.
Wise compared working in the coal mine to serving in Vietnam, saying Vietnam was “nothing like coal mining.” He talked about the adrenaline rush of barely escaping tunnel shafts as they collapsed. “When you get back, you’ve been so scared, you just fall on the ground and start laughing.”
At the Thompson Creek mine, water would be constantly dripping in, sometimes up to the workers’ waists as they operated electric equipment underground. “I was scared all the friggin’ time,” said Congdon. “I should have quit,” he continued. “But I was young, and I had another baby on the way.”
Villalobos, coming from working as a ranchand in Arizona, thought, “There must be a boatload of rock stars” in the area when he first arrived — “All that black mascara.” He soon learned they were miners who “could rip you in half any time they wanted to,” with coal dust around their eyes that wouldn’t wash off in the shower. Villalobos said that finding the Valley was like entering into a Disney movie compared to growing up in Detroit, and he knew he’d do everything he could to stay.
The four men told of many near death experiences and, of course, the very real loss of 15 lives when an explosion was triggered in a Mid-Continent mine in April 1981. Schilling, a foreman at the time, was among the first on the scene in the aftermath. “I knew everybody,” he said.
The explosion was the beginning of the end for Mid-Continent’s operation up Coal Basin. When Schilling was laid off, he joined Carbondale’s police force, with a drop in income from around $50,000-$60,000 annually (depending on overtime) to $13,000. The mine’s closure had a dramatic impact on the local economy, with many workers moving away.
Although the first event was not broadcast live on KDNK, the audio will be uploaded to Carbondale Historical Society’s podcast for folks that missed the event. Find that audio, along with archived “This I Remember” conversations hosted by Mary Ferguson, at www.carbondalehistory.org
There is also a video archived at www.bit.ly/CdaleMiners
“Establishing this speaker series has been my goal since COVID forced us to shelve it,” commented Stephen Shapiro, board president of the Carbondale Historical Society. “Will Grandbois, board member, did an incredible job recruiting these miners for this event. Their comradery, passion and unbelievable journey through life was on full display.”
Next month’s topic will be cowboys and ranchers on Feb. 4. Each session will take place on the first Sunday of every month through April 7, and the series will continue at KDNK unless the size of audiences outgrows the venue.
Fully aware that tomorrow’s history is lived today, the Carbondale Historical Society is also exploring the possibility of curating a time capsule representing “81623 Day” (Aug. 16, 2023) to be opened on Aug. 16, 2123. The idea is to collect artifacts from our present that may be of interest to the Carbondale Historical Society of the future. If you would like to contribute, contact will@carbondalehistory.org
Carbondale Historical Society mines for living history
