A.K. Frost (far right) and shift crew down in Homestake Mine, 1940. Homestake is the oldest and longest continuously operated gold mine in the western hemisphere--over 124 years old. Lead is a mining term which means an outcropping of gold-bearing ore. Mine work Carrie constantly worried about Karl working in the mine and feared he would die there. Every day at noon the mine whistle blew, and it also blew to sound an accident or emergency. Mom recalls that "everybody in town was sure that it was their father or brother who was hurt, and usually by the time they got them to the hospital it was too late." The mine had its own hospital, the Homestake Mine Hospital, where all care for employees was free. Karl had silicosis from his years in the mines, and though he was not terribly ill from it, he did cough most of his life. Mom's brothers, Richard and Victor, both worked in the company store, Hearst Mercantile Company. It was a complete department store and workers had charge accounts that were deducted from their pay. Richard was a delivery boy and Vic was an assistant egg candler (he held eggs up to light to check for hatching). It was at the age of 14 that Richard died in a delivery truck accident. Impaled by a part of a telephone pole, Richard was hospitalized for three weeks with internal injuries. Rarely conscious, family members never left him unattended, but on August 18 it was Collette and not Carrie who was there the moment he died. "Mom really went to pieces. We all hated to go visit Richard's grave nearly every Sunday soon after his death, and then frequently for three or four years after his death. Mom would cry and cry as we drove out to the cemetery, regretting not having been at his side and we all hated it." Previous Table of Contents Next