UNR’s Mining Myths, Mining Realities Exhibit
History students at the University of Nevada, Reno participated in a semester-long project this spring, learning about Nevada’s mining industry and the people who work in it. The project culminated with students displaying what they’d learned at an exhibit at the school, “Mining Myths, Mining Realities.”
Trystan Swetkovich, one of the students who participated in the project, explains what she learned about Nevada’s oldest STEM industry in this blog post:
By: Trystan Swetkovich
This semester, I was involved in a project within the Public History department here at UNR. As a class, we were tasked with designing a project about the many facets of mining. “Mining Myths, Mining Realities” is our exhibit that dives into superstitions within mines and tackles the ideas people have of mining and showing what it’s truly like. Together, we researched extensively and interviewed people within the mining community to create a small museum exhibit displaying our findings. Before starting this project, I really didn’t know much about mining. I knew the basics and that was about it. However, this project really opened my eyes to so many different topics about mining and helped me gain a better understanding of what people in this field contribute to society.
Our oral history interviews were the most important aspect of the project. We were able to interview different people within the mining world, ranging from Mining Engineering professors to executive directors of well-known companies. These people shared their stories of how they became involved in mining and taught us about the various aspects of the profession. Each person had their own passion for mining in their own unique way. I was grateful to have interviewed Danny Taylor, a recently retired Mining Engineering professor at UNR. Danny came from a family that had a history within mining, but he fell in love with the job in his own way. Something so important to Danny that he stressed to me was how tight knit the mining community truly is. Before talking with him, I was under the impression that mining was a much larger field and more people were involved in it. He taught me that although the community is actually quite small, the relationships he has built with people from all over the world within his career have been so important to him. Danny is and always will be an incredibly passionate advocate for mining and how important it is to society, and through talking with him, I gained a new appreciation for what miners do.
Our exhibit was divided into six main categories: Travelling for work, family life and mining culture, environmental impacts, women in mining, and mining law and processes. We discovered through our research of these topics how complex and interesting mining can be. I focused on the environmental impacts of mining and the role women have had in its history; I learned so much about how mining companies strive to leave the least amount of detrimental impact on the environment and how the population of women in the mining world has increased dramatically over time. Overall, we collectively strove to show through our exhibit that mining is not as simple or as dangerous as people may think. As many of our interviewees stressed, mining is “hazardous, not dangerous.”
After completing this project, I found myself wanting to teach people about the topic of mining and I wanted to show them all the interesting things we learned. Now that I have gained a greater appreciation for our miners here in Nevada and across the globe, I strive to share this exhibit with anyone I can in hopes of showing them how important mining is.