The Kennecott Mines
| ABOVE: The Stephen Birch house, falling in at the abandoned town of Kennecott in 1966. |
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Everyone of us knew this had to be
coming, but the words were still a shock. Our beloved mine was already
downgraded to a secondary position. We were to prepare plans for a
retreat. The end was in sight. But we were also caught up in the moment
of the obvious historic value of this occasion. The staff of engineers
stood up and applauded our own Great Man, Mr. Stephen Birch most
enthusiastically. Then we sat down--most of us in a sort of stunned contemplation. We looked around at each other and quietly resumed drinking the coffee while we waited the lunch service. As Mr. Birch had noted, the head cook for the entire camp, Mr. Sato himself, who had prepared the Chinese dinner last night, was overseeing this preparation as well. Sato was a choice find brought in by Bill Douglass. His culinary skills were well known, and his demands on the cooking and waitering staff which he headed were harsh, but the results were excellent. The meals at Kennecott had become famous throughout the territory. Kennecott was known as the mine with the best working conditions, of which food service was a key part. Bill Douglass wanted to keep it that way. I looked at Russell, seated to my right. He had been the junior engineer until I arrived last year to take that dubious honor. I leaned in his direction and quietly remarked, “I guess we better prove our value here while we have the chance. Clearly there is no future in this place. We’ll all be looking for careers elsewhere soon, I suspect.” |
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BELOW: Early mining crew
at Jumbo, including the ever-present Japanese cook.
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