The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The Beginning

In 1977, I began my geology career in northeastern Nevada. My first office was a World War II vintage aluminum Spartan "Mansion" trailer that was roughly refitted into an office. The trailer was located next to the small office at the Dunphy, Nevada mill site. Dunphy was located about 25 miles east of Battle Mountain, Nevada and about 20 miles west of Carlin, Nevada. It was a humble beginning. When I arrived at the job, I knew almost nothing about the history of the operation. My first time in the trailer I noticed some old files by a geologist named Tom Hood. When the mill foreman, Gary Wright, who was about the same age as I was, wandered into the trailer to visit, I asked him who Tom Hood was. He said he was the previous geologist who worked here. He said Tom had resigned and moved to Idaho. He seemed to want to end it there and we moved on. I figured I would learn more through time and ultimately, I did.

As time moved on, I learned that Tom was well liked and respected by all the staff. He had evaluated a property in Alaska and in addition to working in Nevada had been sent to southern Thailand to evaluate and develop a mine there. The story from the local employees was when Tom was in Thailand, he said because of terrorist activity, the mine area was too dangerous to work at. He was then told that it was important to develop the mine and that if he did not desire to work at the Thailand property then when he came back, he would need to resign. Which he ultimately did. I have no way to know if the story is true but at the time, I had no reason to question it.

For the next two and a half years I worked primarily surveying and drilling the mine in Nevada. I also had the opportunity to go on several short trips to evaluate properties and mines in Idaho and Montana. Then in 1980, things improved as they asked me to evaluate properties in northern Thailand and near the arctic circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada. These were great times for me both as a geologist and person. Then in 1982 they asked me to return to Thailand to develop a mine in the north and one in the south of the country. At the time, I wondered if the southern mine was the one Tom thought was too dangerous. As it turned out it was one in the same.

Just before I flew into the town nearest to the southern mine, the terrorists bombed one of the local government offices. That is when I thought that Tom might just have a point here. We then went to the mine and the first day or two went without any issues. On the third day we were working at one of the larger pits and this government military helicopter flew overhead and then flew across the small valley where we were at and began strafing the heavily forested hillside. I asked the local Thai geologist I was with what was going on. He said the government was shooting at the terrorists. I asked him if we needed to leave the mine. In a calm voice he said no we were safe as the helicopter would not shoot in the mine site as this was an important income producer for the local people. For a moment I thought that is good news. Then for some odd reason I asked him where do the terrorists work? As if it were just a matter of fact, he said at the mine. Admittedly, it was all a bit unsettling to me.

After some soul searching, I decided I would stay and finish the project barring any further issues. I really did not want to have to try and find another job when I got back. Fortunately, nothing else happened. I did imagine that when Tom was here in the late '70s, it was probably a more difficult place to work. Years later I thought it would be interesting to try and look Tom Hood up and compare notes. Unfortunately, he had passed at a rather young age. His father was a well-respected doctor, with the same name, in Elko, Nevada. I regret never having told him how well respected his son also was by the people I worked with in Nevada.

As an afterthought, I should mention that later in my career I was asked to evaluate some properties in Nigeria. I thought of Tom again as I declined, as I believed it was too dangerous. The company I was working for hired a foreign contractor to evaluate them instead. Ultimately, they came to the same conclusion and quit the project.