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Audio Recording Retired miner John "Hammerhead" Hogan, Butte, Montana, discusses his life and work in the mines, part 1

Interview with John "Hammerhead" Hogan who worked in the mines as a shift boss and has a notebook of all the nicknames in Butte.

About this Item

Title

  • Retired miner John "Hammerhead" Hogan, Butte, Montana, discusses his life and work in the mines, part 1

Names

  • Stanton, Gary Ward, 1946- (Collector)
  • Crummett, Michael, 1948- (Collector)
  • Hogan, John (Interviewee)

Created / Published

  • Butte, Montana, August 27, 1979

Headings

  • -  Irish American copper miners
  • -  Mining
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  Field recordings
  • -  Interviews
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  United States -- Montana -- Butte

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Field recordings
  • Interviews
  • Sound recordings

Notes

  • -  Index da: Part 1 of a 3-part recording session with John Hogan in Butte MT: Hogan, started in the mines at age 14 and worked at every mine, did every job; told to work a white horse at the 500 level, the horse would count clangs, only pull 5 cars, the horse did it all, "I take no credit, got 55 cars, and never seen anyone, "he was the best horse and the other two wouldn't pull the hat off your head"; the hand muckers would muck 70-80 cars, Ed Timmons was a champion mucker, prepares for a mucking competition at the garden, was able to muck a car in 2 minutes and 4/5 seconds; they had machines to drill when Hogan started in the mines (1920); about drilling at the face, they put down floor so they wouldn't have rough mucking; Christy Sheehan's story, told to go to the 3128, went next to the 2100, was there for days, could have climbed, when they found him, the foreman asked "where the Hell did you come from?" and he answered "County Cork, Ireland"; a prank scared a man, with a sheet across two tamping rods; a miner would say "I ain't gonna work tonight," and they'd put him on a different job, the mines were dangerous you know; about rock bolts; there were 200-100 feet between levels in the mine, every 200 feet it was like a new mine; at the 2100, the ore was fifteen feet from the shaft; the seam was 14 sets wide, the [high] ore mine was where they pumped the water; now they run the water down to [Meterville] where they run it over tin cans; Hogan worked the 400 to the 4200 of the "Con" [may refer to the Mountain Consolidated Mine that the Anaconda Copper company operated]; Hogan's favorite nickname was Yellow Burns; says that there were so many nicknames that timekeeper put them in the book, alongside the real names; Butte's got more nicknames than anyplace in the country; 7-Up was the first nicknarne in Butte; sound of Hogan showing the visitors photographs; about 64 firemen killed in a fire that exploded powder, the biggest fire ever.

Medium

  • 7-inch reel

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Call number: AFC 1981/005: AFS 20430
  • MBRS shelflist: RXA 0916
  • Field project identifier: MT9-GS-R45

Source Collection

  • Montana Folklife Survey collection (AFC 1981/005)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line: Montana Folklife Survey collection (AFC 1981/005), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Stanton, Gary Ward, Michael Crummett, and John Hogan. Retired miner John "Hammerhead" Hogan, Butte, Montana, discusses his life and work in the mines, part 1. Butte, Montana, 1979. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1981005_afs20430/.

APA citation style:

Stanton, G. W., Crummett, M. & Hogan, J. (1979) Retired miner John "Hammerhead" Hogan, Butte, Montana, discusses his life and work in the mines, part 1. Butte, Montana. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1981005_afs20430/.

MLA citation style:

Stanton, Gary Ward, Michael Crummett, and John Hogan. Retired miner John "Hammerhead" Hogan, Butte, Montana, discusses his life and work in the mines, part 1. Butte, Montana, 1979. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc1981005_afs20430/>.