Early Mining In The Tri-State District
A pigtail hook was used to connect the bucket to the rope of the hand windlass.
Simple methods were used in early lead and zinc mines of the Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma district. This is the hand windlass or "Armstrong Heister." This type of outfit was used mainly in the shallow mines of the Joplin, Missouri district, but may have been used at Peoria and Lincolnville, also.
The horse hoister or "horse heister" was the next step up from the hand windlass. The horse went around a circle and turned the pulley that raised the can of ore. This allowed use of larger buckets and increased daily production.
At first, miners used candles for light and later, sunshine lamps (left) and then carbide lights. The two early days miners have sunshine lamps attached to their hats. Notice that the hats were of soft material and of very little protection against falling rocks or banging your head against a low ceiling in a mine drift.
Hand jigs were used to separate the ore in this early day photo of a crew of men and their hand jigs. I suspect that this picture is along Shoal Creek or Center Creek in the Joplin area. Such mining equipment as shown on this page is the type of equipment that would have been used during the first mining in Ottawa County when mining began at Peoria in the 1890s.
"You better not give me any more backtalk!" These early day miners with sunshine lamps look ready to take on all comers in this picture from about 1905.
