A man should never get too good at mining. In the days before Blue Heron, men who later worked there remember narrow mine tunnels held up by wood timber supports. They also recall paying for their own powder and fuses to blast down coal and paying for their own picks and shovels to break up the coal and load it onto coal cars. In the early days there was no electricity in the mines, and hauling coal out of the shafts was accomplished only by mule power.
Some old timers remember working with the mules and loved that part of early mining.
A few knew those as hard times for man and beast, and spoke with enthusiasm about the coming of electricity and mechanization to the mines. Blue Heron, or Mine 18, came late to the Stearns mines and was electrified from the beginning, but was not mechanized in 1937. Gone were the small mules hauling coal cars out of the mine shafts, but men still used pick and shovel and carbide lights on their hats before the days of battery pack lights. If a man's supervisor gave him a good room of coal, he could make good money loading coal and being paid by the ton. A good mine supervisor would keep track of the men's locations and be sure to assign a better room to a man who had gotten a poor one the last time.