Prairie Girls

Emily

My name is Emily Ealy, and I am a ten-year-old girl. I live in Hamilton Camp in a mining community with my mum, daddy and younger sister, Katie. My parents worked in a general store in Illinois before they moved to Hamilton Camp. They now own the store in the mining community. My uncle died in a terrible mining disaster before I was born. I’m glad Daddy doesn’t work in the mine.

I attend Globe school. One of the students is often mean to others. I try to treat him and everyone with kindness. I will tell you more about my experiences in Globe School and in the mining community soon.

Big Brutus

              By Judy

Around thirty years ago, I took my young sons to see “Big Brutus,” which is an electric shovel used to mine coal by digging it out of the ground. My sons were impressed--and with good reason. The shovel is taller than a 15-story office building. The dipper part of the shovel holds enough coal to fill three railroad cars.

A year or so ago, I took three of my grandchildren to see “Big Brutus.”  They, too, were impressed. If you look closely at the bottom of the above picture, you will see my husband and a couple of the kids. It is a big piece of machinery. The shovel ran twenty-four hours a day for 11 years before it ceased operations in April, 1974.

When I first visited it with my sons in the late 1980’s, it was possible to climb to the top. With no hesitation, my sons and I proceeded to do just that. Not so the last time I visited. Visitors were no longer allowed to climb to the top, and that was just fine with me. The grandkids thought it would have been an exciting climb, but I was not so sure. My knees were in good shape and so were my lungs. Physically, I’m sure I could have made it with only a couple rest stops along the way. First, though, I would have needed to loosen my grip on the stair rail and waited for the color to return to my white knuckles. What might have been a good idea in my thirties didn’t seem like such a good idea in my sixties.