Rock Springs Coal Co.

Cars fork-loaded for 10 cents per ton.

By Leonard Loppe

This is a tribute to the men from Ukraine,
Some were coal miners, some growers of grain.
After the riot the going was rough,
To survive you had to be tough.

After the strike by the coal miners in the Bienfait-Estevan area in 1931, some of the more vocal protesters were blacklisted by the companies. Peter Gemby was one but he obtained work at a farmer's mine run by Harry Banks.
Roman Tryuda, Peter Yramchuck, Fred Kozak, and Mike and Joe Rohatyn could not find work so they approached Frank Adams in Estevan who had mineral rights on some land about a mile southeast of Taylorton. He agreed to let them dig coal here for a small fee per ton royalty.
This site was on the upper end of a ravine leading to the Souris River. Prospect mine was already established at the lower end and Harry Banks' mine was just over the hill to the south. These small mines supplied coal to farmers and towns within possibly a 50-mile radius.
Later, Albert Uhrich had a mine adjoining this site to the south. Hugh Banks tried to establish a mine on the south side of the Souris River so that farmers in that area didn't have the long uphill pull out of the valley. However, this seam of coal was only four to five feet thick and a poorer grade of coal, so it did not survive.
At the bottom of the ravine, where the Tryuda-Yramchuck-Kozak-Rohatyn group decided to mine, the coal seam was near the surface. That summer they stripped an area using pick and shovel and wheelbarrows. That fall and winter they blasted and dug out coal for farmers at so much per load as they didn't have any scale to weigh it. They then dug a slope (a tunnel sloping down to the coal in the hillside) and built a tipple (large timbers set in the ground with bins built high enough for wagons to drive underneath). They laid rail from tipple to coal seam and a Model T motor and winch brought coal in one ton cars to be dumped into the bins.
The mine underground was two tunnels or entries, each about eight feet wide with a pillar of coal about six feet wide in between. A cross cut was made in the pillar about every 100 feet for air circulation. Each entry had track for the coal cars. On each side they drove rooms. These were about 25 feet wide with pillars of coal between and had to be timbered (posts with caps on them to support the roof, spaced about six to eight feet apart).
As farm and local business tapered off in December, they had to find more markets. A sixth member, Mike Petraharich, joined them and they formed the Rock Springs Coal Co. with Frank Adams as manager and pit boss. He contacted coal dealers as far away as Winnipeg. The company bought a truck and started loading box cars at Pinto siding on the south side of the river, about a four mile haul. Prospect and Harry Banks were also loading there.

In a Haze

A truck load of three to four tons was dumped on the ramp and then two men forked it into the box car. All coal was forked to avoid loading slack. A car load was 40 tons and two men loaded three to five cars per day at 10 cents per ton. This was later when they had two trucks hauling and eight to 10 men mining.
By 1937 the company had built a house with kitchen, dining room and three bedrooms. Roman did the office work and had a desk and cot on a small lean-to room. They also dug a garage in the hillside for the two trucks and built a bunkhouse for eight men. Joe married Mary Fai and they built their own house. Nick Rohatyn (uncle of Mike and Joe) came to work for the company (he drove entries) and built a small three-room house where he lived with his three children, Paul, Mary and Ann.
The Albert Uhrich mine was in operation nearby and the two mines purchased a D.C power plant to operate cutting machines. However, it only developed power for one at a time, so Rock Springs had to use it at night. This made it often necessary for the miners to rise at 4:00 a.m. so coal could be blasted and smoke cleared by 7:00 a.m.
The smoke was cleared by a fan from the straw blower of an old thresher driven by a gas engine. Occasionally this failed and the men had to work in a haze where your partner's light was a mere pinpoint.
Working and living conditions were very bad at times but the owners also worked under them and they made every effort to correct them when the funds were available. When the rooms were going downhill, water often collected at the face so the miners had to work in water until the utility man got around to bailing it out with a water tank filled by a pail. Later a pump was purchased and he started early, thus having the water removed faster. We always used rubber boots for work.
The miners worked in pairs and had responsibility for two rooms so usually had loose coal to load in one while the other was being cut, shot and timbered.
The first bunkhouse was only studding with one-ply siding and quite cold. Water was scarce, hauled in by barrel for the cooks and we caught our drinking water in empty wine jugs from a drip in the roof in the mine. When we came off work we had to build a fire in the stove and melt snow to wash. When it was -30°F, water in a pail on the stove would have ice on it and our bed under the window would have snow on the pillow.
As the temperature was about 60°F underground, most of the men worked in fleece lined union suits (underwear) and jeans that were never washed (but replaced after a month or six weeks) so were quite hard to get into on a cold morning.

Penny Poker

In 1939 another bunkhouse, much warmer, and a cookhouse with kitchen and dining room were built. A well was drilled making water plentiful but still had to be pumped and carried in pails. They hired a janitor, Harry Mykeloski, and he kept the fires going and carried water. There weren't any showers but there was plenty of warm water for a sponge bath after work.
On payday, once a month on Saturday night, a poker game started and ran right through till breakfast Monday morning and every evening. After payday $1 was the limit, but by the next payday they were playing for pennies.
In 1940 the rooms were running into the diggings on Harry Banks' mine so the tipple was moved to the northwest with the slope leading west instead of south. Prokup Gembe, who had been leasing the Nicholson mine, now became a partner in rock Springs.
In 1939 the miners at M & S went on strike. Many of the men from the other mines joined the M & S miners on the picket line. This was early spring, so to pass the time they built sod huts and put up signs. The huts also provided protection from the weather. M & S eventually came to terms and the other mines followed. From then on the union became quite strong and wages and working conditions became much better.
Rock Springs was safety conscious and only had two accidents. One driver was rolled between a car and pillar and sustained broken ribs and one was severely burned on hands and face when he accidentally lit a partially filled powder jack with his carbide lamp while preparing a shot. A jack contained about two quarts, the maximum allowed in one container.
Some of the girls that cooked there were Mary Katrusik (now Mary Loppe), Jean Moskuluk, Mary Roshoski, Katy Moken (later Mrs. Mike Petraharich), Laura and Annie from Francis. Some of the men who worked there were Steve Vizinowski and John from Winnipeg (box car loaders), Peter Gembey (driver machine helper and loader), Paul Rohatyn, John Rosner and Nick Fai (drivers), Little Bill from Winnipeg (who worked wherever needed). Johnny "Joker" Ronyk (truck driver). Some of the miners were Mike and John Lochbaum, Harry and Nick Moroz and their father, John and Steve Elchyson, Con Barabash and myself. I worked from fall of '37 to winter of '41-42.
Roman Tryuda operated the tipple, Mike Rohatyn the cutting machine, Joe Rohatyn and Pete Petraharich were truck drivers, Fred Kozak laid track, and Pete Yramchuck worked wherever needed.
Strip mining was in the experimental stage and turned out well. About 1945, Rock Springs closed for good.

Going underground sounded rather scary
And it didn't appeal to those that were wary;
But once you were in the air balmy and warm,
'Twas much nicer than 40 below on the farm.
A hole in the hill,
Going down under,
Coal cars to fill,
Coal to sunder.
You timber and drill,
Blasts sound like thunder,
Smoke fills the air- all is still.

Leonard Loppe of Oxbow, author of "Rock Springs Coal Co.," has provided some family background.
His mother was a European immigrant at the age of 16 with no education and unable to speak English. His father came from South Dakota and had the equivalent of a grade two education.
"He was 15 years old in 1896 ... a trusting soul, so when he needed money he borrowed it from a local man at an agreed rate of 3%. However, the note he signed was 13%.
When he could not make payments he was foreclosed on, leaving him with only a horse and buggy. He now had to find farm employment as it was all he knew. With a wife and three children this was not easy.
After working south and north of Oxbow and south of Glen Ewen, we moved north of Frobisher where he became ill with a rare disease involving bone decay. With no funds to pay medical fees he suffered many weeks of agonizing pain at home. Finally the RM arranged to send him to Regina where he stayed for over a year and ended up with a leg amputation.
Meanwhile, Mother had to move, now with four boys, ages two to 10 years. My uncle helped her find places near Steelman, Openshaw and then Northgate where Dad joined us. He still spent much time in hospitals and was finally cured after eight years. He then resumed farming for 12 years and retired to Oxbow."
Son Leonard concludes: "I certainly appreciated medicare when (it was) introduced."

This article was published in the Spring 1994 publication of Folklore magazine.
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