Tommyknockers

Do you know what a "tommyknocker" is? No.....it is not the restaurant on Miner Street.

Good try.

A tommyknocker is an elf-like creature that miners back in the day believed were little men with long beards standing about 2 feet tall. Some were believed to be mischievious but most were believed to be friendly and even life-saving.

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Tommyknockers could be helpful but some would play tricks on the miners, as legend goes. Miners would find their candles snuffed out or a shovel would go missing. But they would never be mean to the little elves......they were too afraid of what could happen. Supersitious much???

There is a really cool story about a miner saved by a tommyknocker on page 72 of the book listed at the end of this post. Scroll to the bottom.

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On St. Patrick's Day, we'll have a fun activity for folks......yes, it's not just for kids......to find the 10 tommyknockers on their tour of Phoenix Gold Mine.

All information in this post was derived from this wonderful book called History of Clear Creek County: Tailings, Tracks & Tommyknockers. Here is a link to Amazon to buy this beautiful and well-written book.