Page 229 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

mining town, filled with males
with little or no opportunity for entertainment or
142
relief from boredom.
capable of causing some disturbing problems. Lead, especially in the form extracted from the ground at that time, is particularly insidious. The damage to humans can take place in either or both of two ways. The lead-laden dust can be swallowed. In this man- ner it does not enter the bloodstream quickly, but causes a colic that can be devastating. The dust can also enter the bloodstream more quickly through the lungs, causing lead poisoning.
The many psychological and physiological symptoms associated with less than a lethal dose include irritability and emotional instability. It is not unlikely that lead poisoning, to which all the miners were subjected to some degree, was responsible for at least intensifying the intersocial conflicts prevalent in the camp. 143 Indeed, the 10-year half- life for normal body rejection of accumulated lead may have had a far reaching influence on the physi- calandmentalhealthofmanyoftheCooksminers long after they left the camp. In fact, it could explain some of the problems historians face in dealing with
(Figures 56 and 57)
while at Cooks.
It is not unlikely that lead poison-
The ores they handled were
ing would adversely affect a person’s memory. This,
and McKenna’s use of second- and third-hand infor-
mation, might account for the fact that some of his
“tales” fail substantiation in the light of contem-
poraneous sources. For example, McKenna
claimed to have been the postmaster at Cooks and
complained bitterly that he could not leave for new
prospects until the government closed the facility.
The postal records simply do not support his con-
145
tention.
three stories of intriguing violence, adultery, and skulduggery at Cooks that would have made delight- ful repeating, if one could only corroborate the veracity of the source.
Whatever the other problems associated with Cooks, failure of the mines was not one of them, at least not yet. In 1888 Charles Poe reported that at the Summit Mine, close to the Montezuma, he and his partner Hugh Teel were doing assessment work and had uncovered the most extensive body of ore yetfoundinthedistrict. Itwas80feetlong,20feet wide, and increasingly wide with depth. Due to old surface disturbances, Poe thought it may have been
Chapter 7
Figure 54. Cooks Post Office and business district. Photo courtesy of the Deming-Luna Mimbres Museum.
Cooks’ reputation for violence (substantiated or not) may be more than the result of a rough western
James A. McKenna’s book Black Range Tales.
By his own admission, McKenna was “leaded”
144
215
This is unfortunate, because he included