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Tommyknockers |
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| Folklore of the California Gold Rush |
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Tommyknockers |
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| Folklore of the California Gold Rush |
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The towns of Nevada City and Grass Valley have a rich heritage of Welsh miners. One of the more colorful of their stories, was of a kind of gnome that lived in the mines. They were called "Tommyknockers". It was believed that Tommy knockers would knock on the wooden beams to warn of a pending collapse. The gnomes cared for the safety of the miners and it was believed that they were giving a warning in an effort to allow the miners ample opportunity to escape. |
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| The truth was that the "knocking sound" was caused by the slow buckling of the support beams just prior to a cave in. |
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The Cornish miners often took for
their noon time meal a meat pie of sorts called "pasties". These
pasties were made with extra pastry or breading on the edges serving as
"handles" for his meal. The dirty hands of the miner would not
soil the part of the pastry to be eaten and he could discard the soiled
edges when he was done eating. In the early days of lode mining, the miners
were forced to work by candle light. It was not uncommon to find a miner
whose pasty hung just above the candle, keeping it warm until he was ready
to eat it. To this day you can still find a restaurant or two in Nevada
City that makes pasties for their customers.
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