Mining man: Underground memories surface once again in Butte man's new book

Retiring in 2015 after nearly 30 years, Winstead would quickly learn he had a lot of extra time on his hands and admittedly, he said, sometimes his mind would wander to days gone by.

Once those memories surfaced, Winstead began sharing his thoughts with friends and was encouraged to start writing things down.

Those memories of “bygone days gone by” included a look back at the different jobs the Portland, Oregon, native has held since moving to Butte in 1972.

One job in particular stood out.

His life as an underground miner made a lasting impression. So much so, Winstead recently had his book, “Not My Time to Die: A Story of What it Was Like to be a Hard Rock Underground Miner,” published.

Winstead said he started working at the tail end of underground mining and kept the job until mining operations closed in 1983.

“It was the end of an era,” he said.

It took some time, but the novella Winstead wrote tells the story of his first job after completing mining classes at Butte Vo-Tech. As an underground miner, he worked mainly at the Leonard Mine but also spent time underground at the Kelley Mine and the East Colusa Mine.

“I cried when they later toppled the Leonard Mine,” he said.

Winstead, who worked as a miner for nine years, is referring to the Leonard’s 140-foot headframe, which the Anaconda Company detonated on Sept. 15, 1973. In the name of progress, the East Colusa was a casualty as well, swallowed up by the Berkeley Pit.

More than 50 years have passed, but Winstead said he can still recall the cages that took the miners underground.

“It freaked me out the first few times, until I got used to it,” he said.

Describing underground mining as “one of the most dangerous jobs,” Winstead said he has never read a book that accurately depicted what life was like underground and the inevitable dangers that came with the job.

“Other books have been written from a historical or logistics angle,” said Winstead, “but nothing about the perils.”

Winstead said he wanted to paint an accurate picture of the kind of dangers underground miners faced every day.

“It remains engrained in my brain,” he said.