Author: Richard Barnes

Mining Camp Memories (continued): Part 4

Richard Barnes

With gratitude I am pleased to continue posting Michael John Ashe II’s recollections of his life in El Pao and related events. As he remembers certain individuals, especially those we used to call “the big guys and gals”, my own memory is awakened to recall those years, those folks, and the joys lived. Also, as readers know, I was one of those who had great fun running behind the DDT truck (see Clouds) and I do remember that green poisonous snake and the Picaojos and Conucos. Most of all, the lifelong friendships and life lessons. We were — we are — truly blessed.

I am grateful for Mike’s wonderful powers of recollection and his gift in putting these down so vividly.

Thank you again, Mike.

Mike Ashe:

Risks to be Considered:

Health care was an issue, in an emergency there were no good options. During the polio epidemic they would spray the camp on the roads with clouds of DDT. All the kids thought it was fun to run after the truck!  Billions of tons of DDT were sprayed in the US and throughout the world with disastrous results, all on false premises offered up by the so-called experts.  The Salk vaccines were made available in 1955.  The spraying continued in El Pao to combat malaria. I believe DDT was banned in the US in 1972. DDT is currently being produced in China, India and North Korea but most of the world has outlawed its use.

My mother lost several children in child birth in a Mining Camp in Arizona, so when my mother got pregnant with my two brothers, she traveled to Pensacola FL to have them. Women with high-risk pregnancies rarely stayed in camp.

There was no dental care available in camp or elsewhere, the long-term impact of poor dental care and the lack of fresh dairy in the diet did impact children growing up in the camp.  Any emergency oral issue would almost always guarantee an extraction by the one doctor in El Pao.

I can’t remember who had a serious stomach blockage issue that required emergency surgery, but the camp doctor had little to no surgery experience.  Dad said several folks would read the surgical procedure during the operation while the doctor did his best to perform the operation.  I understand that the patient had years of painful side effects and several additional operations but was lucky to survive an operation under such conditions.  

I can’t imagine anyone surviving a major heart attack or stroke in the camp. I remember my brother Tim came down with amebic dysentery, which proved to be hard to treat. At one point they did consider asking that the company plane be used to get him to a hospital in Caracas.  Thankfully, that was needed.  

Snake bites were the main concern for parents, I was bitten several times but the snakes were not poisonous. There was a green snake that hunted in the tree tops which are very venomous so we would always look for green snakes and bee hives before climbing. My mother would find snakes in her washing machine which was on the back porch.  I don’t know how they got in there, in her garden and on the front porch.  I was told when they built the RR and cleared the land around El Pao workers suffered some serious safety issues including many venomous snake bites.  The dozers used to clear trees would be equipped with safety steel enclosures and wire to guard against falling trees and snakes.  Workers would also sport leather snake bite leggings.   

Boys will be Boys:

One of our sports was to crawl into a very long storm water culvert pipe running though the bottom of the staff camp — “not too smart”.  We would also play in the Johnson Grass (grass would cut you) and there were bees’ nest in the grass. I happened to grab a nest and the bees would attack the eyes. My mother didn’t recognize me when I came home.  It was a miracle that I didn’t get really sick from the poison. Richard Barnes calls them “PICAOJOS” (well named). 

Sling shots were very popular in Venezuela. Every self-respecting boy in camp had a well-crafted homemade sling shot and a machete.  We would practice shooting rifles but ammo was rather scarce so the sling shot became the go-to weapon.  All of us became expert with a sling shot.  One of our fun sports was to get close to a bee hive (hanging from the trees and shoot at them with a sling shot and run. The killer bees would chase you for quite a while (slow runner would sometimes pay the price!). 

There were not too many boys my age in camp.  I had four friends during the time I lived there, John Tuohy, Jorge Menendez, Antonio Ristorcelli and Herman Gerbrecht at different times during my stay in camp. Jorge was my first friend in camp and on occasions we would fight and Jorge would always win, but Jorge had a younger brother Carlos who used to beat us both up. So anytime I had an issue with Jorge, I would get Carlos on board! We managed to get in a little trouble, but kept most of the things that would get us in real trouble to ourselves.  

When not in school we would be gone from sun-up to sun-down.  The jungle was always a great place to build forts, practice shooting with our rifles. The road up to the water tower was a favorite spot. Whenever we ventured into the jungle, we took our machetes, how would today’s parents react to that!  My brothers Herb Ashe Jr and Tim Ashe I think were too young to remember much about El Pao.   When I left Venezuela, they were only 4 and 5 years old. 

Antonio Ristorcelli and I might have been the original skate boarders at least in El Pao.  We would set a board over a skate and sit on the board lift our legs up and cross them and proceed at great neck speed from the top of the camp to the bottom about a half mile all the while shifting our bodies to turn the skate.  Needless to say, we’d crash a lot and ruined our jeans (clothing came from the States and I only had two pairs to last the year) not to mention some very badly scrapped knees and arms, but thankfully no head injuries. 

Reading was an important part of my life in camp. Books provided a lot of entertainment and I read every book I could get my hands on. It’s too bad that kids now days don’t have that opportunity.

Other things:

Bob Brundage was the Company’s Railroad Superintendent. He had a Trinidadian assistant Mr. Oscar (both were true brothers and great guys). They built a series of miniature rail cars along with a locomotive that was powered with a lawnmower engine (kids would ride on top of the cars).  Bob and I laid tracks around his family’s camp house. Great fun for camp kids.  I understand when Bob and his family left El Pao they shipped the train and track to the US.  

Puerto Ordaz was a nice town we use to travel there sometimes it was an outing since we would go by a two/three car ferry.  I understand that the ferry has been replaced by a bridge across the Caroni and Orinoco.  They would have the annual soap box derby races there which was always a fun event.  Ted Heron Jr would enter the races and all of us would work on his car. Cheap hydro power resulted in a surge in industrialization in the area.

L-R Herman Gerbrecht, Me, Mary Ellen, A man Cannot make him out. Mom. Herb, Tim and Dad Watching Soap Box Derby in Puerto Ordaz.

Conucos:

Conucos, Fincas and Fincas Granderas are the three main agriculture systems in the 1950’s.  Conucos or family farms, typically a small leased property for subsistence living. When we lived in Venezuela a feudal system in agriculture was in place where 80% of the land was controlled by 2% of the owners. After we left Venezuela the Government began a land reform program but do not know the results.  Most of the Fincas are located in the Llanos (plains).

Conucos lined the road from El Pao to Palua which was typical in a jungle environment.  Farming used slash and burn farming techniques. 

Traveling by air:

We would only travel to Ciudad Bolivar to catch a flight out to the states.  We stayed in Caracas only once, since there was a coup in progress when we landed in Maiquetia and all domestic flights were cancelled.  I think we stayed in the Tamanaco Hotel which was beautiful, but under siege, so we had to hunker down in our rooms. Entrance of the Hotel was sandbagged and armed guardia troops on guard outside. Dad said that there were some small arms battles in the street in front of the Hotel, too bad I didn’t see that! 

We ended up staying there a couple of days and didn’t get to see Caracas at all. IMCOV had an office in Caracas, my friend Jorge Menéndez’s father ended up being the top executive in Venezuela.  He was the right choice for that position since he was from Cuba, but became a Venezuelan citizen and I understand was very well respected and qualified. My recollection of Mr. Menéndez was that he had a Pancho Villa mustache! 

Leaving El Pao for the last time Liesha Ten Houten and I managed to get a ride on the company plane (usually reserved for upper management and their families not Liesha and me).  Liesha was a very sweet girl with blond hair and glasses and she was scared to death of flying.  We sat in seats right in back of the pilot and held hands.  Approaching Maiquetia and viewing the Andes on one side and the Caribbean on the other from the cockpit was an amazing experience.

To be continued….

Mining Camp Memories (continued): Part 3

Richard Barnes

With great pleasure and gratitude I continue to post from the Mining Camp Memories by Michael John Ashe II (Mike). These arise from his and family’s sojourn in El Pao from 1953 to 1961.

I think General Lew Wallace had an understanding of the pull that childhood has on the rest of one’s life:

… some there will be to divine [such] feelings without prompting. They are such as had happy homes in their youth, no matter how far that may have been back in time — homes which are now the starting points of all recollection; paradises from which they went forth in tears, and which they would now return to, if they could, as little children; places of laughter and singing, and associations dearer than any of all the triumphs of after-life.”  Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Book Sixth, Chapter 6, by General Lew Wallace (1827-1905)

Thank you again, Mike!

Mike Ashe:

Organized Entertainment:

Below is a picture of the Castillo de San Francisco de Asis on the Orinoco which is located about 15 or 17 miles downstream from where Dick and I would fish. The company would organize a day trip for the whole camp (once a year) we would all travel by rail to Palua board the YaYa Tug Boat travel down river to the Castillo and have fun exploring the fort. The company would arrange lunch for us.  Built by the Spaniards in 1685 to tax travelers on the river by raising a chain until tolls were paid. Children and Adults would have a great time.

Looking at these pictures the Castillo was built on top and around a large boulder. These boulders were everywhere in the Orinoco and the river banks for miles which only adds to the river’s beauty.
A picture of the river near Ciudad Bolivar-note the amount of river current.  The mighty river was wide in the rainy Season it swells to a breath of 14 Miles. Average depth of 165 feet in the rainy season to 50 feet in the dry season

Another camp outing would be to travel down to the Caroni River during the dry season, when the water level was low exposing a sandy beach from the tree line to the water’s edge in some places 100 feet. The Caiman would leave their tracks in the sand from the tree line to the water’s edge, which was kind of neat.  The families would go swimming in the river and I would go fishing downstream from them.  Never told the swimmers that piranhas (AKA Caribes) were all that I was catching, and a lot of them.  

The communal restaurant at the Club served good food (big night was Sunday for families) and the swimming pool was also very nice and all of us kids would spend a great deal of time there, mostly swimming. We would also get our haircuts there.  The barber had a nude woman tattooed on his forearm and Dad would get a kick out of how I would be eyeballing the barber’s forearm-he never said anything to me about it.  

We had movies twice a week. Everyone would bring lawn chairs and watch/wait until the projector malfunctioned! 

My favorite person in Venezuela was “Juan the Bartender” Juan like many folks in the camp and in Venezuela, were there to escape the economic collapse in Europe after the War. Actually, I was godfather to his son one of the highlights of my life in the little Church in the labor camp.  I did speak with Richard Barnes about Juan who had left before the mine closed. While working in El Pao he had made enough money to buy a bar in Soledad (across the Orinoco from Ciudad Bolivar) which he later sold for a nice profit that enabled him to return to Portugal with his family.  Juan’s importance to the community was never recognized and in that he was special.

Encounter with wild beasts and diversity of wildlife:

On one occasion I ran into a rather large Tapir while on a fishing trip on the Caroni River bank circa 1957-58 during the dry season.   On the way back from my position on the river bank to the pickup (the rest of the fishing party was waiting to head home) I entered the tree line and I froze, the Tapir was about 15-20 feet away from me.  I wasn’t afraid of it but knew that it was a big wild animal and I really didn’t know how dangerous it was. If I had known, I would have started running. When we made eye contact, it turned and moved away, I remained calm but as soon as it was out of sight, I picked up the pace and got out of there.  I told everyone what I saw but didn’t get much of a response.  No big deal.  This actually was a very big deal and I was blessed to be able to experience a contact with an endangered animal.  A Tapir (shown below) typically spends a great deal of time around rivers.  I would also expect them to be around more in the dry season (calmer waters provided easier access).  Their primary predators in addition to man would be the Jaguar.  

I ran into this guy “a Tarsiers” (above) while looking into a burrow and it scared me to death.

The diversity of wildlife was amazing.  We had pet parakeets, toucans and a remarkable parrot called Big Parrot.  I am convinced that a lot of the birds in Venezuela have not yet been cataloged.  Big Parrot was an amazing bird; had long feathers surrounding the back of its neck and when excited the feathers would raise up creating a crown around its head.  

The Herons lived next to us; a sloth meandered into camp one day and ended up in one of their trees- stayed there a couple of weeks and died.  

There was also a large Burro that wandered into camp when I was 10.  I took care of it and would ride around camp.  One day the Burro disappeared (did not know how or why) but I was devastated.  Somehow the Burro reappeared only to die in the Wrights (Dad’s Boss) front yard.

Silke Gerbrecht had a pet Ocelot in camp a beautiful animal but not too friendly.  I never did see a Jaguar but hunters would sell their skins in the worker’s camp so they were not too far from camp.  

Each year the camps were invaded by a relative of a cane toad, that littered the roads as road kill.  I understand if they are kept in captivity, they will live for 35 years.  

We made several trips to Cerro Bolivar (US Steel mine) to visit Art Ruff and his family. Art was a snake expert he had horses so we would go out in the bush looking for snakes. When he spotted one he’d jump off the horse and capture it with his bare hands.  Dad and Art went off on one trip and caught a 10-foot red tailed boa.  Art skinned it and sent it over to Dad. I don’t know what ever happened to the skin but someone could have made a lot of boots with it!

We ran into a lot of anteaters and porcupines.  Our dogs would invariably have run ins with porcupines and come home with white spines all over their noses. Both are dangerous; the Giant Anteater has large front claws and are hunted in Venezuela primarily for the claws.  

Birds by the Thousands:

William Phelps a North American from New York City, and Harvard Educated was an ornithological explorer and businessman who arrived in Venezuela Circa 1900, in the states of Sucre and Monagas. He became like myself, fascinated by the country and its birds. In San Antonio de Maturin he met British settlers, the Tuckers and fell in love with one of their daughters Alicia Elvira. He continued his studies at Harvard and returned to Maturin to sell coffee and pursue ornithology.  His son William Jr founded the Phelps ornithological Collection considered the largest in Latin America.  There are over 80,000 birds in feathers and thousands preserved in alcohol and over 1000 skeletons.   William also founded Radio Caracas Radio (RCR) which was only shut down when the communist dictator Hugo Chavez came to power.  The collection I believe is still in Caracas and continues to grow.

We ate a lot of bananas in Venezuela.  Dad would buy a whole stock of bananas and hang it outside on the porch.  The birds would feast on the top of the stock and we would eat the rest as it ripened.

The bird population in Venezuela is simply spectacular in terms of diversity, quantity and habitats.  One of my favorites is the Crested Oropendolas that weave sock like nests that hang high up in the jungle canopy.  There would be thousands flying into and out of their nests as we drove down the dirt road to Palua.

This is a Hawk Headed Parrot, our pet Parrot in Venezuela-simply called Big Parrot.  When he got angry or disturbed the head feathers would go up on his head.  He was a great friend and companion. We had several dogs in Venezuela, but Big Parrot was always my favorite.

Insects by the Millions:

Ants were my favorite insects.  Army ants are actually scavengers that can swarm and consume a dead carcass in minutes. They provide a great service in keeping the jungle floor clean. When they are in the march they number in the millions and leave a bare trail about 8 inches wide for miles.  

The leaf cutter ant is an amazingly strong creature able to carry leaves to the nest in great numbers.   They all can and do bite which is always painful.

Beetles came in all types and sizes, we would play with them for hours, we’d get two large Hercules and/or Rhinoceros beetles and arrange gladiator fights just like in the Roman Colosseum. Blood thirsty jerks that we were! 

Termites were everywhere, they would magically appear overnight on the walls of our company cinder block home. They would scale the walls inside a mud tube from the floor to the ceiling; don’t know what they were in search of maybe roof rafters (maybe wooden).  Anyway, it would always freak out my mother. 

Butterflies:

There were over a 1000 species of butterflies in Venezuela.  The ones in the rainforest where we lived were amazingly colorful and evolved to blend in, some with wings that looked like eyes. 

(I’ll briefly interject here to note that Andrew Neild from England published The Butterflies of Venezuela some years ago. Many of his specimens were from the area surrounding El Pao. If the reader is interested in this, he or she can search for Andrew and find him — RMB)

To be continued….

Mining Camp Memories: Chapter 2 (continued)

Richard Barnes

…Mom would always say that the best time of her life was in El Pao with all her children about her….

Moving In:

I can’t be sure but I think we moved to Venezuela in 1953 (I was 6 and my sister was 2). Dad was an IMCOV employee hired as a Mine Foreman and left there in 1961. Our first on Delta DC7 going from New Orleans stopping in Havana, Kingston, Montego Bay and onto Maiquetia (I can’t be sure but I think flight time was 7 hours). From Maiquetia to Ciudad Bolivar on a bumpy DC3 (Plenty of barf bags on board) and by company vehicle to El Pao.  Our first night in camp was really something. Red Howler monkeys would growl like lions and all of us were too afraid to sleep. My sister Mary Ellen and I ended up in bed with the folks for a couple of weeks! The camp weather was nice all year round including the rainy season-no HVAC.

Most of my memories were from a kid’s perspective and Venezuela was a great adventure for me but I knew it was very different for an adult. It takes a special person to spend a lifetime in a place where there is considerable isolation in language and culture not to mention the absence of family connections (my Grandmother the daughter of a New York City policeman lived in a mining camps in Chile and Mexico for almost 40 years). Outside, communication was not possible when we lived there, we had a short-wave radio and when atmospherics were right about 7-8PM we would get the news from the US, but not too often. The mail service was always touch and go.  The commissary was in the labor camp. I remembered my mother would bake bread twice a week and would have to sift the flour to get the hundreds of black bugs out.  We still managed to get some protein from the bread even after the sifting.  Sanitary conditions were not optimum there.  I remember that the women would travel to the Oil Fields to get frozen vegetables and Ice Cream about 3 times a year.  Meat processing was done at labor camp the which took sanitation to a whole new level.  

Bo Johnson was an exciting character, a geologist and a Pilot with a lot of flight hours in Venezuela and other parts of South and Central America. He would take off and land on the top bench of the mine until the day he crashed landed. He and Ted Heron salvaged most of the plane and stored the parts in the machine shop with the idea of rebuilding it.  I left for school in the states around that time, so I don’t know if that ever happened.  If anyone could fix something it would be Ted.  Ted and Dad worked together in Inspiration Az-(Anaconda Copper) Ted’s expertise was in mining equipment maintenance.

Looks a lot like Bo’s plane.

In 1953-54 El Pao had a serious maintenance problem.  Dad convinced management to hire Ted to solve the issue, which he did.  When Dad went to Mexico in 1968 there were a similar maintenance issues with the Autlan’s Molango Mines and Ted was back in business.  As I recall, Bethlehem Mines had a longwall shipped there from “I think” Mine 131 Boone Division that was giving them fits I don’t know if that problem was ever fixed. 

Camp School:

The camp school was a one room structure. There were two teachers, Mrs. Dorsey and Mr. Shipe. Mrs. Dorsey’s husband had died in El Pao, but she continued teaching there.  When my mother went to the States to have my brother Tim, I stayed with her, a great lady.  I had one year of Mr. and Mrs. Eller. Both were very nice, however I thought Mr. Eller was a little strange wearing sandals in the jungle which was always a topic of conversation with the kids.  Mrs. Ivanoksy was my piano teacher. She was a very eccentric but a wonderful French lady whose latest husband Boris Ivanosky was a huge Russian, who drove a very small sports car and always wore his French beret while driving. Both of them were getting up in age and she would sometimes speak to me in French, sometimes in Spanish and rarely in English.  She would always have a snack for me after practice to soothe my invariable headaches?  Needless to say, I really didn’t progress very far as a musician but loved my teacher.   

Top picture is circa 1955; bottom picture is circa 1958

The Mine:

I spent a lot of time at the mine with my Dad most likely to give my mother a break (I was a handful).  The crusher was a constant issue and the greatest bottleneck in the operation, so we spent a lot of time there.  There were a couple of nasty crusher accidents one incident involved a third shift worker who had climbed onto the conveyor belt for a nap and didn’t wake up when the crusher started up in the morning.  He was dismembered when he reached the head frame, just an awful accident.   There was another accident (luckily no one hurt) when a dump truck unloading clay overburden tipped over while unloading and ended up about half way down a very steep and high dump site (a buildup of clay inside the bucket might have caused the accident or maybe operator error). Shortly thereafter one of the trucks was outfitted with a device to scrap clay buildup off the buckets, improving productivity and safety.

I got a chance to operate dozers and went to countless blasts with Sam Wright and my Dad which was really fun. The shovels would be positioned outside the blast zone and we would go inside the shovel bucket for protection. Dad or Sam would keep the pickup running, light the fuse, jump in the pickup, and race down the bench out of the blast zone (which was relatively large). The blasts were really something and everyone was different, a cloud of red dust and large sized debris (mostly 2-4” rock projectiles) flying in all directions.   I was almost killed by a dump truck driver, so I was confined to the pickup after that when the mine was operating.  IMCOV safety is a little less stringent than Bethlehem Steel’s!  

Labor Unions were strong there.  I remember one time Dad had a rather nasty disagreement with the union and he was arrested by the Guardia and put in jail.  In Venezuela the police were actually not local but a Federal Military force called the Guardia Nacional.  I do believe that Dad was taken into custody for his own safety but really not sure of that.  I always thought the Guardia was a good organization but who knows nowadays. 

Fishing Tales

Full Fine Print Disclosure I hate eating fish- so catch and release was the operative action. 

Actually, there was considerable risk in living in a remote mining camp.  Dick Guth was my Fishing Buddy and we went fishing at least a couple times a month.  He would pick me up at 4:30 and drive down a dirt, sometimes gravel road to Palua (with Conucos on both sides of the road).  It was right before daybreak that we would be on the Orinoco. It was beautiful calm water like glass with flocks of parakeets, parrots, and occasional guacamaya overhead.  We would go downstream to our favorite fishing bend in the river and during the dry season come ashore. During the rainy season the Orinoco would overflow its banks flooding the surrounding low lands then would recede during the dry season, leaving behind lagoons full of fish (great opportunities for the Caiman and us) We’d head back (Orinoco would begin to get rough at midday) and troll upstream. 

We would always get a Payara strike-AKA saber tooth barracuda great game fish average size 30-40lbs with two 2-3” long fangs in its lower jaw and go up to where the Orinoco and Caroni merged (amazing line of clean “Caroni River water and Brown Orinoco Water”) just upstream on the Caroni past Puerto Ordaz and back to Palua and head home. 

I didn’t think about it at the time but it would have been a real problem if the outboard 30HP motor would have quit on us when we were downstream from Palua – since the banks of the Orinoco were impenetrable at that time. Amazing rivers full of fish, river dolphins, tarpon, sharks Crocodiles. I’m sure you know that the camp water was pumped up from the Caroni.  Pumping station was slightly downstream from the amazing Falls (which was somewhat ruined by the dam). See below:

Somehow I misplaced my pictures of catches. This is a stock picture of a Payara. When landing one, you needed to watch out for their teeth!

Dick Guth, Ted Heron, Ted Jr. and I would go spear fishing off the coast.  We would travel to Puerto la Cruz take two Zodiac type boats and motor out to an uninhabited island about 1- ½ mile off shore and stay there for 3-4 days.    Great adventure for all of us. The water was very clear and relatively calm.  We’d catch Longostinos (Spanish for little lobster) and boil them over an open fire.  We were all strong swimmers and would sometimes venture out into blue water.  On one occasion, I had gone out pretty far and Dick and Ted were yelling and screaming for me to get out of the water.  I thought they were yelling because I was out too far. As it turned out they were yelling because there was a large shark close to me which I failed to see.

As you might have already guessed, fishing was really an important part of my life since organized sports of any kind was not an option for me.  It didn’t stop when I was not in Venezuela.  My Uncle Bob Broadley (a great angler) taught me a great deal about fishing during summer trips to Pensacola Florida.  We would go out early mornings stop off at B&B Donut shop around 5:30 and off to the Pensacola Beach Pier on Santa Rosa Island and fish for Kings and Lings (Cobia). If the fish weren’t biting there, we would go to the pier at Fort Pickens and fish for Spanish (Spanish Maceral). 

No one would believe the number of 8–12-foot hammer head sharks that used to circle the Pensacola Beach Pier. In those days the beach was packed with swimmers!  Uncle Johnny McCluskey was another angler that I loved dearly.  He was a great man of character, that I was fortunate to be a part of my life.  He took an interest in my life and was always my buddy.  He was a boxing fan and we would watch the Gillette Saturday fights together along with his son Mathew McCluskey.  Just great memories.  Johnny would fish for Mullet with a net since that was the only way to fish for Mullet.

Ling/Cobia

Also, it’s important to understand that, although it was fun to fish, the relationships with my fellow anglers’ memories of them were and still remain the most important for me.

Many of us mining camp brats can appreciate how much our mothers sacrifice for their families.  They are the true heroes of the mining camp life. Without them we would have not survived it.  

My mother a Pensacola, Florida gal, met my Dad on a blind date in 1943.  Dad was in flight training in the Naval Air Station there and after a six-month courtship they were married in Jacksonville, Florida.

Pensacola was always home base for us. Even today we always manage to return often to visit my brother and parents’ gravesite there.

 Mom would always say that the best time of her life was in El Pao with all her children about her.

To be continued….

Note to Subscribers:

Richard Barnes

Dear Subscribers:

In early April, we had a glitch which resulted in our having “lost” all subscribers to this blog in addition to other problems.

Thankfully, after much research (and weeping and wailing), we were able to resolve the problem and have been restored to the status quo ante. 

While we attempted to figure out and fix the problem, I held up on further posts.

We will now be able to continue with Mike Ashe’s “Mining Camp Memories”.

Thank you for your continued interest in The Pull of the Land!

Mining Camp Memories — Foreword, Prologue, Chapter #1, and first part of Chapter #2

Richard Barnes

In recent months it has been my joy to have renewed acquaintances with one of the “big boys” who lived in El Pao in my early years. When I say “big boys” I mean he was a few years older than me during the phase in childhood where a few years might as well be an eternity! But we are members of the same generation.

Michael John Ashe II (Mike) came to El Pao as a little boy with his beautiful family in 1953, the year of my birth. I remember his sister and twin brothers, who were closer to my age back then, when even 2 years was a big deal. 

It’s been great to have gotten back in touch with Mike, even if only through email. 

He has graciously agreed to let me post his reminiscences in this blog, something which I will do over the coming weeks and months, with a few interruptions here and there. 

His writings speak for themselves, but if I have something to add I’ll do so in parentheses identified by “RMB”

For now, I’ll only say that Mike’s family is a microcosm of the many families who came to El Pao and similar mining camps throughout South America in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The backgrounds varied greatly and the adventurous spirit was very high.

I know you will enjoy these. 

Thank you, Mike!

Michael John Ashe II

Foreword

Personal Narrative of Living in a Mining Camp

Now in my seventies, I thought it be best to delve into my memories of a an extraordinary childhood adventure before they escape me. 

Memories of Mining Camp living was akin to Time Traveling from a modern world to a far more basic and remote jungle life.

My parents, Herbert Carroll Ashe and Gloria McCluskey Ashe provided me with this great adventure to which I dedicate this humble accounting of our camp life together.

My grandmother Mama-Mary Ellen McCluskey I will always be thankful for her unconditional love.

To my El Pao classmate, Cheryl Serrao who suffered greatly from a genetic disorder that ended her life in her early teens. You are gone but not forgotten.

To Mike Ashley, Richard Barnes, and my wife Maria Cristina Ashe for their participation, help, and inspiration.

To my children and grandchildren, you are our greatest gift from God. Your love has always been unconditional and cherished by Nana and I. You have made us very happy. God bless you always.

Copyright 2021 by Michael J. Ashe

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Mining Camp-Memories-from my childhood’s perspective (Risk Takers and Adventurers)

Prologue

Pat Korb and Mike Korb were kind to send me an audio interview of their life in El Pao (1969-1970) a mining camp situated 36 miles south of the Orinoco River in the state of Bolivar. This prompted me to prepare these series of short stories about my experiences in growing up in several mining camps but primarily in El Pao circa 1950s. 

In the 1950s the State of Bolívar was sparsely populated. Cities and towns in the state included Ciudad Bolívar, Puerto Ordaz, Upata, San Félix, and Palúa. Ciudad Bolívar (aka CB) was the largest city and the state’s capital. CB’s population was less than 50,000 then and over 400,000 now. Palúa, Puerto Ordaz, Upata, and San Félix population I would estimate at less than 12,000. Now, a new city, Ciudad Guayana (formerly Puerto Ordaz, Palúa, and San Félix) population is about 1 million. The total population of the State of Bolívar is more than 1.4 million now. The country’s birth rate is one of the highest in the world. Needless to say, the State of Bolívar is a much different place now and most likely not for the best.

Pictures of Angel Falls — Water falls from a flat-topped top mountain (Tepuis) Auyan Tepui (Devils Mountain) in the State of Bolivar.  The highest waterfall in the world which drops over 3000 ft. In the 1950’s and today, travel is limited to a fly by with a small aircraft.  Dense jungle surrounding the falls and given its remoteness, the trip would be very risky. We never went there.

Chapter #1-Our First Mining Camp-Inspiration Arizona:

Before moving to Venezuela, Dad got a job working for an Anaconda Copper Inspiration Arizona, starting as a mucker (as a reference Inspiration lies between the towns of Globe and Miami).  The company furnished houses for the workers. The only thing I can remember was that there was a stove in the middle of the living room that I got burned on. Inspiration was a very typical company-run camp at an altitude of about 3,500 ft located in a beautiful part of Arizona. The area was isolated from the rest of Arizona and was considered as the state’s frontier, mainly due to its proximity to the famous San Carlos Indian Reservation.  The towns in the area remained frontier outposts well into the 20th Century. Plenty of murders, lynching and really bad hombres.  All of which was part of the lore of American Cowboy and the Western lifestyle.  Even now Globe is considered to be the most dangerous city in Arizona. The western movies captured the conflicts and violence between settlers and Apache warriors like Geronimo and Cochise,  but there were many others (notice how the bad guys were always the Indians maybe not a fair representation of history). They also captured the lives of colorful characters like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Big Nose Kate (hands down the most colorful woman in the frontier west).  I must say that the movies captured the most important stars- the beautiful western landscapes-John Ford’s work was the best. 

Picture of Malachite Quartz and Blue ball Azurite from a mine in Globe.

In 1950 during a routine medical checkup, it was determined that Dad had a mass in his left lung, that needed to be dealt with.  His doctor suggested that he go to Mayo Clinic (Rochester MN) since lung operations of this type were rare at that time.   Actually, the operation they performed was one of the first lobectomy at Mayo.  It was a brutal operation with a very large incision on his back (the procedure today is less invasive since it is done from the front).  The left lung has only two lobes while the right has three lobes so they ended up removing half his left lung.  Thankfully the mass was benign.  My mother would always tell me to take care of Dad, as we might not have him around for too long, he ended up living to 91!  

I had to stay with my Grandparents in Cananea Mexico (A mining town also operated by Anaconda where my grandfather worked) while my parents went to Mayo.  My mother returned by bus to Cananea while Dad remained in the hospital recovering.  Aunt Charlene was a nurse at Mayo and had just married my Uncle Don.  Their honeymoon plan was to drive to Cananea but that did include Dad tagging alone.   Dad would also be complaining about how much the incision hurt during the trip but Aunt Charlene always felt that he was milking it! 

The drive from Inspiration to Cananea took about 5 hours so we would make the trip quite often which was particularly fun for me once we crossed into Mexico.  The road from Naco to Cananea at that time was not paved and you would have to cross a series of arroyos (steep and not so steep gullies formed by fast -flowing water) most of which were dry or partially filled with water.  There were no bridges so the cars would have to enter the arroyos. When it rained, we would have to wait until the water subsided in order to pass. For me the trip was always a great adventure.  On one trip Dad and Uncle Don took me jack rabbit hunting.  The jack rabbits would stand up on their hind legs which provided an easy target for the hunter.  I think I was 4 years old at the time and my dad sited the rabbit and I pulled the trigger.  I remember crying and was unconsolable on the way back to Cananea after killing and retrieving that bunny rabbit. At my uncle’s 90th birthday he reminded me of that hunting trip which apparently left a long-lasting impression on both of us!

My grandparents house (owned by Anaconda) was located on a ridge just outside of town.  There was a Baseball Park nearby where the Cananea Mineros played as part of the Arizona Mexico League Mineros and won the league in 1955/56.  I was lucky to see Claudio Solano once, he played third base and hit over 200HR for the Mineros. Globe Miami Arizona Miners were also part of the league.  Any time I would go to Cananea I would visit the park.  The Cincinnati Reds were affiliated with the Yuma’s team in that league.  I don’t think that the Cananea Mineros played ball after 1958?  

There were about 8 company houses on the ridge where they lived and most folks had horses and barns out back.  My grandparents didn’t have horses but raised fryer chickens as well as egg layers and turkeys.  They had a maid for twenty years; her name was Anita  A wonderful woman (anyone and everyone that knew her loved her) I remember she would be in charge of killing the chickens (ringing their necks). One thing for sure chicken/eggs were always on the menu.

Naco on the US side crossing into the State of Sonora Mexico

Both my uncle Don and Dad worked for Anaconda for a short time.  I think both felt that opportunities were limited but it did end up giving both a good head start in their careers.  

Chapter 2-Second Mining Camp-El Pao Venezuela 

Infrastructure

The El Pao ore deposit was discovered in 1920.  Iron Mines Company of Venezuela (IMCOV) a wholly owned subsidiary Bethlehem Mines was formed after WWII.   In the late 1940’s IMCOV began Engineering Procurement and Construction of the El Pao ore deposit and supporting logistics facilities 1) Rail 36 miles/Locomotives /Gondola Cars used to transport ore to Palúa, 2) two port facilities a river port at Palúa (capable of holding 850,000 tons of ore and seaport at Puerto de Hierro and 3) a fleet of river ore carriers.  

Sparrows point shipyard in Baltimore Maryland built 6 ore carriers for IMCOV. The ore carrier Punta Anamaya was the first of eventually five sister ships that were built for the Iron Mines Company of Venezuela. These small ships, each 381-feet long and 64-feet wide were expressly designed and built for service on the Orinoco River in Venezuela to haul iron ore from Palúa to Puerto de Hierro (8,500-ton capacity) and then to be transshipped by ocean-going ore carriers (26,000-ton Capacity) primarily to Plants in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Sparrows Point, Maryland. IMCOV also maintained an office in Caracas (capital of the republic) to interface with the Venezuelan Government.

I’d see them in port at Palúa and on the Orinoco. I would always be amazed at how big and beautiful they were.

Just the logistics of getting equipment through the jungle was a monumental task not to mention the amount of planning and engineering supporting this major undertaking which was extremely expensive. Potable water from the Caroni, Fuel to Run the Electric Generator at all locations, not to mention the camp and ports’ housing roads and infrastructure.  Don’t know if the returns justified the investment?  
Puerto de Hierro IMCOV Deep water port in the state of Sucre.

(Will continue with next section: “Moving In”)