Adventures in Mining

Some people say that 'Adventure is just bad planning.' As a  kid growing up in Salmon, I loved adventure. Mom and dad were adamant that Mikey and I leave home on Saturdays and go out exploring. These adventures were fun, but I hated to have my Saturday cartoons interrupted. Mikey and I slept in the living room on Friday nights and would wake up at the crack of dawn the next morning, ready for cartoons! Scooby-Doo, Coyote and Roadrunner, The Pink Panther, and Speed Buggy were my favorites.

Salmon is located in the mountains of Idaho - not the flat, deserted, desert parts - but the rugged part with mountain names like Baldy, Big Horn Crags, and Ajax. There were plenty of places for young boys to play and we enjoyed taking risks and living-on-the-edge. The boys that lived up the road usually tagged along with us. Their parents wanted them out of the house just as badly as ours.

One adventure that I recall came when I was almost six years old. We had only lived in Salmon for a few months. I was ripped away from Scooby-Doo one Saturday morning, given a knapsack containing a sandwich and an apple, and told to go find adventure along with Mikey. I was not in favor of leaving, but that look mom gave me told me I had no choice.

We decided to go explore an old mine located half way up a mountain near our ranch house. In some communities, that would mean a trip to the slammer for our parents for child endangerment. In Salmon, it seems kids were supposed to court danger. Most of them eventually returned home; some did not, and some traveled home via a trip to the hospital first. As a five year-old, words like 'vertical mining shaft' and 'bottomless pit' had no meaning to me.

When we finally made it to the mine, we were tired but invigorated by the prospects that lay before us. In our romantically adventurous minds, there had to be large sacks of gold hidden somewhere in this mine. Even though young in age, we knew all the legends of hidden treasure in these parts. The next few hours were full of intrigue and adventure. No gold was found, but tons of priceless memories were formed as we vaulted large holes, played on rusty mine equipment, had rock fights, and basked in the excitement of our newly discovered playground with the quaint name of 'No Trespassing' posted on a sign at the entrance.

Upon returning home, our mom asked about our adventure. "Oh, we had a nice adventure, mom," was our reply. She never knew where we had gone and she didn't seem that curious to find out. We were home safe, and it was dinner time!