What’s a single-jack drilling contest?
Miners have always been a rowdy bunch. Working hard in dangerous conditions and living in rough terrain with few conveniences. So, it’s no wonder they like to have fun when they can. Early-day miners would have competitions that are still happening today.
Before the invention of the air drill, drilling a hole to load explosives required hand drilling using a drill steel and a sledge hammer. If the drilling was being done by one person, it was called single-jacking. If with two drillers, double-jacking.
This is an odd name for drilling rocks but understanding the history of frontier mining - understandable. Many of the skilled miners that came to the West were from Cornwall England, where there is a long tradition of mining. In Cornwall, there were tin mines since before the Roman days and the Cornish were some of the most skilled miners of their day. As the West was developing, there was a need for skilled miners so many Cornish men were brought over. Whenever these miners wanted to take a day off, they’d tell the boss that their cousin Jack was visiting from the old country. Seems that every miner had a cousin Jack so the name stuck and was used simply to denote a miner.
Miners would brag about their drilling prowess so drilling competitions were common in the old West mining towns. Today, this tradition is continued in various mining towns such as Carson City, Nevada (Nevada Day celebration), Leadville Colorado (Leadville Boom Days) and Butte Montana (Mining Union Day and Intercollegiate Mining Games, Montana Tech), just to name a few.
The competition is simple - who can drill a hole the deepest in a solid granite boulder using a drill steel and a sledge hammer. There are one-man events and two-man team events but the objective is the same.
There’s a skill to drilling a hole. The drill steel must be just long enough so that the miner can hold it but not too long that it’s unstable, so the driller uses different lengths of steel. A short one to start the hole and longer ones as the hole deepens. The driller also needs a helper that pours water in the hole to flush out the rock dust so the drill strikes the bottom of the hole.
The drill steel must be kept sharp. If you’ve explored many old adits (horizontal mine opening), you might have noted a large wood block or log near the portal. If you were really lucky, you would’ve found an anvil strapped to the wood block. This is where the blacksmith would sharpen the drill steel for the miners. As you can image, this was a hectic job as several drillers would be working at the same time and they’d need their drills kept sharp. The blacksmith was a very important member of the mining team.
When double-jacking, one miner holds the drill steel and the second swings the sledge hammer. As the miner swinging the hammer tires, positions are switched. The one holding the steel must have confidence that the one swinging the hammer will hit the steel and not his hand. That’s when you know who your real friends are!
Double-Jack drilling contest.
With the invention of the air-hammer drill, jackleg competitions joined the single and double-jack competitions- note the use of the word Jack. The jackleg holds the drill and pushes it forward while the driller directs the drill and adjusts the air and water. The key to jackleg drilling is to have the correct balance of jackleg push, air, water and direction from the driller to keep a smooth hole going. Too much jackleg push and the hole goes crooked, too much water and the steel doesn’t strike the rock with maximum force, not enough water and the rock dust will cushion the steel. A lot going on at the same time.
In Mohave County, there’s the Old Miner’s Days celebration in Chloride held in October. They don’t have a drilling competition but maybe in the future. In 2023, I had the honor of being the Grand Mashal of the parade. Since I’m an old miner, I guess it was OK.
