Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Albert Whistler, a pair of marmots whose picture, taken in 1929, adorns the wall of the
Visitor's Center. Henrietta, we are informed, was expecting.
Unlike the company store in the song Sixteen Tons to which you'd owe your soul, the
Independence Mine commissary made a point of selling goods to miners' families at or
near cost. In 1941, they made a profit of just $247 on $36,000 in sales, and when as a joke
the store manager ran a one-day special and increased all the prices to see if anyone would
notice, the mine manager was furious and made him give shoppers extra cans of goods in
repayment. The Independence Mine, known for its high pay, good food and fair dealing,
never lacked for labor.
I turned to look up at Skyscraper Peak, where the portal for Martin Mine perches on an
impossibly narrow ledge, with a front step five hundred feet high. Ninety-three cents an
hour must have bought a lot more then than it does now.
Go in August, when the mosquitoes are only a nasty memory, when the fireweed lives
up to its name, when the blueberries are ripe for the picking, when the snow is only a
warning on Pioneer Peak.
Somehow the gold isn't all.
