Experts say that Joplin's economy would not be what it is today without the mines. The city was the business district for the mines due to the presence of mining.
Missouri State University's Noel Boyd Professor of the Ozarks, Brooks Blevins, attributed the genesis of Joplin's business to the mining industry.
"That town owes its existence to mining and the money generated by mining. Even a lot of the early entrepreneurs who got into other businesses besides mining start as miners," he explained.
Joplin's mining history dates from about 1850 to 1950. Parts of northeast Oklahoma, southeast Kansas, and southwest Missouri were responsible for 50% of the world's lead and 10% of the world's zinc during peak production in the 1920s. The Tri-State Mining District has had a lasting impact on the area's residents and economy, even 170 years later. However, the mining district's success was not without the struggle of the miners, their families, and the mining towns.
Missouri Southern State University Historian Brad Belk stated that between 1900 and 1930, men using the standard 21-pound shovel moved more than 600 billion pounds of Earth, equivalent to 820 Empire State Buildings.
"Their struggle is unbelievably impressive, and it was needed because you cannot move those minerals if they are found in the Earth's belly. You got to get them somehow up to the surface," Belk explained.
The Tri-State District, for short, was discovered by William Tingle and Daniel Campbell in 1848. Tingle owned a farm two miles east of Joplin and brought Campbell, a mining expert, to survey his land. Both men located 100 pounds of galena, a primary ore of lead. The land expanded into a mining camp in Leadville. Two years later, one hundred people were prospecting the area, according to a Missouri Geologist's site dedicated to the Tri-State District.
For reference, the most advanced technology at the time of the mine's discovery was the steamboat. With little technology came little safety regulations. Toiling in a crowded, damp and dark mine came with challenges.
Overworked and Underpaid
There were no established workplace safety regulations for the entire time the mine was in production. For reference, the mines were already closed when the Occupational Safety and Health Association began in 1971.
Mules also worked in the mines - and they had more regulations than the miners.
Men died from preventable causes, like trying to defrost dynamite on a stove. The Joplin History and Mineral Museum has a book detailing how every single miner died either on the job or from residual health issues.
Traveling down the mine involved four men squeezing together in a steel bucket that descended 160 feet underground, often with one miner's leg exposed.
According to the Joplin Mineral Museum, the physical digging involved continuous repetition of drilling, blasting, and shoveling.
A two-person team, consisting of the "driller" and the "dummy," doing the drilling process. The driller operated the drill, and the dummy would replace the drill steel. The drilling process involved the men continuously covering the mine face in a grid of 2-3 inch holes.
The following process was called blasting. The men in charge were called "Powder Monkeys'. They loaded the holes created by drilling the dynamite, a process called 'squibbing.' Each hole would have a different length of carefully measured fuse so that they would detonate in succession.
The Powder Monkey ran away from the holes and yelled 'Fire in the Hole!" before it detonated. One pound of dynamite should collapse one ton of rock.
The final step was shoveling - when the hard work began. Men with shovels filled cans with 'mine dirt.' One can could hold 1,500 pounds. Each shoveler had to fill 60 to 70 cans per shift. The men earned an extra five cents for any bucket filled beyond 70.
Men earned a meager salary for their tireless work. Miners were required to fill eighty buckets every day, receiving only four and a half cents per bucket. This phase of mining was laborious and backbreaking. Most miners began their careers as young men between 18 and 19 years of age.
According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, during peak production from 1908 to 1930, the mines generated nearly $222 million in zinc and $88 million in lead. During that time, the military used half of the zinc and 45% of the lead produced for World War I.
University of Mississippi professor Jared Roll's new book explores the labor history of the Tri-State District.
In his book's research, he focused on 'the poor man's mentality' - specifically, the miners' resistance to government efforts to improve health and safety in the mines. This type of mentality set the TSMD apart from every mining district in the United States. The miners were at the forefront of an anti-union perspective within the American mining industry.
"The association between their physical labor and mine and market prices shaped their ideas about the way labor is distributed in the district," he explained.
According to Roll, that type of mindset led to "zealous entrepreneurialism". Meaning, they were worked very hard and in very dusty arrangements and breathing in a lot of mine dust, which is full of silica.
During the lead excavation process from the Earth, miners often inhaled the dust that flew up. Silica dust, as it was known, is a common mineral found in many rocks. At the time of peak operation, there was little research into how silica dust affects the human respiratory system. Inhaling dust causes silicosis, a deadly lung disease.
While the exact number of deaths is unknown, suspected loss of life was within the 60-65 percent.
Blevins said finding out how unsafe the mines were took him by surprise.
"I think the health problems that plagued miners that's not a big surprise, but I think just the extent of it was one of the more interesting things that I found," he adds.
The Tri-State District's hazardous conditions caught the attention of President Franklin Roosevelt, who sent his Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins, to investigate the mines. Perkins visited the Tri-State District in 1940. According to the Historic Joplin website, in response to the growing epidemic of 'miners lung,' Perkins convened the Tri-State Silicosis Conference. The gathering allowed concerned citizens, representatives from mining companies, government officials, and union representatives to discuss the issues.
It was at the end of the conference that The Tri-State Survey Committee of New York sponsored a showing of Sheldon Dick's Men and Dust. The 1940s short film presents a realistic and almost jarring portrayal of the mine's impact on the health and welfare of the area. The Secretary of The Tri-State Zinc and Lead and Ore Producers Association - Evan Just, called it a 'smear campaign' against the mining district and the companies that operated there.
The film showed issues like the Oklahoma's Workman's Compensation Law. The law was a rating system for miners' health to help rein in insurance costs for the mines.
"Father has a B card, A C card, a D card. The father got an F card; the father has the roof. A silicosis F card. They will not let him work," cites the documentary.
Preventable with better ventilation, silicosis awareness came too late for too many.
As Perkins realized, too many men were plagued with silicosis. One damning report from the U.S. Public Health Service reveals that of the 750 men employed as mining operators, only 50 of them survived after working in the district.
There were four demands from the people working in and living around the mines: dust or silica control, proper hospital facilities, adequate housing, and federal legislation for minimum standards of working conditions
By the 1950s, lead and zinc became too expensive to produce domestically. Although there was still a need in the United States, minerals were imported from overseas to produce ammunition and paint.
Lead and zinc were used for various products even after the 1950s.
"Lead for pewter, and zinc for brass, lead for cables and zinc for medicine," explains the Men and Dust Documentary.
"That town owes its existence to mining and the money generated by mining. Even a lot of the early entrepreneurs who got into other businesses besides mining start as miners."Historian Brooks Blevins
The Industry's Impact, 170 years later.
Belk said there are still remnants of what used to be a mining town throughout present-day Joplin. Nearly all the city's hospital systems trace their origins back to the mining industry.
"Both our hospitals in Joplin Mercy or St. Johns were our first hospitals, and the Ladies of Mercy were upset that there wasn't a local hospital. That meant injured miners had to go great distances and sometimes didn't fare well; there was a great need for that," Belk explained.
Freeman Health System in Joplin ties directly back to John W. Freeman, an entrepreneur in the mining industry. He created the Freeman Hoist, which pulled the bucket from the bottom to the top of the mine for sifting. The name of Joplin's transportation shuttle, the Sunshine Lamp Trolley, originates from the very first mining helmet miners used, which featured a physical lamp.
Belk said it's easy for younger generations and newer residents to forget how the Joplin area started. Regardless, he said it's the resident's duty and responsibility to visit places like the Joplin History and Mineral Museum and remember the city's roots.
"It's just the reality of it is, if we've been, we've so far removed from it, and very seldom have our paths crossed where we end up talking about. "Well, how did this happen? And where did we get all started on this," he explains.
There are few direct descendants to tell the story of what it was like working underground. The only known living descendant is 96-year-old Henry Robertson, a former car salesman. His father and grandfather were owners of one of the mines. He went into the mines at just ten years old. He remembers it being dark and damp but said the experience affected him into adulthood.
"It was educational and it was inspirational from what was taking place in this whole area, so. It influenced me in the fact that I saw what could be done with this certain industry," Robertson explained.
The Joplin area has worked diligently to preserve the history of the mining industry. The Joplin and Mineral Museum has an extensive exhibit about the mining industry.
Today, Joplin honors its mining history through museums and public art. Just this year, a new sculpture in the Rotary Sculpture Garden paid tribute to the men who worked underground, effectively making the city what it is today.
The "Ground Boss" is a bronze statue of a mining operator with time-accurate clothing and equipment.
The Men and Dust Documentary is from the Library of Congress. The Joplin History and Mineral Museum provided photos, documents and detailed knowledge of the mining process.
Copyright 2025 Four States Public Radio. To see more, visit Four States Public Radio.
